WEBVTT 00:00:04.139 --> 00:00:06.519 You're listening to the Christ Our Cornerstone 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:09.699 podcast ministry of Christ Our Cornerstone Church 00:00:09.699 --> 00:00:12.380 in O 'Neill, Nebraska. I'm Pastor Logan Merrick, 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:14.539 and it's our prayer that this message strengthens 00:00:14.539 --> 00:00:17.519 your faith and draws you closer to Christ. Let's 00:00:17.519 --> 00:00:25.359 dive in. Hello and welcome into the Christ Our 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:27.980 Cornerstone Church podcast. My name is Pastor 00:00:27.980 --> 00:00:33.219 Logan. And yeah, I had a really good question. 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:36.520 come in from someone in our congregation. And 00:00:36.520 --> 00:00:37.700 I think it's a really good one. I think it's 00:00:37.700 --> 00:00:40.799 one that many of us find ourselves asking. You 00:00:40.799 --> 00:00:43.719 maybe wondered yourself when reading the scriptures. 00:00:43.899 --> 00:00:46.979 And then another person at the same time asked 00:00:46.979 --> 00:00:51.000 a question about something that coincides with 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:52.799 this question. And so I was like, you know what, 00:00:52.820 --> 00:00:54.119 I'm going to take both of these and put them 00:00:54.119 --> 00:00:55.140 together and we're going to talk a little bit 00:00:55.140 --> 00:00:58.579 about it. So that question was this. If Jesus 00:00:58.579 --> 00:01:02.520 already knew Judas would betray him, Did Judas 00:01:02.520 --> 00:01:05.060 really have free will and that's one of those 00:01:05.060 --> 00:01:07.019 questions that touches on the mystery of God's 00:01:07.019 --> 00:01:10.159 sovereignty and human choice God's sovereignty 00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:14.040 meaning God is fully in control. It's a Kind 00:01:14.040 --> 00:01:16.420 of a theological term of God being fully in control 00:01:16.420 --> 00:01:19.540 of all things and so as something that Christians 00:01:19.540 --> 00:01:23.120 have wrestled with for centuries And it's not 00:01:23.120 --> 00:01:25.879 just a theological debate. It's actually something 00:01:25.879 --> 00:01:29.739 Excuse me that that tells us a lot about the 00:01:29.739 --> 00:01:33.030 heart of God and also the heart of man. And so, 00:01:33.189 --> 00:01:35.790 let's walk through this together. So, who was 00:01:35.790 --> 00:01:37.750 Judas really? I think we all know for the most 00:01:37.750 --> 00:01:39.989 part who Judas was, but I think there's some 00:01:39.989 --> 00:01:42.909 things that often get forgotten or overlooked. 00:01:43.670 --> 00:01:48.349 And so, we all know that ultimately Judas would 00:01:48.349 --> 00:01:50.989 betray Jesus, right? But there's actually a lot 00:01:50.989 --> 00:01:54.090 more to his story. And so, Judas wasn't some 00:01:54.090 --> 00:01:57.349 random outsider. He was one of the 12 chosen 00:01:57.349 --> 00:02:01.400 disciples. He was trusted. so much so that he 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:03.540 was the group's treasurer meaning he was in charge 00:02:03.540 --> 00:02:05.280 of all the money and he kept all their money 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:08.419 and And that's the position of trust and responsibility. 00:02:08.419 --> 00:02:13.379 So does that mean that Jesus? Who chose he literally 00:02:13.379 --> 00:02:16.400 chose Judas he knew what was in Judas his heart 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:19.780 and so was he just too trusting of Judas? No, 00:02:19.780 --> 00:02:24.580 not necessarily he he knew He already knew about 00:02:24.580 --> 00:02:26.800 Judas and that there was cracks in his character, 00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:29.460 which we're gonna see in just a second. But like 00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:32.180 He knew what he was doing by bringing him in. 00:02:32.219 --> 00:02:34.000 He wasn't manipulating, he wasn't doing, like 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:37.960 he, but he knew who Judas was. And so when he 00:02:37.960 --> 00:02:39.919 chose the 12, which by the way there's more disciples 00:02:39.919 --> 00:02:43.500 than just the 12, there was a lot more, but we 00:02:43.500 --> 00:02:44.960 learn about the 12 because that was kind of the 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:47.800 inner circle of Jesus and inside that 12 there 00:02:47.800 --> 00:02:49.840 was a smaller circle of three, which is Peter, 00:02:49.900 --> 00:02:54.240 James, and John. And so anyway, that being said, 00:02:54.539 --> 00:02:58.569 like We, by the way, we at churches can be a 00:02:58.569 --> 00:03:00.889 little too trusting at times, and this happens 00:03:00.889 --> 00:03:04.250 a lot in churches where people trust people they 00:03:04.250 --> 00:03:06.169 shouldn't. Those people get put over money. They 00:03:06.169 --> 00:03:08.449 end up stealing money or laundering money and 00:03:08.449 --> 00:03:11.330 things like that. And so we got to be careful 00:03:11.330 --> 00:03:13.270 of a lot of that stuff. But Jesus knew what was 00:03:13.270 --> 00:03:16.550 happening. He knew that there was an end in mind 00:03:16.550 --> 00:03:19.889 that God had. And so, but the Gospel of John, 00:03:19.909 --> 00:03:23.969 it tells us that Judas was a thief. He used to 00:03:23.969 --> 00:03:26.129 help himself to the money that was in the money 00:03:26.129 --> 00:03:29.750 bag. And so even early on, we see that there's 00:03:29.750 --> 00:03:31.789 cracks in his character, like I said earlier. 00:03:32.349 --> 00:03:35.990 But I don't think that Judas started out going, 00:03:36.050 --> 00:03:38.569 I'm going to betray Jesus. No, from what I can 00:03:38.569 --> 00:03:42.030 tell, from what I understand, Judas saw Jesus 00:03:42.030 --> 00:03:45.009 as a potential political leader who would overthrow 00:03:45.009 --> 00:03:47.469 Rome. much like everyone else. And you say, what 00:03:47.469 --> 00:03:49.050 do you mean? Well, I think all the other disciples 00:03:49.050 --> 00:03:51.509 were doing the same thing. And we see that a 00:03:51.509 --> 00:03:53.990 lot of the Jews saw Jesus that way because they 00:03:53.990 --> 00:03:56.569 saw the Messiah as coming as a kingly figure. 00:03:56.590 --> 00:04:01.009 And we see that with when Jesus is going to Jerusalem 00:04:01.009 --> 00:04:04.949 to his death, the people are singing Hosanna, 00:04:05.009 --> 00:04:06.629 Hosanna, and they're waving palm branches and 00:04:06.629 --> 00:04:08.349 putting their jackets down. And Jesus is on a 00:04:08.349 --> 00:04:10.789 donkey and all this stuff. And for them, that 00:04:10.789 --> 00:04:13.509 is them going, Jesus is going to become our king 00:04:13.509 --> 00:04:16.920 and a political leader. And so it's not just 00:04:16.920 --> 00:04:18.939 Judas that makes this mistake. Okay. Everyone 00:04:18.939 --> 00:04:22.920 was making this mistake. And so Judas really 00:04:22.920 --> 00:04:26.339 saw him as a political leader, someone who could 00:04:26.339 --> 00:04:29.500 lead a revolt against Rome and restore Israel's 00:04:29.500 --> 00:04:34.680 power. So when Jesus healed people, Judas probably 00:04:34.680 --> 00:04:36.800 thought things like, Hey, we could probably really 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:40.290 rally these crowds to help us. in this revolt, 00:04:40.329 --> 00:04:42.110 and he probably also thought we could charge 00:04:42.110 --> 00:04:45.370 for the miracles and build funds for our movement. 00:04:46.149 --> 00:04:50.129 That was more than likely Judas's driving thought 00:04:50.129 --> 00:04:55.410 was two things. One, he cared about his own desires 00:04:55.410 --> 00:04:59.250 and monetary influence, and he also cared about 00:04:59.250 --> 00:05:05.339 power and political power. When he began to see 00:05:05.339 --> 00:05:07.839 as time went on that Jesus was making it clear 00:05:07.839 --> 00:05:10.860 that his kingdom wasn't political, it was actually 00:05:10.860 --> 00:05:14.480 spiritual, Judas becomes frustrated by this. 00:05:15.100 --> 00:05:17.879 And so what does he do? He takes matters into 00:05:17.879 --> 00:05:21.279 his own hands, right? So he goes to the religious 00:05:21.279 --> 00:05:24.139 leaders and he arranges to hand Jesus over for 00:05:24.139 --> 00:05:27.060 30 pieces of silver. Why 30 pieces of silver? 00:05:27.240 --> 00:05:30.139 That is also crucial and something I can do a 00:05:30.139 --> 00:05:32.199 whole nother podcast on, but I will briefly just 00:05:32.199 --> 00:05:34.879 kind of, it's an amount that actually fulfills 00:05:34.879 --> 00:05:40.040 prophecy, uh, in books like Zachariah and in 00:05:40.040 --> 00:05:44.720 Exodus as, um, there would be those who, who, 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:49.259 uh, were masters. And if their ox actually gouged 00:05:49.259 --> 00:05:56.319 and killed a slave, uh, accidentally then those 00:05:56.319 --> 00:05:58.800 masters were then to pay those family members 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:02.579 30 pieces of silver, which you read Zechariah, 00:06:02.579 --> 00:06:05.160 you read these things, that's ultimately imagery 00:06:05.160 --> 00:06:12.519 for the betrayal and worthlessness. So that's 00:06:12.519 --> 00:06:16.079 kind of where we're at at this point. So if we 00:06:16.079 --> 00:06:22.110 keep going, Sorry, I'm making sure that I'm covering 00:06:22.110 --> 00:06:24.610 all my bases and looking through my notes. And 00:06:24.610 --> 00:06:29.009 so now let's go into God's plan and Judas' choice, 00:06:29.089 --> 00:06:32.029 okay? So let's talk about God's sovereignty and 00:06:32.029 --> 00:06:34.290 Judas' free will and his choice and all that. 00:06:34.790 --> 00:06:37.470 So here's the tension, right? If those prophecies 00:06:37.470 --> 00:06:41.490 predicted in the Old Testament, Judas' betrayal. 00:06:41.569 --> 00:06:43.730 Now, it doesn't name Judas, okay? But it just 00:06:43.730 --> 00:06:45.949 says that these, like, you can see this in Psalm. 00:06:46.269 --> 00:06:47.790 You can see it, like I said, in Zechariah. You 00:06:47.790 --> 00:06:49.689 can see it throughout the Old Testament. So, 00:06:49.689 --> 00:06:55.610 if they know that there's these prophecies that 00:06:55.610 --> 00:06:57.629 Jesus would be betrayed, does that mean that 00:06:57.629 --> 00:07:01.389 Judas had to do it? Did he even have a choice? 00:07:01.810 --> 00:07:04.550 Well, the answer is yes, he did. He has his own 00:07:04.550 --> 00:07:07.709 free will. But here's the key. God's foreknowledge, 00:07:07.709 --> 00:07:09.769 and I want you to write this down if you're listening 00:07:09.769 --> 00:07:12.410 to this and you have the capabilities. God's 00:07:12.410 --> 00:07:15.990 foreknowledge is not the same as God's coercion. 00:07:16.199 --> 00:07:18.399 Meaning like God's, you know, they're little 00:07:18.399 --> 00:07:21.899 robots or God's literally like Little puppets 00:07:21.899 --> 00:07:23.839 on a string like that's not what he's doing. 00:07:23.839 --> 00:07:28.160 He just knows he knows the heart of Judas and 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:31.699 So he's allowing Judas's own choice and his own 00:07:31.699 --> 00:07:35.079 desires to take over to ultimately bring about 00:07:35.079 --> 00:07:38.639 His God's own end like he knows what God knows 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:40.620 what needs to happen. He knows what needs to 00:07:40.620 --> 00:07:44.610 take Jesus to the cross and so therefore God 00:07:44.610 --> 00:07:48.949 is just using Judas's own wicked heart to get 00:07:48.949 --> 00:07:54.029 Jesus there. And so just because God knew Judas 00:07:54.029 --> 00:07:57.430 would betray Jesus doesn't mean he made Judas 00:07:57.430 --> 00:08:00.430 do it. So think of it like this, God's omniscience, 00:08:00.610 --> 00:08:03.790 which just means God already knows it's a fancy 00:08:03.790 --> 00:08:06.750 theological term, omniscience, means he already 00:08:06.750 --> 00:08:10.149 knows every choice we'll ever make, but he doesn't 00:08:10.149 --> 00:08:13.300 override our will to make them. meaning he doesn't 00:08:13.300 --> 00:08:15.819 force us. Even in the book of Jonah, which we're 00:08:15.819 --> 00:08:18.180 walking through at our church right now, Jonah 00:08:18.180 --> 00:08:20.759 still had the choice to obey. Like God ultimately 00:08:20.759 --> 00:08:26.560 got him to Nineveh, right? But it took Jonah 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:29.699 a lot longer to get there because he took a massive 00:08:29.699 --> 00:08:34.200 detour along the way. And so Judas acted according 00:08:34.200 --> 00:08:37.700 to his own heart, a heart that valued money and 00:08:37.700 --> 00:08:41.740 power and control. more than faithfulness to 00:08:41.740 --> 00:08:45.559 Christ. And so, God didn't force that. He already 00:08:45.559 --> 00:08:49.220 knew it. And in His sovereignty, God wove even 00:08:49.220 --> 00:08:52.220 Judas' sinful choice into His redemptive plan 00:08:52.220 --> 00:08:55.679 to bring Jesus to the cross for our salvation. 00:08:56.899 --> 00:08:58.899 And so, that's what's so amazing about God's 00:08:58.899 --> 00:09:01.940 sovereignty. He doesn't need to violate our free 00:09:01.940 --> 00:09:05.360 will to accomplish His purposes. He can work 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:09.549 through our own choices, even our bad ones, to 00:09:09.549 --> 00:09:12.889 bring about his good plan. That's what's so amazing 00:09:12.889 --> 00:09:17.070 about God. Okay, that's what's awesome. He can 00:09:17.070 --> 00:09:20.889 use your own mistakes to bring about his own 00:09:20.889 --> 00:09:24.230 endings. And so the Bible says that when Judas 00:09:24.230 --> 00:09:27.490 went through with his plan, Satan entered him. 00:09:28.269 --> 00:09:30.029 And so that doesn't mean that Judas lost control. 00:09:30.149 --> 00:09:31.789 It wasn't like he was all of a sudden like he 00:09:31.789 --> 00:09:34.570 was a puppet for Satan. It means that he opened 00:09:34.570 --> 00:09:37.600 himself up completely to evil. through his own 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:39.720 choices, which by the way, that's another thing 00:09:39.720 --> 00:09:42.759 I could do a podcast on is when you begin to 00:09:42.759 --> 00:09:47.759 open yourself up to evil. But he made money and 00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:50.179 self -interest his idol. That became the thing 00:09:50.179 --> 00:09:56.220 that he was actually desiring. And so when his 00:09:56.220 --> 00:09:58.440 heart was fully given over to that, it created 00:09:58.440 --> 00:10:01.419 space for Satan to move. And so then Satan is 00:10:01.419 --> 00:10:05.590 then coercing at this point because that's what 00:10:05.590 --> 00:10:09.350 Satan does. God doesn't coerce. He doesn't force. 00:10:09.909 --> 00:10:11.950 Satan does those things. Satan really begins 00:10:11.950 --> 00:10:15.250 to control and manipulate. And so, you see, sin 00:10:15.250 --> 00:10:19.590 always starts out small. Maybe it's just cutting 00:10:19.590 --> 00:10:22.610 some corners, holding on to bitterness, or chasing 00:10:22.610 --> 00:10:26.450 control. But over time, it shapes who we become. 00:10:27.120 --> 00:10:30.860 And so Judas's story is tragic, not because God 00:10:30.860 --> 00:10:34.080 forced him into betrayal, quote unquote, but 00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:37.500 because Judas chose something other than Jesus 00:10:37.500 --> 00:10:41.340 again and again and again until there was nothing 00:10:41.340 --> 00:10:45.200 left but regret. Even after getting those 30 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:48.360 pieces of silver, the money didn't comfort Judas. 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:52.860 It couldn't. He realized too late that he thought 00:10:52.860 --> 00:10:55.580 what he thought would satisfy him never could. 00:10:55.929 --> 00:10:58.389 And in his despair, he ended his own life. You 00:10:58.389 --> 00:11:02.029 can read about that in the book of Acts. And 00:11:02.029 --> 00:11:03.909 so, like, that's something that you need to remember 00:11:03.909 --> 00:11:08.389 is those things that you think will fulfill you, 00:11:09.330 --> 00:11:12.190 that take you farther away from Jesus, they won't 00:11:12.190 --> 00:11:17.070 fulfill you. And you ultimately see this too 00:11:17.070 --> 00:11:21.409 late when sin has fully made itself, excuse my 00:11:21.409 --> 00:11:25.720 alarm, When sin has already fully manifested 00:11:25.720 --> 00:11:29.419 itself and you are fully in its grips and control 00:11:29.419 --> 00:11:34.139 and despair And so what does it mean for us like 00:11:34.139 --> 00:11:35.840 what does what does all of this mean for us? 00:11:36.039 --> 00:11:40.279 Well? It's a sobering reminder Judas's story 00:11:40.279 --> 00:11:43.460 is a sobering reminder that proximity to Jesus 00:11:43.460 --> 00:11:48.120 is Not the same thing as faith in Jesus Here's 00:11:48.120 --> 00:11:53.480 what I mean Judas spent years walking beside 00:11:53.480 --> 00:11:57.720 the Son of God, hearing his teaching, seeing 00:11:57.720 --> 00:12:01.399 his miracles, and yet his heart was never truly 00:12:01.399 --> 00:12:05.019 surrendered. So when you hear someone say, well, 00:12:05.019 --> 00:12:07.519 if God would just show himself to me, or if Jesus 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:10.379 just proved, or Jesus did a miracle, or blah, 00:12:10.539 --> 00:12:12.759 blah, blah, blah, blah, then I would believe. 00:12:12.899 --> 00:12:17.159 No, no, no, you wouldn't. Because again, Judas 00:12:17.159 --> 00:12:20.919 is a perfect example of someone who saw the Son 00:12:20.919 --> 00:12:25.100 of Man. He walked next to him. He touched him. 00:12:25.100 --> 00:12:28.139 He heard him speak. He watched him perform miracles. 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:32.519 He saw the dead come alive and yet still was 00:12:32.519 --> 00:12:36.899 not surrendered to Jesus. And so we can go to 00:12:36.899 --> 00:12:39.299 church, we can serve, we can give, and we can 00:12:39.299 --> 00:12:42.580 still be clinging to something else as our real 00:12:42.580 --> 00:12:47.000 treasure. So the question isn't just, do I know 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:51.340 about Jesus? It's, do I trust him more than anything 00:12:51.340 --> 00:12:54.899 else? That's the real question. And so when it 00:12:54.899 --> 00:12:58.759 comes to free will, remember this. Yes, God is 00:12:58.759 --> 00:13:01.299 sovereign. He's completely in control, but he 00:13:01.299 --> 00:13:05.820 also gives us the dignity of choice. So every 00:13:05.820 --> 00:13:08.559 day we decide who or what we're going to serve. 00:13:09.139 --> 00:13:13.200 And so in the end, Judas's story isn't about 00:13:13.200 --> 00:13:16.879 a warning. Isn't just about a warning, I should 00:13:16.879 --> 00:13:20.799 say. It's also a picture of how far God's grace 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:24.159 goes. Because even Judas's betrayal couldn't 00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:26.620 stop God's plan of redemption. I'm gonna say 00:13:26.620 --> 00:13:31.759 that again Even Judas's betrayal Couldn't stop 00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:36.100 God's plan for redemption. He uses our own bad 00:13:36.100 --> 00:13:41.600 choices To bring about his own endings So what 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:44.220 Judas meant for evil God used for good that's 00:13:44.220 --> 00:13:47.480 in Scripture. Yeah To bring about the salvation 00:13:47.480 --> 00:13:51.039 of the world That's how powerful and sovereign 00:13:51.129 --> 00:13:54.649 God is. So today, if you're wrestling with guilt 00:13:54.649 --> 00:13:56.610 or past failure, I want you to remember this. 00:13:56.649 --> 00:13:59.929 The same Jesus who knew Judas' heart still invites 00:13:59.929 --> 00:14:03.190 you to draw near to him with an honest heart. 00:14:03.870 --> 00:14:07.710 And unlike Judas, you could find real repentance, 00:14:08.549 --> 00:14:12.909 real forgiveness, and real hope in him. So thanks 00:14:12.909 --> 00:14:15.809 for joining me today. If you want to go deeper, 00:14:15.970 --> 00:14:18.629 I want you to check out Matthew 26, John 13, 00:14:18.750 --> 00:14:21.639 and Acts chapter 1. They give us a full picture 00:14:21.639 --> 00:14:24.240 of Judas's story and how it fits into God's plan. 00:14:25.019 --> 00:14:27.440 And tomorrow I'll be dropping another episode 00:14:27.440 --> 00:14:29.320 where we're going to talk about how God's sovereignty 00:14:29.320 --> 00:14:32.200 and human freedom actually work together in our 00:14:32.200 --> 00:14:38.139 daily lives. But until then, remember the things 00:14:38.139 --> 00:14:41.100 of this world will never satisfy you. Only Jesus 00:14:41.100 --> 00:14:43.919 can do that. Hope you have a good rest of your 00:14:43.919 --> 00:14:46.899 day. If you would leave a review on this podcast, 00:14:46.980 --> 00:14:49.629 share it with someone who needs to hear it. and 00:14:49.629 --> 00:14:52.850 I hope you have a great rest of your day. Come 00:14:52.850 --> 00:14:56.169 visit us sometime at Christ Our Cornerstone Church 00:14:56.169 --> 00:14:59.289 here in O 'Neill, Nebraska. I am Pastor Logan 00:14:59.289 --> 00:15:01.330 Merrick. We'll see you again. Bye bye.