Jesus Didn't Lose Judas: Judas Lost Himself

Introduction

"He didn't lose Judas. Judas lost himself." That sentence sums up this seventh part of the series "Jesus, Who Did He Pray To?", preached at the Église Évangélique de Pentecôte de Nantes. The week before, the pastor had started talking about Judas. Tonight he comes back to him and digs into a question that troubles many Christians: why did Jesus choose Judas?

Before opening the Bible, the pastor invites the congregation to rejoice in what God is doing among them, and he recalls the hymn: "When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, count your many blessings, name them one by one." Then he picks up the thread again: the new Jerusalem and its twelve foundations, the calling of the twelve in Mark 3, Peter's speech in Acts 1, and the end of Judas in Matthew 27.

The message comes down to one conviction: Judas was not predestined to betray. He was called like the others, he received the same authority as the others, and he himself gave up what God had entrusted to him. What God gives, he gives to people who are responsible.

Outline of the Message

1. Twelve Names on the Foundations of the New Jerusalem

• The pastor opens Revelation 21:12-14. The new Jerusalem has twelve gates with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and twelve foundations bearing "the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb."
• Judas, that much is certain, is not there. Who is the twelfth? Matthias, chosen by lot to be a witness of the resurrection? He would be surprised. The apostle Paul, who played such a great role in the Church of Jesus Christ? No certainty. "It doesn't matter, there will be twelve."
• "Me, I won't be there. I'll be in the new Jerusalem, but my name won't be there." That is not a problem: each of us will still be a pillar in the new Jerusalem.

2. The Word Is Not Chained, but God Is Bound to His Word

• In 2 Timothy 2:9, Paul suffers "to the point of chains as a criminal," because he is often in prison. But he adds: "God's word isn't chained."
• Whatever the circumstances, people can be bound and imprisoned. The Word of God cannot be chained. On the other hand, God is bound to his Word: "once God has spoken, it is binding."
• Why start with Judas? Because he is last on the list and we don't know much about him. People say he was predestined to be the way he was. The pastor answers: God is just, and there is no injustice in him. So why did he choose him? That is the question this message will stay with tonight.

3. Judas Was Called and Chosen Like the Other Eleven

• Mark 3:13-19: Jesus goes up on the mountain and, according to Luke 6:12, spends the whole night praying before choosing the apostles. "He called to himself those whom he wanted, and they went to him." He appointed twelve to be with him, to send them out to preach, with authority to cast out demons and, in another Gospel, to heal the sick.
• In the list, some apostles marked history and played a decisive role in founding the Church. For others, we don't really know what they did. It doesn't matter: they were apostles. And Judas Iscariot, "who also betrayed him," is last, always last.
• When God asks us for something that fits who we are, there is no resistance. When he asks for something that goes against our flesh, there is resistance. The pastor remembers his own calling: injured, sitting in a chair at the service, he went through "the fight, the fight, the fight" in his heart for a few hours, because he had plans for marriage and for a business. "Humanly speaking we had a glorious future, but the future God gave us is far more glorious and wonderful."
• Jesus called the twelve by name. All of them. The pastor admits with a smile that he doesn't know every baby in the church by name. Jesus knew every one of them.
• So Judas answered the Master's call. And the Bible shows that he had, like the others, the authority to preach, to cast out demons and to heal every disease and every sickness. The pastor's conclusion: "He wasn't a victim of the devil, but a victim of himself."
• Not knowing the Word sometimes leads us to make mistakes. When we read it in depth, Scripture is there to correct us, to teach us and to set us straight, so that our faith is solid.

4. When God Gives, He Makes Us Responsible

• Acts 1:25 speaks of "this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas fell away, that he might go to his own place." Judas gave it up. That means that when God gives something, "he makes us not irresponsible, but responsible." And when God entrusts something to someone, he knows what he is doing.
• The pastor recalls a visitation of God in Côte d'Ivoire in 1972: whole stadiums, thousands of people coming to Christ, more than ten missionaries on the ground. A bedridden woman dragged herself toward "the mission of Jesus to be healed" and, just by speaking the name of Jesus, she was miraculously healed. The work of the Spirit of God amazes us.
• That is why we are troubled when we learn that someone has abandoned ministry. We ask ourselves questions that have no answers. But a human being is responsible before God, and Judas had his own responsibility.
• When a Christian suffers, there is a temptation: to run away. "We want a gospel without suffering, without pain. It's not true. It doesn't exist."
• He tells of a prayer meeting, at 8:30 p.m. back then, where nobody could pray, as if under pressure from the Spirit of God. They parted without a word of comment. The next morning at 7:30, a phone call: an older man, yet in perfect health, had just died of a heart attack. "That is why the prayer meeting was like that." Reverent fear of God kept them from commenting.
• He led a funeral service in Donges, in the cemetery where, 21 years earlier, he had buried a baby only a few hours old; this time again it was a baby, his cousin. "Don't ask me questions." These are questions without answers. God is sovereign.

5. Peter and Scripture: "By the Mouth of David"

• Acts 1:15-17: Peter stands up among about 120 brothers, in the upper room, as they wait for the baptism of the Spirit. "It was necessary that this Scripture be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who was guide to those who took Jesus. For he was counted with us, and received his portion in this ministry."
• Peter had no university degrees and was not a doctor of theology. But he had spent three and a half years with Jesus, and with the twelve: "it was a great Bible school." Peter knew the Word, and he knew what was written.
• A memory of the Last Supper: Jesus says "one of you is a devil," one of you is a traitor. Everyone asks: "Is it I?" Jesus points out the one to whom he will give the dipped bread, and it is Judas. The Bible says he went out, and it was night. The disciples thought he had gone to buy supplies.
• "By the mouth of David": David prophesied, and that is where we discover the human heart. It is said of Judas that "he didn't delight in blessing," that he loved cursing, to the point of hounding to death the man with a broken heart (Psalm 109:16-17). The pastor announces that he will stay on this again next week, God willing.

6. Gethsemane: "Watch and Pray," for Yourselves

• In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus says to the three disciples: "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Watch and pray." It doesn't say "pray for me," but "watch and pray" for yourselves. Jesus is alone, and the disciples fall asleep. They don't know what it means to keep watch.
• The pastor loves a night of prayer with everyone. "But a night of prayer alone is long." In the basement hall, you can say "Lord, oh God, blessed be your name." Alone in your apartment, you say "amen" and fall asleep.
• He remembers the nights of prayer from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. A sister of the church, who had kidney cancer, was miraculously healed after a prophecy and the laying on of hands. Years later, in a coma with a brain tumor at the hospital in Saint-Nazaire, she came out of the coma just long enough for the team of pastors to pray with her and for her daughter to arrive and speak to her, and then she fell back into it. "Only God can do that."
• If he tells all this, it is not to say that Judas was predestined. That is not true. With his servants and those who have received responsibilities, God settles things himself, and "he never makes a mistake." He knows how to take us, how to speak to us, how to forgive us.
• When Jesus leaves the garden, he announces that the traitor is coming, that he is going to kiss him (the "kiss of Judas") and that the hour of the cross is near. That is why Jesus could say in his high priestly prayer: "I have lost none of them" (John 17:12). "He didn't lose Judas. Judas lost himself."
• The pastor shares that he wept for several days, with his wife, when he learned of the fall of a pastor. When that man came back to God, they talked for almost a whole night; in a car accident, God had told him: "This is the last time." He had lost everything except his salvation. Like Samson, who said "I will go out as at other times" without knowing that the LORD had departed from him (Judges 16:20).

7. Thirty Pieces of Silver: "See to That Yourself"

• Matthew 27:3-8: when Judas sees that Jesus is condemned, he brings the thirty pieces of silver back to the chief priests he had bargained with. He had not seen "the invisible rope." The priests answer: "What is that to us? You see to that."
• "See to that yourself": and that concerns us, personally. When God gave the pastor his ministry, he spoke to him about integrity: "If you are not a person of integrity, I will forgive you, but the ministry will be over." Integrity in doctrine, in money, in everything. God is holy, he is pure, and we have to learn to work with him.
• The priests don't want this money: they use it to buy the Field of Blood. You can still see it in Jerusalem.
• The pastor tells of his visit to Golgotha and to the tomb, only a few yards apart. On Golgotha there were hundreds of crosses, but only one where it was said: "It is finished" (John 19:30). "You can't stay unmoved when you are a few yards away." Christ loved us; he was betrayed, rejected, abandoned by his disciples. He and his wife came away marked by it.
• In our spiritual life, we need to be marked by the supernatural of God, whatever our service.
• He ends on a positive note: he doesn't know the date of his departure, God does. "But until the last moment, I want to be faithful to the Lord." And then God will wipe away the tears from our eyes (Revelation 21:4). "He won't take out a handkerchief, his grace will show itself."

Key Takeaways

• Judas was called by name, after a night of prayer by Jesus, and he received the same authority as the other eleven. He was not a victim of the devil, but of himself.
• The Word of God is not chained, but God is bound to his Word: he is just, and there is no injustice in him.
• When God gives a ministry, he makes us responsible. Judas gave up what he had received: "Jesus didn't lose Judas, Judas lost himself."
• Some questions remain unanswered in faith. God is sovereign, and reverent fear of God keeps us from commenting.
• "See to that yourself": integrity in doctrine, in money and in everything, because God is holy.

Personal Application

1. When God asks you for something that goes against your flesh, what resistance rises up in you? What are you afraid of losing?
2. What has God entrusted to you (a service, a responsibility, a gift) that you are accountable for before him today?
3. When you suffer, is your temptation to run away? What would you do this week to watch and pray instead of fleeing?
4. Can you keep an hour of prayer alone, without the momentum of the group? When did you last keep watch alone before God?
5. In which area (doctrine, money, relationships) is God speaking to you about integrity right now?

Verses Cited

• Revelation 21:12-14
• 2 Timothy 2:9
• Mark 3:13-19
• Luke 6:12-13
• Acts 1:15-17
• Acts 1:25
• Psalm 109:16-17
• John 13:21-30
• Matthew 26:36-46
• John 17:12
• Judges 16:20
• Matthew 27:3-8
• John 19:30
• Revelation 21:4

Frequently Asked Questions

Was Judas predestined to betray Jesus?

No, says the preacher. Judas was called by Jesus like the other eleven, after a night of prayer, and he received the same authority to preach, to cast out demons and to heal. He was not a victim of the devil, but a victim of himself. God is just, and there is no injustice in him.

What does "Jesus didn't lose Judas, Judas lost himself" mean?

In his high priestly prayer, Jesus declares that he lost none of those the Father had given him. Judas himself gave up the ministry and apostleship he had received, as Peter says in Acts 1:25. When God gives something, he makes us responsible, not irresponsible.

Why does the preacher insist on integrity?

When God entrusted him with his ministry, he spoke to him about integrity: "If you are not a person of integrity, I will forgive you, but the ministry will be over." Judas bargained for thirty pieces of silver, and the priests answered him: "What is that to us? You see to that." Integrity covers doctrine, money and everything else, because God is holy.