Take your Bibles with me and turn to Luke chapter 22. We are almost at the end of this study of the book of Luke. We've come to the final three chapters. This is where this whole book has been headed the whole time.

Chapter 22 tells the story of Jesus' final trials. It talks about the Upper Room where Jesus had the Last Supper, Jesus weeping in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus being betrayed by Judas, and Jesus' kangaroo trial at midnight before the Sanhedrin.

Chapter 23 tells the story of Jesus' trial before Pilate and Herod, and His crucifixion.

And chapter 24 tells of Jesus' resurrection and a few stories that happened after Jesus' resurrection.

So we've really kind of turned the page from Jesus' life and ministry to the events around Jesus' crucifixion. And we're going to start this morning with an event that, from a human perspective, kicked off this crucifixion event.

I say this from a human perspective because what happened to Jesus was not the work of the scribes and the chief priests, and it was not the work of Judas. What happened to Jesus was prescribed by God from the foundation of the world. Jesus had been predicting it and talking about it and purposely marching toward it for His entire life.

Let's read our text, which is Luke chapter 22, verses 1 through 6, today.

[1] Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover.
[2] And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him; for they feared the people.
[3] Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.
[4] And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them.
[5] And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money.
[6] And he promised, and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude.
Luke 22:1-6 (KJV)

Here's what's happening in these verses. It is the time of the Passover. The city of Jerusalem is just absolutely stuffed with people. Every faithful male Jew was expected to go to the temple for the Passover, so there are just massive crowds of people everywhere.

Jesus has been teaching in the temple. He threw over the tables. He's been standing on the temple porch and teaching the people and pointing out the flaws of the temple leadership all week. It's probably Wednesday at this point, and the temple leaders and the scribes, who would normally be their political enemies, are feeling the pressure to get rid of Jesus. They don't want all these crowds to start following Jesus and declaring Him to be the Messiah.

But they have a problem. Everywhere Jesus goes He is surrounded by vast crowds of people that adore Him. Politically they can't do anything to Jesus without these crowds turning against them. What they need is to find Jesus in private, when He's not around the crowds, and arrest Him there. They need to do the whole thing quickly before the crowds have a chance to turn on them.

But they can't do it because they don't have any access to Jesus' private life. They are on the outside of this huge ring of people that's surrounding Jesus. Imagine these leaders of Israel sitting in their smoke-filled room discussing how they're going to get rid of Jesus, pondering it, banging their proverbial heads against the wall. In walks one of Jesus' disciples. One of the twelve.

He's there of his own volition. He's there because he wants to be. He walks right into this group of people and says, "What will you give me to show you a private place where you can get Jesus?" And they weigh out thirty pieces of silver.

And that man who we all know is Judas Iscariot says, "I'll do it," and they shake hands having just agreed to the dirtiest deed, the most vile conspiracy that ever happened.

Now thirty pieces of silver is not a lot of money—not when you consider what Judas was doing. It was about the price of a slave under the law, roughly a few months of wages for a working person. If we used something like our own minimum wage, you might land somewhere in the ballpark of several thousand dollars. That's a good chunk of change, but that's not life-changing money. It's not like Judas gave up Jesus for millions of dollars.

Think about this. One of the twelve, one of the people closest to Jesus, one of the people that preached in Jesus' name, that performed miracles in Jesus' name, that saw with his own eyes everything that Jesus did, that sat countless times around a table with the Lord, betrayed Him for the cost of a cheap used car.

How can somebody follow Jesus that closely and still betray Him? How could someone do this?

This morning as we consider this passage, I want to look at the heart of Judas—the heart of somebody that could be so close but so far away. I want to compare that with the heart of Jesus—His heart for sinners that took Him all the way to the cross and still opens the door for people to turn and be forgiven. Hopefully we'll learn some things this morning. Let's go to the Lord in prayer and we'll jump into those two points.

{Prayer}

The first thing I want us to consider this morning is the heart of Judas.

1. The heart of Judas

How could somebody do this? How could somebody be so close to the Lord and so far from the Lord?

Luke tells us that he was numbered among the twelve. He had a position of being close to the Lord. Judas wasn't just one of the disciples. He was one of the leaders of the disciples. He was the one that was their treasurer, their banker.

It's interesting. Other than Peter, there's more said about Judas than any of the other twelve disciples. Yet we really don't know much about him.

His name, Iscariot, probably signifies one of two things. It could mean that he was from Judea. There's a city in southern Judea, and the people from that city were associated with the name Iscariot. If that's the case, Judas was the only one of the twelve disciples that was from the South. He was the only one from Judea.

Other people have speculated that his name comes from sicarius, which is a term for assassins, and that he was part of a group of radicals that wanted to overthrow Rome.

The truth is we really don't know who Judas was. All we really know about him is that he was one of the twelve, that he was never a true believer, that he was kind of a thief, and then he was influenced by Satan.

The book of John tells us that when Mary of Bethany poured precious, expensive ointment on Jesus, Judas was upset about it because he said that money could have been given to the poor. Really he was upset about it because he was the one that was holding the money and he took whatever he wanted out of there. By the way, that ointment that was poured on Jesus by Mary was worth twice as much as what Judas betrayed Jesus for.

It's possible that Judas wanted a political Messiah. He wanted a position of power in a revolutionary government. When he saw more and more clearly that Jesus was not interested in that, he turned against Him.

What we know for sure about Judas is that he never really believed. Listen to John 6:64.

[64] But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
John 6:64 (KJV)

Several times in the book of John it points out that Judas never really believed. Jesus knew he never really believed.

And here it tells us that Satan entered into him. Now that's spooky and scary. I believe demon possession is real. I believe Judas was possessed by Satan, as the passage says here. I want you to understand that it wasn't an involuntary thing. Before Satan entered into him, Judas wanted to do this. He was satanically influenced before he was satanically possessed.

Also understand that Satan's entering into him doesn't mean that Judas wasn't responsible for what he did. Look at verse 22:

[22] And truly the Son of man goeth, as it was determined: but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed!
Luke 22:22 (KJV)

Ultimately Judas did what Judas wanted to do, and Judas paid the price for it. Judas would be held responsible for it.

We might never know on this earth why Judas did what he did. What we do know is that Judas was very close to Jesus in person, very close to Jesus in proximity, but very far from Jesus in his heart. Judas belonged to the twelve disciples, but he didn't belong to Jesus.

And that is a scary thing. It should scare you that somebody can be that close and yet that far away. It should remind you that proximity to Christianity, membership in the church, is not the same as having a heart that belongs to Christ.

Just because you are in the company of disciples of Jesus doesn't mean you're a saved person. You can be in the inner circle, even be a leader in the eyes of others, and still have a heart that's very, very far away from the Lord.

Judas' betrayal should teach us that divided loyalties harden the heart. Judas' loyalty was divided between Jesus and money, between Jesus and what he hoped to get from Jesus. The real Lord of Judas' life was not the Lord. It was something that Judas wanted.

We have a family member who, at one point, was very active and ministering in a Baptist church. Something switched, and for a decade or so now he's been an avowed atheist. How do you go from teaching people about Jesus on a Sunday to denying the existence of Jesus the very next week?

Well, in his case he'd hoped to get a job at the church, an official position of leadership. When he was informed that that wasn't going to happen, he turned his back on Christianity altogether. What does that tell you? It tells you that he didn't really worship Christ at all. He worshipped what he wanted to get from Jesus. When that idol was destroyed, the pretense completely went away.

Many people are consumeristic in their Christianity. They will align with Christ as long as they get what they want from it, but the moment their expectations are not met, they close the door. This shows their heart was never with the Lord in the first place.

Another thing we can learn from the heart of Judas is that sin will not be your friend. Later on Judas understood what he'd done and, in great remorse, he tried to go back to the priests and the scribes and give back the money that he'd taken. They said, "What is that to us? We don't care." Then Judas went and hung himself.

I was shocked a couple weeks ago, while we were at camp, to learn that one of my favorite preachers, Kenny Baldwin—a man I've listened to many, many times, both in person and online—was found to be living this horrific secret life of sexual sin and abuse.

This man, who seemed to be very close to the Lord, was unusually gifted as a preacher and leader, and famous in his own right for his ability. He is now heading to prison. His reputation is trash. Sin has wrecked his life.

I'm not saying that so that you feel bad for him. I don't feel bad for him. I'm saying that as a warning. You can have a secret life of sin and it might be pleasurable for a season, but it always ends in disappointment, judgment, and despair.

The heart of Judas shows us that you can preach, you can serve, you can hold the bag, and you can still be rotting on the inside. Folks, I don't know where your heart is.

You know what the scariest thing about Judas is? None of the disciples had a clue. All these times when Jesus said somebody was going to betray Him, it was not like everybody in unison pointed at Judas Iscariot and said, "We know who it is!" None of them suspected him.

And it may be that you're here today and your heart is rotting. You look good on the outside. No one suspects a thing. Not me, not any of these dear saints—but God knows. Judas should be a warning to you.

So we've talked about the heart of Judas. Let's talk secondly about

2. The heart of Jesus

Turn with me to John chapter 13. This is a parallel passage, another book telling the same story from a different angle. I want to look at a couple of the verses in this chapter that tell us something about what was going on in Jesus' heart.

Because here's the thing: this was not a surprise to the Lord. Jesus was marching toward the cross. Jesus had said many times previously what was about to happen.

Understand this: the treachery of Judas did not ambush heaven. The treachery of Judas was worked into the plan of God. God is so all-knowing and powerful that He can weave even the evil of man into His plans for redemption.

Jesus was not a victim of the plot of the scribes and the chief priests. He was not a victim of the plot of Judas Iscariot. Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and He was right on a schedule that had been set since before the world was created.

Jesus knew what was going to happen to Him and He still chose the path. When Jesus brought Judas Iscariot into His inner sanctum, into His twelve, when He made him a leader of His disciples, Jesus knew what nobody else did. Jesus knew what Judas would do to Him. And He did it anyway.

In John 13, in this upper room mere hours before Judas would betray Jesus with a kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane, you know what Jesus did? He washed Judas' feet—put a towel on Himself, made Himself a servant, and washed the smelly feet of a man who had recently used those feet to walk himself to the inner chamber of the high priest and scribes and betray the Lord Jesus.

Look at John 13:21:

[21] 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 13:21 (KJV)

Jesus was troubled in spirit when He talked about how one of them would betray Him. I don't think He was troubled because the cross was coming. I think this is talking about His love for Judas.

The closer you are to somebody, the more it hurts when they do you wrong. I read a book a couple years ago about bitterness and it made an interesting point: people do us wrong all the time. There is not a person in this room who hasn't been affected in some way by the actions of Islamic radicals in Iran choosing to use their closeness to the Strait of Hormuz to cut off a third of the world's oil traffic.

But I highly doubt anybody in our church is losing sleep at night in their anger and bitterness towards the mullahs in Iran. Because they're on the other side of the world, they're very far from us.

But if your wife betrays you, or your best friend turns his back on you in the hour of need, or your children turn on you, you are looking at a raging battle of the heart.

Judas was close to the Lord. The Lord was close to Judas. He was betrayed by a friend, and I think Jesus loved Judas. At this Last Supper Jesus gave Judas an elevated place of honor at the table, right next to Him. Jesus warned several times in front of Judas about his coming betrayal.

Look at verses 10 and 11 of chapter 13.

[10] Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.
[11] For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.
John 13:10-11 (KJV)

Matthew 26 tells us that Jesus called Judas His friend even as Judas betrayed Him. I think that Jesus had a heart for Judas, that Jesus wanted to give Judas final warnings and a final chance to come around and not do this thing.

Judas had a heart that was taking, and Jesus had a heart that was giving.

And you know where Jesus' heart took Him? It took Him all the way to the cross. Jesus did not go to the cross for a bunch of good people. He did not go to the cross for people who were His friends. He went to the cross for His enemies. He went to the cross for people like Judas.

Jesus looked with clear eyes at the depravity of man, the sinfulness of man, and He took it on Himself willingly. On that cross He looked down at the crowd who put Him there, at the cruel soldiers who nailed His precious hands and feet to that rough wooden cross. They savagely joked about it, gambled over His clothing, and mocked Him. He looked at them and He said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

Church, even people like Judas, who are close in religion but far in heart, who are guilty of real sin, can turn to Jesus and find His forgiveness because He paid the price for their sin.

Maybe you're here today and you're like Judas. You are a fake. You're a poser. You've got everybody fooled. On the outside you look real good and on the inside it's rotten. I want to close with two words for you.

First, if you keep going the path that you're on, it will not end well. It will end in shame and judgment, and I believe the judgment of God will be hottest and hardest on those that knew better. If you're a fake today, that's where you're headed. That's the first word.

But the second is that you don't have to stay a fake. You don't have to stay a Judas. You can repent. You can turn to the Lord and He'll forgive you. He's taken your sin, your very real sin, on Himself. He's already paid the penalty for the wicked acts that you're doing and He'll forgive you. It can be real.

So I want to challenge you this morning: don't just sit close to Christ. Truly belong to Him. Put your faith and trust in Christ. Receive the forgiveness that He's already paid for and make it real.

Let's stand for a prayer.