Rev. David Holwick ZF
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
October 3, 1999
Matthew 26:18-25
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I. Knowing who you are.
A. New and controversial biography about Ronald Reagan.
Story of Governor Reagan walking down sidewalk with an
aide when a tourist runs up to him.
"Victor Damone! Victor Damone! Will you please sign an
autograph for me?"
Reagan dutifully signed on her paper, "Vic Damone."
When they were alone again, the aide turned to Reagan and said,
"Governor, why didn't you tell her who you are?"
And Reagan replied, "I know who I am."
B. Who are YOU, really?
1) We present an image to the world.
a) Maybe even to ourselves.
2) But our lives may not measure up to the image.
3) Greatest example of two-facedness is Judas.
II. Who was Judas?
A. Jesus sincerely called him to be a disciple.
1) Only way to do justice to Jesus' character.
2) Jesus makes repeated appeals to Judas.
B. He was trusted enough to be in charge of their money. John 13:29
1) Greed was his downfall.
a) He was dipping into the group funds. John 12:6
b) He criticized the cost of pouring perfume on Jesus
without seeing the beauty of the action. Matt 26:8-14
1> He did cloak it with concern for poor.
2) He sold out Jesus cheap.
a) 30 silver coins was cost of a slave in Old Testament.
C. The betrayal was cloaked in mystery.
1) His question and Jesus' response probably whispered.
a) In Mark, general air of bewilderment.
b) Matthew alone adds what Jesus said to Judas.
2) "Yes" is somewhat ambiguous. "You have said it (but I won't)"?
a) Same expression at trial, where it is taken as positive.
b) Gives Judas a jolt, and still leaves air of ambiguity
for others.
D. Judas never really belonged to Jesus.
1) He fell from apostleship but never had a genuine
relationship with Jesus.
2) Judas called Jesus "rabbi" but never "Lord."
3) Jesus foreknew Judas' betrayal, but did not predestinate it.
a) Judas' condemnation resulted from his own choices.
III. Judas was not alone.
A. All the disciples thought they were better than they were.
1) They shared in the Communion with sincerity.
2) All said they would stand by him, even die for him. Mark 14:31
3) None of them did in his hour of need. Not one.
B. We tend to think we are better than we really are.
1) We have excuses for any inconsistencies.
2) We always compare ourselves (favorably) with others.
IV. Hints of Judas tendencies.
A. There are always hints.
1) Judas revealed his character when he dipped into money bag.
2) Our weaknesses can reveal a lot about us.
B. Signs of hypocrisy.
1) Simple things like foul language we use, depending on where
we are.
2) How we react when we are under stress.
3) How we treat people who can't do anything for us.
a) Pay more attention to those who make you look good?
4) Different behavior in different settings.
a) Work, school, home, church...
C. Moral choices we make can be the starkest indicators.
1) When everything hinges on a moral decision, which way do
you go? [Consider big moral decisions you made in past]
a) Not how you react in your dreams, but in reality.
2) Do you react consistently, or waver back and forth?
3) What secret sins do you harbor right now?
a) Just about everyone has their secrets...
V. Out of two, one.
A. Divided people are not happy.
1) The pieces find out about each other and don't like it.
2) God doesn't like it, either.
B. God wants our wholehearted devotion.
Leon Hebrink was raised in a Pentecostal Church.
He was baptized at age 15 and spent the next three years
traveling as a youth evangelist and "Athlete with a witness."
To complete his spiritual education he decided to go to a
Christian college.
What happened at this Christian college?
He lived in the "Football Dorm" and was introduced to drugs
and alcohol.
And he loved it.
For a while he tried to keep one foot in both worlds.
Church on Sunday, Bible Study on Wednesday and party, party,
party the rest of the week.
After a failed marriage and a shot at a teaching and coaching
career, Leon continued to waver back and forth in his faith.
He got a job at the same college he had attended, and became
very cynical with the frauds on campus.
They put up a "holier than thou" facade while living like the
devil when no one was looking.
A better job opportunity came up - managing a sports bar.
Leon spent about five years riding the wave of wealth, drugs,
and women.
All the while he was witnessing to people about the reality of
Christ, the Bible, and salvation.
He still rejected the church or any Christian institution but
told many people about Jesus over a glass of scotch and a
line of coke.
His life was becoming a huge mess.
About 5:00 a.m. one morning Leon looked in the mirror while
trying to scratch one more spoon full of coke out of his vial.
This was after a 3 day "bender."
What he saw looking back at him was a dead man.
He knew he was dead spiritually and he sensed he would soon be
dead physically, either from drugs or guns.
Leon decided to move far away from anyone he knew and seek a
teaching job again.
In a matter of a few months he was teaching physical education
in Miami, Florida, of all places.
A drug dealing bar manager living in Miami in the mid-80's -
not a formula for a successful rehabilitation.
But he tried.
The first part of his return journey was primarily back to
physical health.
He ran along the ocean and hit the gym regularly, lost 70 pounds
and made some huge lifestyle changes.
Then he had to work up enough courage to step into a church.
This was hard and he bounced around a lot from church to church
and meeting to meeting.
Leon was usually in church 2 or 3 times a week but seldom
in the same one more than twice.
At 4:00 a.m. one morning the Lord spoke to him as clear as
could be.
"Leon, where have you been? What about the call you answered
when you were 14?
Will you still serve me?"
Leon thought, no way, God could never use me now.
But the sweet spirit of the Lord convinced him that God can and
would forgive him as well as use him to work in His Kingdom.
He decided to go to seminary and become a pastor.
It all just about blew up in his face when Leon faced the
scrutiny of the seminary admissions board.
Some of them had seen him on TV ads for his bars just a couple
years earlier.
Some churches in the area were just as leery of him.
Then came the pastor of a Baptist church.
The message was loud and clear:
"We love you, God loves you, repent and come back home."
After discipling with him for a few months the pastor offered
Leon a ministry position at the church.
Now ten years later Leon is the Senior Pastor of First Baptist
Church (ABC) in Lansing, Michigan.
Leon is grateful that God worked a miracle in his life.
He is also grateful a church finally refused to soft-sell him
on the truth or accommodate his sin.
It called him to repent, to become one consistent person.
#4789
I give you that same challenge today...
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SOURCE FOR ILLUSTRATION USED IN THIS SERMON:
#4789 Personal e-mail From Rev. Leon Hebrink to Rev. David Holwick,
September 6, 1999.
This and 4,800 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
My sermon also depends upon the article "Judas Iscariot" by Ralph Martin
in The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Tyndale Publishers, Vol. 2,
page 830.
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Other appropriate illustrations from the Holwick database:
How does that new life in Christ begin? IT BEGINS WITH THE RECOGNITION OF
WHO WE ARE.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a poem shortly before his execution by the Nazis.
"Who am I?" he begins. Then he recounts the perceptions of others: "They
tell me I bore the days of misfortune equably, smilingly, proudly..." But
his following verses describe the person he knows within: "Restless and
longing and sick," he describes himself, "...faint, and ready to say
farewell to it all."
"Am I one person today and tomorrow another?" Bonhoeffer closes, "Am I
both at once? A hypocrite before others, and before myself a contemptible
woebegone weakling? Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of
mine."(1) We are faced with the same haunting question. Who am I, really?
Some of us don't know.
---------------------------
1. Charles Colson, WHO SPEAKS FOR GOD?(Westchester, IL: Crossway Books,
1985).
#2328
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Christians should be unhypocritical. Not fake.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, loved
practical jokes. Once he sent a telegram to each of twelve friends. All
were men of great virtue and respected in society. The telegram said,
"Flee at once, your secret is discovered!" Within 24 hours, the story
goes, all twelve had left the country! There may be some playful
exaggeration here, but the point is usually true that many people,
including Christians, are not what they seem to be.
#2672
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A church minister told his deacon that someone had stolen his bicycle and
he suspected that the thief was a member of his congregation.
The next Sunday he decided to preach a sermon about the Ten Commandments
because he felt that when he got to the commandment that says, "Thou shalt
not steal," the thief would be shamed into returning the bicycle.
The next Sunday, his topic was the Ten Commandments, but about halfway
through his sermon, he abruptly switched his sermon to another subject.
Later the deacon asked him why he had changed his sermon. "Well," the
minister said, "when I got to the commandment that says, 'Thou shall not
commit adultery,' I remembered where I left my bicycle."
#4039
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