“Falling Away”
Pastor Jason West
March 24, 2024
Matthew 10:2-4 “The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.”
I. What Led to the Downfall of Judas Iscariot?
A. A Struggle With
1. What’s in a Name?
• The Judah Connection
2. Where is he from?
• ‘Iscariot/ Kerioth’
Acts 4:13 “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”
Psalm 10:4 “In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, ‘There is no God.’”
3. What Else Do We Know about Judas?
a. Called the
(John 6:68-71)
b. Judas is a Part of
(Psalm 41:9; John 13:18-19; Zechariah 11:12b-13; James 1:13-15; Matthew 6:24)
Psalm 41:9 “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.”
John 13:18-19 “I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he.”
James 1:13-15 “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
“I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside” (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, page 130).
B. A Struggle with Putting
(John 12:4-6; Mark 14:6)
John 12:4-5 “But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?’”
C. A Struggle with Hanging Around the
(Matthew 26:14-16; Luke 22:3-6)
Matthew 26:14-16 “Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?’ And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.’”
D. A Struggle with the Influence of
(John 13:2, 5, 18-19, 21, 26-27)
John 13:2 “During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,”
E. A Struggle with
(John 18:1-9; Matthew 26:47-50, 55-56)
John 18:1 “When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.”
F. A Struggle with
(Matthew 27:3-10; Acts 1:18-19)
II. Matthias Becomes an Apostle in the Place of Judas Iscariot
Psalm 109:8b “may another take his office!”
Acts 1:21-22 “So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.”
Luke 10:1 “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.”
Acts 1:26 “And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.”
Proverbs 16:33 “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.”