Satan Entered Him

Introduction

Good to see you tonight. We have a good crowd tonight. We rejoice with Ben. I know that’s been a big relief to him today. It was a joy to be a part of that. Good to see all of you tonight. We had a number of people gone today from a result, I think, of Mother’s Day. Visiting with mom at various places, and some even tonight, I’m sure, doing that. But it’s good to see. And some of you have come this direction as a result of that. And we have some folks we haven’t seen in a while here today. And speaking of babies in the oven. Yeah, we might need to include that in my discussion this morning about that. And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, you will shortly.

Scott was asking me what the topic was tonight. And I said, sing all the songs that have to do with Judas Iscariot. None immediately came to mind. But then I gave him the direction that I was ultimately going to go with the lesson, and take my hand and lead me actually fits perfect. Feed me with your Holy Spirit. I like that. We’ll talk more about that later. And love divine that we have sung. Perfect choices for where I’m ultimately going with this. I have intended, at least the plan is now, as we conclude our study on Wednesday nights. Thanks, John, for filling in for me the two times I was away. When we conclude that study on the problems confronting the church, I’m thinking about a quarter on Wednesday nights talking about the apostles.

I’ve taught that subject in the past, and I might want to do that with you here. And so we’ll be looking at Judas and the other apostles in detail during that study. So count this as your introduction to Judas Iscariot. Of course, a lot is said about him because of the role that he would play in Jesus’ ministry, in his death. And so we’re going to spend some time talking about this person, this character, who is a great tragedy in Scripture. In the lists of the apostles, he is always listed last. And obviously for good reason. He who had been blessed with so much. He who had seen and heard so much. Threw it all away. Matthew 27 is a really sad portrait.

But in chapter 27, he is experiencing remorse, and he comes to return the money, no doubt to salve his conscience. And acknowledges I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. But the chief priest didn’t have any concern for this at all. What is that to us? See to that yourself. And he threw the pieces of silver into the sanctuary and departed. But then this tragic response, he went away and he hanged himself, he concluded. His life. And the chief priest took the pieces of silver and said, Well, it’s not lawful to put them into the temple treasury, since it is the price of blood. And so they counseled together, and with the money they bought the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers, and it has been called the field of blood to this day, verse 8 says, but this actually fulfilled Old Testament prophecies, Zachariah in particular, that Jesus would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, and that money being cast to the potter’s field.

Specific fulfilled prophecy in relation to the one who betrays Jesus. In Acts chapter 1 and verse 25, when there is only eleven, there was a replacement apostle selected. Of course, there was the one who was selected to replace Judas Iscariot, and his name was Matthias, the only time he’s mentioned in Scripture in Acts chapter 1. And the fellow who was put up with him, who was not selected, and I draw your attention to his name, because he is most often forgotten, Joseph Barsabbas. But those of you that have been here for several years heard me preach a sermon on him once upon a time. But it says in Acts 1 and verse 25 that Matthias was put into this position to replace Judas, who went to his own place.

But the story I want to draw your attention to is just prior to the actual betrayal. The story of the supper in John 13, where Jesus would go around the room and wash the disciples’ feet, and then Judas would be identified, at least to Judas, as the betrayer. Simon Peter wanted to know who Jesus was talking about when he said that one of you will betray me. He inquired of the beloved disciple to get this information in verse 26 and following. But ultimately, it is Judas who is signified in verse 26. When he had dipped the morsel, he took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. And after the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Jesus therefore said to him, What you do quickly.

And so after receiving the morsel, he went out immediately, and it was night. And I want to stop reading right there. Well, we encounter something interesting in verse 27 when it says that Satan entered in to him. Started thinking about that recently. I started thinking about that Thursday, or actually, no, it was Tuesday, when I was in Killen, and they have a study on Tuesday mornings, and it runs periodically, and it was happened to be running during the meeting, and they were studying the apostles, and we were studying the last four in the list. And so we were studying Judas, and we came to this passage, and the question was raised, what does this mean? You know, the New Testament talks about demon possession. But I got to tell you, this is this is even worse.

This is Satan possession. Satan entered him. So my question is, was this against Judas’ will? That Satan entered him. And I will just start by, as I raise that question, if so, why didn’t Satan ruin Peter the same way that he ruined Judas? Because after all, Peter demanded permission to sift Peter like wheat, Luke 22, when he said, Oh no, I will never deny you. Though everyone else fall away, I will not fall away, Peter says. And so Satan demanded permission to sift him like wheat, and he denies the Lord three times, and yet Jesus says about him, When you are converted, strengthen your brethren. Okay, so did Judas, by his betrayal, commit a worse sin a threefold denial of Peter? And why is it that Satan could enter Judas unto his ruin and not do the same with Peter?

1. Satan Entered Him

Perhaps I can provide some answers for that tonight. What important lessons can we learn? I want to look at three different things with you. The first thing about this, Satan entered him. He has already been under the influence of Satan. And we’ll see that in chapter twelve.

And that is that what this text is saying is that another way of saying it is that Satan indwelt him.

I believe what this text is saying is that at this point, he surrenders completely to the purposes that Satan has for him. Jesus has said about him in Matthew chapter 26 and verse 24, it would have been better for this man not to have been born.

That’s a pretty dramatic statement. Is it because Judas had committed a sin from which there could be no spiritual recovery because he had betrayed the Son of Man? I have weighed this in my mind so many times. Is the betrayal of Judas really any worse of a sin than the threefold denial of Peter? I mean, he betrays the Lord, but Peter denies the Lord three times. And while both of those are heinous and sinful things, there is something radically different about the heart of Peter and the heart of Judas. I believe Jesus could have said of Judas, when you are converted, strengthen your brethren, but he did not possess the heart. But Peter did. But I want to notice something else, sort of a sideline to this, that Satan entered him.

2. Satan Does Not Understand What God Is Doing

We learn something very important here. And that is that Satan himself does not grasp or understand what God is doing. Like Paul would say in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, if they had understood, if the rulers of this age had understood, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. If they had known, if the rulers of this age had known that by putting Jesus to death, they would, in essence, cause the rejected stone to be the chief cornerstone, as we talked about this morning, that it would fulfill the purposes of God in redemption, they wouldn’t have done it. So opposed to God, they would not have gone through with it. But who was prompting them? Who was behind the crowd saying, crucify him, crucify him? Well, the devil was.

So, how do we account for that? Well, that’s why. Paul says in that context of 1 Corinthians 2, yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery. The hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory. Okay. The hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory, the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age had understood, if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, and then this, but just as it is written. Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man.

Now that’s not talking about heaven. Okay, I’ve never seen heaven, the glories of it defy description better than anything I’ve heard or seen. That’s not what he’s talking about. He’s talking about this wisdom that was in a mystery. That no man could have imagined what God was doing. No eye saw it, no ear heard it. It had not even dawned on the heart of any man what God was doing. Now, if there is a part of this that talks about heaven, it’s the very last phrase that says, All that God has prepared for those who love it. What God was going to do to bring glory to his people. All that he has prepared for those who love him. And may I suggest there’s a link between that phrase and what we studied this morning, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

All that God has prepared for those who love him. He says all of that was shrouded in mystery. It was hidden wisdom. You know, Paul talks often in the New Testament about the mystery. Why is that? Because if they had understood it, evil men would have opposed it. They would not have put to death the Lord of glory. And I would suggest to you that it was a hidden mystery, even in the spiritual realm. Angels didn’t even get it. Because in 1 Peter chapter 1, when it speaks of the prophets, how they reveal the mind of God, it said, things into which even angels longed to look. The devil.

And that’s one of the reasons why in the Old Testament we have all of these indications, and we were looking at some of them this morning when God said, I’m going to fill my house with glory. And all of those things, those signatures in the Old Testament of what God is going to do through the Messiah. But it’s shrouded in mystery. It doesn’t become clear until we see it after the fact. It had to be shrouded in mystery. Because even the devil had to be on the outside looking in. I think he figured it out before everybody else. I’ve said to you before. I think he sees by the way Jesus is dying, he’s made a big mistake. And when those at the foot of the cross were saying, if you’re the Son of God, come down from the cross, I think perhaps even by that point he realizes he’s made a big mistake.

And so the fact that Satan entered him to betray the Lord suggests that even Satan at this time does not understand what’s going on, and that he still has his intention to try to thwart God’s plan. And that’s why Revelation 12 says what it does. The dragon, the great dragon whose tail sweeps away a third of the stars of heaven. I love that in Revelation 12. I mean, John sees a really ferocious image. Can you imagine a dragon? You know, the new. There’s a new movie coming out. You need to go see it. It’s Jurassic World. I guess they’re sort of playing off the whole Disney World moniker. Jurassic World. That’s what we need is another Jurassic Park movie. But if you see the trailer for that, we’ve got a new genetically enhanced dinosaur.

Now that’s a great idea. And so this monster, but it made me think of Revelation chapter 12, the great dragon whose tail sweeps away a third of the stars of heaven. You don’t want to be a Jurassic world when that thing gets loose. And this great red dragon who is Satan is wanting to devour the man child, but the text just simply says he was caught up to his throne. He didn’t get the job done. He put him to death. He bruised his heel, but Jesus bruised him on the head. And that goes all the way back to the book of Genesis, chapter 3, and verse 15. Alright. So that’s just a little piece about Satan, but I want to come back to Judas. Something occurs to me here about some lessons we can learn.

3. A Horrible Warning: A Carnal Fixation

How many people in the Scripture whose deeds and words and lives are recorded for us aren’t good.

You know, we can learn from the person who is the bad example. I saw the statement when looking for a slide for this point. If I can’t be a good example, I’ll just have to be a horrible warning. And that’s what Judas and so many others are in Scripture. I’m not totally useless, I can be used as a bad example. And that’s what Judas is to us. I mean, he can be used as a bad example for us to learn from. And I’ll tell you what his issue was. Where Satan got his foothold and ultimately destroyed him. He had a carnal fixation. Now that wasn’t Peter. Peter didn’t have this pitfall. Oh, he had a moment of weakness in his frustration and his disillusionment that caused him to deny the Lord three times.

But that was not characteristically his heart. But I want to tell you about Judas’s heart. It was all about stuff. And yes, he was a treasurer, and the apostles knew that. There’s an indication of that in John 13. But in the previous chapter in John 12, when Mary anoints Jesus in John chapter 12, who puts up a fuss about that? Judas, who was intending to betray him, he said, Why was this perfume not sold? It could fetch 300 denarii, which is a pretty hefty sum. And so that could have put into the, could have been put into the treasury that the disciples were using during this ministry. And he was really concerned about that because John 12, 6 says he used to pilfer. What was put in the money box.

Money designated for the Lord’s purposes. Needs to be regarded as a special and holy thing. And to take a little bit of that and put it in our pocket, you’ve heard of people as the plate, this actually happened in places. The plate was going around, somebody would actually take a 20 out. I mean, this is money being designated for the Lord’s purposes. Holy.

But they designated for this use for the Lord. He used to pill for that. I mean, isn’t it funny that he makes this great big argument about the poor? Oh, that sounds very noble. She’s throwing away this lavish gift. Jesus says she’s preparing me for my burial. But and wherever the message goes, this is going to be told. And it’s told in three of the gospel narratives. And yet, oh, we got the poor. If we had this money, we could get it. He makes this great argument, but it’s really all about who? It’s all about fixation with the self. Here’s the point. And I want to make this very quickly. Wrong motivations can lead to very erroneous. But hey, we need to watch what the motivations of our heart are.

And I see this in two major areas. And one thing I want to talk to you about is jealousy. Jealousy will lead to all sorts of horrible conduct. Jealousy will lead to gossip. It will lead to slander. It will lead to the ruination of someone’s good reputation to promote oneself. And that’s why James says where there is this and selfish ambition, where there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil thing. And I want to tell you, we need to be on guard against this. Because this goes right to our perception of ourselves and the way we regard ourselves. And I’m here to tell you this. You don’t have to be the best.

More winsome. More appealing in character than I am. And you’re saying, well, that’s good because I know a lot of people. But I just want to tell you this. It’s not a competition. May the Lord’s people never be in a competition with each other. I want to be noted as the best preacher. I want to be the best song leader. Or I want to be the best elder, the best. I mean, it’s not a competition. If we can only get people to have the heart that John the Baptist had when he said, when Jesus came along, his disciples came to him and said, they’re all following after Jesus. And he said, He must increase and I must decrease.

Younger folks are going to come along with more talent and ability than you presently have. Because your ability fades as you get older. Just as Tiger Woods. And if he’s more gifted than I am, praise be to the Creator. Praise be to God that he can use him in an even better way than he can now use me. It’s not a competition. It’s about glory to God. It’s about me rendering the service that I can render, and perhaps I could more effectively render it when I was 35 than I can when I’m 55. Not there yet. We’re going to be there shortly. But that’s okay. Are you a five-talent person, a two-talent person, or a one-talent person? Well, I don’t want to be the one talent guy.

Because things didn’t end well for him. But in the story that Jesus tells, it’s he’s not lost because he’s the one talent person. He’s lost because he did not do with his talent what the Lord had endowed him with. But the interesting thing to me in the story is the two talent man, though he was not the five-talent man and did not gain as much as the five-talent man did, received the same reward from the master. Enter into the joys of thy Lord. You’ve been a faithful servant. And so I don’t have to be the five-talent man. I just simply need to do with my talent what I can to the glory of God. And if somebody else can do it better, then praise be to God for that.

Beware of jealousy. They get more attention than I do. They’re more praised by others than I am. People think she’s prettier than I am. And I’m saying that from a female’s perspective. Because obviously they’re prettier than I am. But jealousy. And I’ll tell you, again, let me emphasize this. This quality in your heart will lead to all sorts of evil things. Again, the assassination of someone’s character. False information told. Don’t get me started about that. Where people will lie. Brethren will lie to other brethren to destroy your reputation. Let’s hope that never happens here among us. If you hear something juicy about a brother that’s evil and simple, you go and talk to him. See if that’s so. I can tell you about occasion when I was hearing rumors and innuendos from all quarters, things that people were saying about me that were not true.

And what that leads to. And closely associated with that is the problem of pride. It affects so many things. Our treatment of others, our regard for others, esteem others better than ourselves. Philippians chapter 2 and verse 3. But if we have pride, there has not been a conflict among the Lord’s people that has not been attended by pride. And sometimes it’s both sides. Beware of thinking more highly of yourself than we ought to think.

4. Be Filled With the Spirit

He who filled Judas, Satan entered into him. He had given himself to Satan’s purposes. I want you to put that in stark contrast to what we read in Ephesians 5 and verse 18, where Paul says, we are to instead be filled with the Spirit. Just as Judas was indwelt by Satan to accomplish his purposes, we are to instead be indwelt by the Spirit to surrender to his purposes. And I’ve said so many times to you, and I think you’re getting it. If you haven’t already gotten it, that this is the way the Spirit indwells us. The Holy Spirit is no more literally inside my body than Satan was literally inside Judas’ body. And if you’re going to argue one, you’ve got to argue the other. And so what does this mean?

Well, that’s what passages like 2 Timothy chapter 2 are saying when it’s suggesting we need to be vessels of honor, useful, sanctified, set apart for the master’s purposes, useful to every good work. And I want you to notice what contextually is going on here. There’s no mention of the miraculous whatsoever. First of all, be filled with the Spirit is a command. How do you seek that? Something miraculous, be filled with the Spirit. I want to do miracles. I’d like to be able to do miracles, but I have neither part nor lot in that matter. Pursue speaking in tongues. I wouldn’t mind knowing that experience, but I have neither part nor lot in that matter, because that was a first century phenomenon when the word of God was being communicated by miraculous means.

I don’t have a part in that. You don’t have a part in that.

But this is something that’s commanded. It’s not a seeking of the miraculous. Again, it is the complete surrender to his purposes. And notice what it said in contrast with, first of all, he says, walk circumspectly, walk as wise men, making the most of your time because the days are evil. Understand what the will of the Lord is. Look at verse 17. Understand what the will of the Lord is. And look, I’ll tell you what’s opposed to this is inebriating yourself. Intoxication. The whole process that leads to one being drunken. He says, do not be filled with that. Instead, go a different route. Be filled with the Spirit. And that’s going to lead to overflow in songs, hymns of praise to God, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, making melody with your heart, giving thanks, and being subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

So again, this is not mystical. This isn’t about the performance of the miraculous. And it really goes back to what we were talking about this morning. When he said, Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This ties into that. Because I’ve got to tell you, everything that we are in Christ, we are products of the Holy Spirit. And that’s why we shouldn’t get too carried away with ourselves in the first place. It is God who made us what we are. We are products of the Holy Spirit. We have received all that the Holy Spirit had promised. We are completely dependent upon God for who we have become and what we are in Christ.

And that’s what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12. When he talks about the body, he says, For by one Spirit, by one Spirit, that’s the means. By one Spirit, you were all baptized into one body. We are what we are in Christ because we have listened to the Spirit and fulfilled his purposes. And that’s what Paul is talking about in Romans 8. The law of the Spirit of life, the law of the Spirit of life that is in Christ. And he says, if Christ is in you, the Spirit is alive. If the Holy Spirit indwells you, and he says it right back to back in chapter 8 and verse 9, and he says, the Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God.

How is that? You know when I was baptized into Christ, what was true of my behavior, that I was baptized into Christ is a reflection of what this word teaches. The Spirit Himself bore witness with my spirit. And when I shun pride and take on humility, clothe yourselves with humility, young men. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that you may be exalted at the proper time. 1 Peter 5 and verse 6. When I clothe myself with humility, the Spirit bears witness with my spirit, that I am a child of God. And so if you can get one point out of this, don’t be like Judas, a bad example, who was filled with Satan. Be filled with the Spirit. And understand that all that we are in Christ and all that we will ever be is the result of being a product of the Holy Spirit.

Conclusion

Our renewal, our regeneration is by the Holy Spirit. So I want to conclude with this. With what are you filled? Whose purposes are you seeking? The Holy Spirit. If you seek His purposes, that will lead to salvation, encouragement, and a lasting legacy. Eternal life. But if you’re serving the purposes of Satan, let me tell you where that always leads. And this is what Judas teaches us to destruction. Discouragement and ultimate futility. And you can go to the bank with that. That’s just so.

And in submission to the Holy Spirit’s instruction. Will you be born of the Spirit while there’s time and opportunity? Perhaps you’ve lost your way. Perhaps you’ve not been surrendering to the Spirit like you were in times past. The great thing is you can dedicate yourself to it once more and be filled with the Spirit again. And let us display that we are filled with the Spirit as we sing to one another in this invitation song. Let’s rise and sing.