Sermon Central
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When Someone Betrays Christ Series
Contributed by Jim Butcher on Mar 23, 2020 (message contributor)
Summary: A look at the disciples' response to Jesus' shocking declaration that one of them would betray Him. How do we handle things today when someone betrays the cause of Christ?
WHEN SOMEONE YOU LOOK UP TO WALKS AWAY FROM CHRIST: There are a lot of casualties along the road.
- Luke 20:23.
- It’s obviously a tragedy to watch someone walk away from Christ or to betray Christ. What makes that even more of a tragedy is the ripple effect.
- It might be someone who gives up on faith and quits church, but that also means that their family quits church as well.
- It might be a pastor who has an affair and walks away from the faith, but that also means that a third of his church loses their faith.
- It might be someone who chooses atheism, but then tries to recruit as many to his cause as he can.
- The consequence that resonates the most is how many end up as casualties along the road because of someone else’s actions. There are a lot of people who used to go to church but they don’t anymore because of something that someone they knew at church did.
- It’s tragic.
WHEN SOMEONE LETS YOU DOWN:
1. Know that it is inevitable that this type of thing will happen.
- Luke 8:4-15.
- “Inevitable” with Judas in the sense that this was part of the divine plan.
- But it’s inevitable in general because of the nature of humanity. Jesus explained the situation in the parable of the four soils.
- Unpack the parable.
- For me as a pastor, this parable is both a source of sadness and comfort.
- It is a source of sadness because it teaches us that there are going to be many people who walk away from the Lord after showing some level of interest.
- It is a source of comfort because as a pastor you see that “walking away” truth lived out time and again. In light of that, it would be easy to presume that you’re doing something wrong. Shouldn’t everyone who learns about Jesus want to stay with Him? You would think so, but that’s not the way it works. Knowing that you can do everything right and there will still be people who will walk away is a source of comfort.
- To use the word in our bulletin, it’s “inevitable” that such things will happen, even when we do our best to work to the contrary.
- Let’s take this truth out of the general and think of our specific situation for a moment.
- This doesn’t mean that we aren’t heartbroken when someone we love betrays the Lord, but we do so with the knowledge that such things are bound to happen.
2. We never know what’s in a person.
- Luke 22:23.
- They didn’t immediately guess it was Judas.
- It’s interesting that they were not sure who the culprit was. It’s also possible to construe their statement as saying that they couldn’t believe any of them would do such a thing. In either event, they did not all have an obvious choice for the betrayer when Jesus made His statement.
- We cannot know what is stirring inside someone’s mind or heart. Sometimes the people we think are the closest to God are really just putting on a good show. Sometimes the person we think isn’t paying any attention to God is sincerely seeking Him. We just don’t know.
- This leaves us with the difficult truth that we never know what’s going in inside a person. That means we are going to be surprised sometimes when the betrayal happens.
- How many Christians have been heartbroken to learn that a pastor or trusted church leader have broken the confidence placed in them?
3. If your faith is based on other people, it’s likely you will not make it.
- We may put trust in a pastor or seemingly mature Christian, only to be let down when they fall into sin.
- This is an all-too-common occurrence. And for many, this leads to them walking away from the faith or at least from church.
- Probably the most common way this happens looks something like this. Someone gets saved in a church. Or maybe they’re an immature believer and they find a church family where they start to grow. Things go well for a season. But then something happens. Maybe the pastor gets caught committing adultery or embezzling. Maybe there is an ugly, screaming fight in a business meeting that causes the new believer to wonder if anyone in the church was really what they seemed. The pastor leaves the ministry or the church splits. The new believer shows up for a couple more Sundays but then they can’t bring themselves to go back. It feels like everything is different now. There’s no joy there. There’s no peace there. And so the new believer stays home. And twenty years later, she’s still at home on Sunday mornings.
