July 10, 2024

Matthew 27:3-5

³ Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, ⁴ saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”

And they said, “What is that to us? You see to it!”

⁵ Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.

Judas was hand-picked by Jesus to be one of His most trusted associates. He had been trained and taught by Jesus for more than three years in an intense discipleship program. Sent out on mission trips, he had seen miracles of healing and demons being cast out. He had every advantage to become a pillar in the kingdom of God as the others who had been in the training program with him eventually would.

And yet he had a problem. And the problem was that he had his own agenda. It was not the agenda of Jesus. It was his own plan. He was operating according to his own purpose. He was completely ignoring the Word of God, presumably because he was ignorant of what was in the Word of God.

Judas had betrayed Jesus. For thirty pieces of silver, he had sold Jesus out to His enemies. They were enemies who had tried numerous times in the past to take down Jesus, but Jesus was a Master at avoiding their schemes. And yet Judas knew Jesus’s hiding places. And in the middle of the night, he had brought His enemies right to Him to capture Him.

He had made a nice little profit out of the deal. But we are told a surprising detail about his motivation in this passage. It seems that Judas didn’t expect the consequences of his actions to turn out the way they did.

I am speculating here, but the Bible seems to indicate that Judas was actually surprised when Jesus ended up being condemned. I would speculate even more that the reason he was surprised is that he didn’t think Jesus would be able to be overcome by His enemies. I think that he was actually trying to force the hand of Jesus into doing something that was unscriptural.

Since Judas was surprised that Jesus ended up being condemned, it is not too much of a stretch to imagine that he probably had another agenda as his motivation. An agenda that wasn’t money or greed. When he became remorseful, he didn’t value the money he had gained by his action and tried to return it.

I really think his agenda was that he was trying to force Jesus’s hand into becoming the political leader of the Jews. He assumed that a confrontation would force Jesus into having to take control and overthrow the ungodly leaders.

But this was NOT God’s plan. And Judas’s agenda was unscriptural and unbiblical. It was not the plan of Jesus to take political control and set up an earthly kingdom at that time. Instead, it was His plan to become the perfect sacrifice for sin, fulfill the Passover, and make it possible for people to be set free from sin.

When Judas saw that his personal agenda hadn’t turned out the way he planned, he was so remorseful that he committed suicide. His own personal agenda had destroyed him.

Now many modern Christians are not that different from Judas. They are operating with their own personal agendas instead of following the agenda of Jesus. They are ignorant of the Word of God and because they are ignorant, they are trying to make God do things that are against His Word.

I see many unscriptural prayer requests being posted on social media. They are posted by Christians who are ignorant of God’s plan because they are ignorant of His Word.

Now as much as God loves us, He will not contradict His own Word in order to accommodate our personal agenda. And agenda which conflicts with His agenda.

I talk to many Christians who wonder why God doesn’t seem to answer their prayers. But when they tell me what they are praying for, I have to show them from God’s Word that what they are praying for could never be answered. It isn’t something that is according to God’s instructions.

But like Judas in his ignorance, they are very remorseful and erroneously believe that God is not for them and must be angry with them.

Paul tells us that ALL of God’s promises are “Yes and Amen.” But our problem is that we are often operating under our own agenda, and there are no promises when we do so.

I will close with one example of this agenda problem that I recently saw. There was someone who posted a prayer about God removing all wicked leaders from (political) power. I cannot find any example from Scripture of God operating like this.

There are two examples of God temporarily removing someone from power in order to cause them to repent (Nebuchadnezzar and Manasseh), but neither was removed permanently. They both had an encounter with grace that turned their hearts.

And yet the prayer that I keep seeing reposted is for God to just arbitrarily intervene and remove the wicked people in Washington. God does not arbitrarily intervene like this. He always works through people. And here in the United States, we have a political process that is the rule of the land.

If Christians don’t get out and vote, and when they vote, vote Biblically, then no wicked people are going to be removed from power. God doesn’t arbitrarily intervene any other way.

But many Christians are frustrated because God isn’t answering the prayers of their personal agenda. They will stay frustrated though, because He never will accommodate the things that aren’t in line with His Word.

Are there wicked people in Washington? Absolutely. But if you want them out, you’re going to have to do your duty and vote them out. That’s how our government works and God will not override this.

And if millions of Christians decide not to vote (like happens very often)? They will reap what they sow.