Latest / Brandon Fogal Evolution / #118 - What If Judas Iscariot Didn't Take His Own Life?

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#118 - What If Judas Iscariot Didn't Take His Own Life? · Brandon Fogal Evolution

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  Was Judas Iscariot misunderstood? Why did he kill himself immediately after betraying Jesus?
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  There are so many questions that I have about this man. And a lot of,
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  I think we just, we get so fixated on how the story ended with Jesus and what
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  we know from the last 2000 years that we forget about Judas Iscariot and what
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  could have been and what immediately drove him to do what he did to Jesus and
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  then to right afterwards kill himself.
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  My name is Brandon Fogle. This is Evolution. Let's dive into this.
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  So this has been a very interesting topic for me for a long time.
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  I've always wondered, what about Judas?
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  Why did he do this? And could he have had another choice? Could he have done
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  it a different way and killing himself right afterwards?
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  Was it just immediate guilt to go and end it all?
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  And just imagine that he had lived and survived past the resurrection.
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  But the Bible talks about that he was, from of old, prophesied the son of perdition.
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  And Jesus even says in certain locations in the New Testament that it would
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  have been better that he had not been born.
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  Those are very strong words from Jesus.
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  Looking into the Bible, there are 34 key passages and verses that either directly
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  talk about Judas or allude to him.
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  There are 10 in Matthew, 4 in the book of Mark, 6 in Luke and Acts,
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  10 in John, and there are 2 in the Psalms from the Old Testament.
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  I look at John chapter 13 verses 1.
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  Judas has been with Jesus. He was selected when the other 12 were selected.
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  And he was one of the 12. He was an apostle.
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  He had all the credentials and all the apostles were completely blindsided when
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  Judas was the one who betrayed him. They could not believe it.
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  And in John chapter 13, verse one, it says, now before the feast of the Passover,
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  when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the father,
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  having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
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  Verse two, during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of
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  Judas Iscariot, Simon's son to betray him so Satan is working in Judas'
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  heart and it says actually in Luke chapter.
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  How did the second go,
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  Luke 22 verses 3 through 6 says in Luke, the same event happening in the Last
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  Supper with the apostles and Jesus.
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  In 22 verse 3, it says, then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot,
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  who was of the number of the 12.
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  He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them.
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  And they were glad and agreed to give him money. So he consented and sought
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  an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.
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  Fast forward after Judas sells Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
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  So this would have been the price for a common slave. This would not have been a good amount of money.
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  Judas wasn't making out big, but there had been so much more going on for him
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  to be so disillusioned to want to betray the man that he had lived three years with,
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  walked night and day, did everything together with Jesus.
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  Saul heard everything Jesus said, but wanted to sell him for the price of a slave.
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  I mean, this can show you that anyone can turn on you. You can't almost trust anyone.
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  The closest people to you might have something different going on in their heart,
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  but there's so much more going on.
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  There's not been another person like Judas because Judas, It says Satan was
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  tempting him and Satan entered him to do this. But that entering did not happen until the Last Supper.
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  So a lot had been going on before that. So I think he was a person that he wanted the kingdom to come now.
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  He wanted the upturning of the Roman occupation of Jerusalem and the people of Israel.
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  He wanted it now. He wanted political power now.
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  It says at points in the Bible, he was greedy for money.
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  He wanted money. And when Jesus said, he saw this woman comes and dumps this perfume over Jesus.
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  And Judas says, we could have sold that money and given it to the poor.
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  And Jesus says, you have the poor with you always, but me, you do not have always with you.
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  It's kind of like when you want the things that God can give you and the things
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  that come along with God. You want God as a vending machine.
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  You want God as a genie in your bottle, but you actually don't want God.
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  You don't want Jesus.
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  You're not in love with God. You're not in love with Jesus. And I think that
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  is the difference between Judas and Peter.
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  Peter did the same thing in a different way. I mean, Peter was caught off guard
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  and his world was crumbling to the ground and he denied Jesus, but he loved Jesus.
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  So he went away and repented Jesus.
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  And his repentance turned back to the Lord.
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  But Judas's repentance, his turmoil that he was experiencing drove him to commit
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  suicide, and then he hung himself.
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  But what if Judas had not hung himself?
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  What if he ended up being there on Sunday when Jesus came out of the grave?
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  There had to be something more supernatural. It's almost like if God does not
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  put grace on us, we will do the most evil thing imaginable.
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  You might think that, oh, the people that are in prisons, the dictators that
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  are out there, they're the evil ones.
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  Hitler's the most evil one. I could never do anything like that.
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  But if God pulled back his hand from us and gave us over to all that is in our
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  heart, there's no telling what we could do and what we would do.
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  So this man who was a part of God's plan, It wasn't God.
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  God did nothing wrong in this, but he allowed Judas to do it.
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  He allowed him to do it just like he could allow us to do anything we wanted.
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  And Judas was, he was completely responsible for his choice.
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  But if he had decided, maybe I want to repent.
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  I want to come to the Lord. I want, could the, could the story have been rewritten?
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  Honestly, if I'm being truthful and honest, I don't think it could be.
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  I don't think it, I don't think he had, after he had done what he did.
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  I don't think he had a choice. I don't think he could have. And it goes into
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  the same vein. Could Jesus have sinned?
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  Theoretically, I even theoretically, just hypothesizing about this,
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  I don't think it's possible Jesus could have sinned.
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  Like when we're talking about real events, he's God.
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  He had experienced temptation to the fullest extent and he resisted it.
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  But I don't think he could have ever given himself over to sin because he was God.
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  In the same way, I don't think just the way that the story was written,
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  I don't think Judas could have repented and come to the Lord afterwards, after betraying him.
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  And it was just God fully had given him over to Satan. He had fully given him
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  over to Satan and Satan drove him to kill himself.
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  So it's like, do we have choice at all?
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  And this is the biggest, this is the struggle for everyone. Do we really have
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  true choice in our actions?
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  And especially when you throw into the whole can of worms that there are things
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  beyond this world that are happening, and pieces are being moved in the heavens over our souls.
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  I mean, it's the most terrifying thing in the world if you don't believe in
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  Jesus, but it's the sweetest thing in the world if you do believe in Jesus,
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  because you're secured in Christ.
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  But people that don't believe in Jesus, they don't even care about it.
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  They don't care about it.
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  This isn't on their mind, so it doesn't terrify them. It doesn't worry them.
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  God takes from the same lump of marred clay of humanity and decides, I'm going to redeem.
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  I'm going to effectually redeem people. So the gospel goes forth.
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  The good news of Jesus goes forth. It's the proclamation to anyone.
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  It's the offers out there to anyone. But why do some people decide to come to
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  Christ and others don't?
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  Do we have a choice in the matter? Well, at least for Judas's part on it.
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  He was prophesied that he was the son of perdition.
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  He was prophesied that he would lift up his heel to Jesus.
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  So that's the struggle. That's a struggle because it was prophesied before he
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  was even born that that would happen to him.
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  But this is where I, we know the outcome of the story. We know people are going to be saved.
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  We know we are to go out there and tell people about Christ.
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  But there's also the realization that people will believe in the gospel.
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  People will come to the Lord.
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  People that are called will come. And I guess it's just being faithful.
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  And we could take something from Judas Iscariot, whether you want to be on the
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  position that he is in of either just repenting and going about your day and
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  forgetting the Lord and walking away,
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  or you want to be in Peter's position and repenting in your life and coming to the Lord.
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  Like I've said, the sun will either melt the wax or it will harden the clay,
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  but it's the same sun that is doing it.
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  This is a tough message. Anything about Judas Iscariot, it is very tough,
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  and it can be very heavy for anyone.
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  But if you just look at your own self, your own life, what side are you on?
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  All right. All right. We'll leave it at that. Have a great day, everyone.