LUKE 22:1-6 IF YOU DO NOT FEAR GOD2014 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 22:1-6 If You Do Not Fear God

In 1 Timothy chapter 5, Paul gives some instruction to Timothy regarding elders, those who are in leadership. And he says, don't receive an accusation against them except from two or three witnesses or

So there's this protection for leaders that, you know, just one person, you know, making an accusation, don't pay attention to that. But if there's two or three, that's when you receive it. And then he goes on to say in verse 20 of 1 Timothy 5, he says, "...those who are sinning rebuke in the presence of all that the rest also may fear."

And that's really why I wanted to address this this morning is because, you know, we love Pastor Bob and, you know, he's a great teacher, gifted man, but there also needs to be, in light of, you know, what has taken place, a fear for all of us. As we recognize, and me and a few of the guys have been referring to this a lot, except for the grace of God,

There go I. That we are capable of these same things. And so it's appropriate for there to be, you know, kind of this public understanding of what took place as a result of their public influence and ministry to us. But the issue is not then for us to have all the details and have our opinion, but that we would fear.

that we would have an understanding that I am capable of this same thing. And this really flows right into our passage this morning in Luke chapter 22. I titled the message for this morning, If You Don't Fear God. What happens if you don't fear God? I hear about pastors who fall into sin from time to time.

And it always serves as a reminder to me that as tragic as it is and there's all of those elements of it, but for myself personally, I am forced to remember I am capable of the very same things. And so it causes me to be on guard. It causes me to have my defenses up and remember that

Well, except for the grace of God, I could be there tomorrow. I am, you know, fully capable of what Judas did, what...

Others have done. I'm fully capable. And I wanted also to bring up this, you know, point in the situation with Pastor Bob because I want to not address him throughout the rest of the message. I'm not thinking, you know, if only Bob was here and, you know, because he really needs to hear this message or if only that fallen person was here because they need to hear that message. No, I want to highlight for you and I want to just make the point that, listen, I'm talking to us.

We all need to recognize we are capable of these things. And this is what will happen if you don't fear God. What does it mean to fear God? Well,

There's a lot of elements that you could consider in that, in the idea of trying or seeking to please him, to honor him, to worship him. There's also the understanding that you fear God because he's the judge and he's the one that you're going to stand before to give account of your life and what you have done. But also I would just kind of summarize the whole idea of fearing the Lord with

Putting him first. To fear God is to esteem him higher than anything else, than anyone else. That he is first in your life. And that is what God calls us to do. He calls us to fear him. He commands us to fear him. To put him first. To make sure that he is the most important thing in our lives. He commands us to fear him.

Because it is what is best for us. He doesn't command us to fear him just because he likes to see people shake and quiver before him. But because for you to experience the best that you could experience in life, you need to fear God.

You need to put him first to honor him and esteem him above all else. And what we see happen in our passage this morning is the opposite of that. So what happens if I don't fear God? There's three points I'd like to walk you through in this passage. The first one is found in verses 1 and 2. And that is if you do not fear God, you will fear people.

If you don't fear God, you will fear people. We begin looking at verse 1. It says, Now the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called Passover. The feast of unleavened bread is about to take place. Now this tells us the timing of when this is happening.

Luke chapter 22 is also right in the middle of what I was just sharing about Passion Week. So the idea of the Feast of Unleavened Bread is it was a particular day every year. It was seven days long. It began with the Passover meal and then lasted for seven days afterwards. This

back to, or you can check out Exodus chapter 12 to study the origin of Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. These were feasts that God established for the nation as reminders. He wanted the people to not forget a couple important things. First of all, Passover reminded the people of how God spared their firstborn children.

You might remember God instructed them to put the blood on the door, the top and the sides.

And if they did that, then the angel of death, while they were there in Egypt, the angel of death would pass over their house and the firstborn would be spared. But on every door that didn't have the blood, then that firstborn or the firstborn in that home would be put to death. This was the final plague on the land of Egypt that God brought in order to deliver his people out of Egypt.

And so God said, okay, I want you to remember this day every year. This is the day that I spared your firstborn and I brought you out of the land of Egypt. But then the Feast of Unleavened Bread went right along with that because as the

were delivered from Egypt as they went out of Egypt, they went out with haste. And God said, you're not going to have time to put leaven or yeast in your bread and time to let it rise. No, just bake it without the leaven, bake it without the yeast, because you got to go. When it's time to go, you need to go. You don't have time to wait for it to be ready.

And so they left with haste. And so the bread was not leavened. And so God says, I want you to remember this feast, Israel. I want you to remember how I delivered you. I want you to remember how I set you free, how I spared you. I want you to remember the work that I've done in your life.

And so this is what they're about to celebrate. So this would be, you know, right in the middle of what we call Passion Week. This would be about Wednesday when the events that we're reading about here in Luke chapter 22 were taking place. During this final week of ministry, the next day is going to be the Passover meal. And then later on, Jesus will be arrested and tried. And we'll be spending time walking through that this week.

in the evening services. So I encourage you to come out and be part of that. Verse 2, And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill him, for they feared the people. So here's the feast about to happen. Now when the feast would happen,

All of Israel, those who are faithful anyways, would gather in Jerusalem. And so Jerusalem would be just crowded and packed with people during this time. Because everybody would be coming in to celebrate the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It was one of the feasts that was commanded that everybody was supposed to celebrate each year. So this is happening. The streets are crowded. The city is packed with

And they know Jesus will be there. And so the religious leaders, well, it tells us that they are seeking how they might kill him. The religious leaders want Jesus dead.

This really began early in his ministry, but it's been building up more and more and more over the past three years to the point that now they're ready. They're going to take action. All they need is a plan. How can we kill him? How can we get rid of him? That's the only question, but they're ready to take action and ready to do it. Why? What was their reason for wanting Jesus dead? Well, it tells us here that they sought how they might kill him

for they feared the people. And here we get a little bit of a clue of what's going on in the hearts of these religious leaders. They feared the people. They wanted Jesus dead because they feared the people, but then also they had a hard time killing him because they feared the people. The point to make here though is that they did not fear God.

We can see this throughout Jesus' interactions with the religious leaders. In fact, in Luke chapter 21, we were there a few weeks back, the religious leaders challenged Jesus and asked him for, well, his authority. Where do you get your authority, Jesus? And Jesus said, well, I'll answer that question. If you answer this one question, John the Baptist, his baptism, was that from God or was that from men?

Now they go back and wrestle amongst themselves and the gospel of Luke in chapter 21 records their conversation together because they're struggling with how to answer this question. They say, if we say that his baptism was from God, then Jesus will say, well, why didn't you believe him then? Because if he was a messenger of God, then you should have believed him.

So we can't say he's from God. Okay, so what if we say that it was baptism that was from man. John just made it up. It was something he thought of, but God didn't send him. Well, the religious leaders decided we can't say that either because the people all around us here, they believe that John was a prophet and they're going to be upset with us if we say that his baptism was not from God. And so they came back and they said, we don't know where his baptism was from.

Now what we see, as far as their hearts are concerned, in this whole negotiation that they're having amongst themselves, is that they really didn't care about the truth. They weren't really concerned about whether, in reality, his baptism was from men or from God. They were worried about how that would look, how that would sound, and how people would respond differently.

to what they thought. So they didn't care about the truth. They were not actually pursuing God. Instead, they were concerned about their position. They wanted to maintain their power and influence on the people.

And because they feared the people, they didn't want to upset the people because if the people were upset and went away, then there goes their power. There goes their influence. There goes their authority because their people are upset with them. So they had this fear of the people which caused them

to not want to seek the truth or know the truth, but it also caused them to want to get rid of Jesus, but then they couldn't get rid of Jesus because they feared the people. It's quite a dilemma they put themselves into. And what we see here is that your God becomes your master. Because the people, their power and their position amongst the people was really what they were passionate about. That was their God. It also became a cruel master for them. And so they were

unable to do what they wanted to do because, well, they had made the people their God. And so they could not figure out a way to kill Jesus without upsetting the people. Jesus is disrupting their influence, their authority, contradicting many of the things that they've been teaching the people. And so they want to get rid of him because it's really messing up this nice setup they have. But they just can't figure out how.

Especially at the Passover feast. Because there's all these people around. So many of them were from Galilee. Because they would come down for the feast. Now Jesus ministered a lot in Galilee. And so there was a lot of people who knew Jesus. There was a lot of people who believed in Jesus. There were many who were there who were part of the triumphal entry just a few days earlier. Where Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey. And they were shouting and saying he's the Messiah. And putting down palm branches. And they were saying he's the Messiah.

There were many people who had been healed, where Jesus worked miracles in their lives or in their families. And so there were these people who believed in Jesus, were excited about Jesus, and the religious leaders are afraid that if they do something against Jesus, then the crowd will turn against them and they will lose their position and their power. If Jesus had been in Jerusalem during a different time,

the leaders would have had a much easier time getting rid of him. When it wasn't so crowded, when there wasn't so many witnesses, no problem, we got him. He's in our territory now. But because of the crowd, it made it really difficult. And so they're wrestling, they're seeking, they're trying to figure out how to kill Jesus, but they're having a hard time because they feared the people. Now as we consider that this morning, I would ask you to consider for yourself, do you fear people?

Do you have this in common with the religious leaders? You see, we need to learn to fear God above all else, including the people in our lives. You could think about Eli the priest in the Old Testament.

In the book of 1 Samuel, you can see that in the first couple of chapters, Eli was the priest at the time. And the way that the priesthood worked was, well, the son of the high priest would become the next high priest, so the oldest son. The other sons would serve as priests. And so here's Eli, he's the priest. He has a couple of sons. They're serving as priests. But there's a problem because his sons are wicked.

And so they're serving as priests, but they're not godly men. And they're taking advantage of people. They're practicing wickedness. They're doing all kinds of things that are completely sinful and ungodly. But Eli didn't put a stop to it.

And God addresses this in 1 Samuel 2, verse 29. He speaks to Eli and he says, Why do you kick at my sacrifice and my offering, which I have commanded in my dwelling place, and honor your sons more than me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel, my people? God says, you are allowing your sons to take advantage of the offering that the people are bringing to me.

And so instead of honoring me, you're honoring your sons more than me by allowing them to practice this wickedness and to do these things which minimize the sacrifice that I've commanded, the offering that people are bringing to me. Eli, the priest, failed to discipline his children. Why? Well, God says, because you honor them,

More than you honor me. He feared the people. He feared his children. He wasn't willing to take a stand for God. He thought it was more important to maintain a, you know, nice, non-rebuking relationship with his children. It's something for us to consider. Who do you fear? Are there people that you fear? That you allow them to

To cause you to do things that are not of God. That you allow them to do things that are ungodly and you don't address it. Parents, this is a big thing, you know, for children. That you need to learn from Eli's example that you honor God more than your children. That God comes first. Like Joshua said, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. That there is that commitment.

But if you allow them to continue on in wickedness without addressing it because you don't want to rock the boat, you don't want to make waves because you fear the people, well, then you're not fearing God. You're fearing the people. And if you don't fear God, this is what will happen. But it's not limited only to religious leaders and parents. But we all have this opportunity to fear people, to be so concerned about what other people think

That we don't pay attention to what God has said. And this can happen, you know, with parents and children. It could happen with our co-workers. It could happen with your boss. It could happen with your neighbor. Where you're concerned with them. You fear them. You fear their response, what they would say. And so it causes you then to disregard something God has said. If you do not fear God, you will fear people. It's going to happen.

They will become more important to you. Their opinion, their thoughts, their ideas, their instruction, their counsel will become more important to you than God. You must fear God above all else. He must be first. He must be your highest passion, your first priority. You see, our objective should be to please God above all else. And anything else is a danger. Anything else is

is a big problem. Proverbs 29, 25 says it this way, the fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe. To fear man, to fear people, it's a trap. And when you get caught in that trap, it's painful, it's hurtful, it's destructive. But to trust in the Lord, that's safety. There's safety in trusting the Lord. Jesus also said in a different portion, he said, don't fear man,

who can only kill your body. That's the limit of what man can do. And you're like, well, that's exactly why I fear people, because they could kill me. But Jesus says, don't fear people, because all they could do is kill you, but fear God, who can kill your body and then cast your soul into hell. He says, that's who you should fear. And so we need to understand the fear of God and understand that it doesn't matter what people think of us.

We need to be more concerned about pleasing God. Now that doesn't mean, don't take it too far and say, well, see then, well, I don't listen to people's counsel and I don't, you know, no, I'm not saying we reject people altogether. I'm saying we need to have our priorities straight. And when there's a conflict between the people and God, that we side with the Lord.

And that we put Him first. That we listen to Him first. That we're more concerned about honoring Him and esteeming Him highly and pleasing Him than we are with anybody else. If you don't fear God...

You will fear people. Well, as we go on now in the next couple of verses, we also see that if you don't fear God, you will be used by Satan. And that seems kind of strong, right? But it's a reality that we need to explore in this passage. In verse 3 it says, Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve.

So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains how they might betray him to them. And so here we are introduced now to this Judas. And the high priests are there, the chiefs, the elders. They're trying to figure out a way to get rid of Jesus. They can't figure out a way until Judas approaches them.

Judas approached them after, it says in verse 3, Satan entered into him. Now, of course, we've talked about demon possession in the past. We've looked at that throughout the gospel. We've seen Jesus deliver people from demon possession. And that is a reality. That is something that still continues on today. It's not something that as Christians can happen to us because he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.

But it is a reality. It is something that exists today. Well, this demon possession, it's a little bit kind of taking it up a notch. Satan doesn't like leave this and entrust this to any other demon. He personally, himself, takes on this task and he enters Judas. And now is going to be working...

with Judas to bring about his plan and to bring about the destruction of Jesus. Now, this causes me to reflect and say, you know what? God is amazing. Can you see that here? God is completely amazing. You say, I don't see that, Jerry. What are you talking about? Satan entered Judas and that means that God's amazing? Yes, because here's the thing. The cross fulfilled the

The plans of God and Satan at the same time. I mean, God is an incredible genius. He orchestrates things so perfectly. Because here's Satan thinking, alright, I got him now. I'm accomplishing my plans. I'm going to enter into Judas. I'm going to make this happen. And as he's doing that, God says, yes, that's exactly what I want to happen.

Because then Jesus crucified provides salvation for all of humanity. And so what Satan intended for evil, God turned into the greatest good. God's amazing. He can take whatever plans the enemy presents or does, and he can use it to accomplish his purposes for good. It's amazing how big our God is.

And as we consider that, we also consider and understand that Satan is not that big. He doesn't know everything. He is not all-knowing. He is not very wise. David Guzik puts it this way. He says, Satan is not all wise. Even if he did know that the death of Jesus would crush his head, his hatred got the best of him.

Since Satan is a great deceiver, he has no doubt deceived himself and may actually believe that he could win over Jesus. He's not very wise. And so God is able to use his plans to accomplish his own purposes. I don't know. I just kind of picture in my head Satan kind of like glorying in this opportunity.

Like, not only do I get to take down Jesus, but I get to use one of his own against him. That's the sinister kind of, you know, joy that he would have. That I get to use his, I can't pass up this opportunity. This is just too good. To turn one of his own against him and have him be destroyed. That was his plan. And so he entered into Judas. Now, Luke points out here that Judas was numbered among the twelve. Right?

This is an important point. This is something important for us to consider because the fact that he was numbered among the twelve means that he was one of the twelve disciples. Jesus had lots of followers. Wherever he went, there was crowds with him. But he selected twelve to be with him.

He selected 12 as kind of, you know, his closest of followers, his 12 disciples. And then later on, he called them apostles and sent them out. These 12 had a very special and unique relationship to Jesus and a special part of his ministry. He was numbered among the 12. Now, having this special place in, you know, this inner circle of Jesus...

It'd be reasonable for us to ask the question, how could this happen? How could this happen where Judas would betray Jesus? How could this happen where he would allow Satan to enter into him? That he would allow himself to get to this point? How could this happen? I mean, if you think about it, he had the best teaching. We've heard some good teaching throughout the years, right? I mean, super blessed for the long ministry of Pastor Chuck. Awesome teaching.

We've got a rich heritage in that. But Judas was with Jesus. There was no better teaching than what Jesus taught. Nobody today, nobody in history comes close. It was Jesus. He had the best teaching. He had the best discipleship. You can get lots of resources on discipleship. You can find books. You can find programs. You can find all kinds of thoughts and ideas about, you know, how to disciple people or how to be discipled.

Judas had the one who wrote the original book. The great discipler himself. He was discipled by Jesus. He was taught by Jesus. And he had close accountability. I mean, you think about accountability. Here at church, we see each other one time a week, maybe two or three times a week. Judas lived with Jesus. He walked with Jesus. He slept with Jesus. He ate with Jesus. He was with Jesus the whole time.

He had close accountability with the best accountability partner ever. How could this happen to Judas, numbered among the 12? He was numbered among the 12. As far as everybody else was concerned, Judas was one of the 12. He fit right in. He was with Jesus. It's very likely that as he sent the disciples out to work miracles, Judas was right there with them.

He probably worked miracles. He probably cast out demons. He probably healed people. And he preached the gospel alongside of the other disciples and apostles. He was entrusted with the money. He was the treasurer. And so looking on from the outside, you might think, wow, you know, they really trust this guy. He must be really faithful. He's one of the best of the best disciples. He was numbered among the twelve. How could this happen?

When Jesus said that one of the twelve would betray him, he was in the upper room with the disciples having dinner with them, the Passover meal, and he says, hey, one of you is going to betray me. It wasn't obvious. They didn't all in unison, you know, point at Judas and say, yeah, we know it's him. Because we figured it out when he couldn't work miracles when he sent us out, Lord. Yeah, he couldn't work miracles, so we knew he's got to be, something's wrong with him.

He's always got a rain cloud over him. He's always wearing black and we're all wearing white. You know, that's how we could tell that. They couldn't tell. It wasn't obvious. He was one of the twelve. It wasn't something that anybody would expect. Satan enters into him and now he's going to betray Jesus to the religious leaders. The commentator Adam Clark says, What Satan could not do by the envy and malice of high priests...

He affects by Judas, a false and fallen minister of the gospel. None are so dangerous to the interests of Christianity as persons of this kind. The religious leaders sought, they tried, they tried to figure out some way to get rid of Jesus. They couldn't figure out a way to do it. But the enemy had this plan. And it was effective in bringing destruction to the life of Christ. Those who were once...

numbered amongst the believers, amongst the disciples, are often the most destructive to the things of God, to the kingdom of God. Satan entered into Judas and now becomes his instrument, his tool of destruction. And so it tells us that he goes and he confers with the chief priests and the captains about how he might betray Jesus to them. He initiates this discussion with them.

to negotiate some reasonable terms. I'll give them to you if you give me back something worthwhile. Now, why would Judas do this? There's been lots of thoughts and speculation, of course, throughout church history. Some suggest, trying to think the best of Judas, suggest that he was trying to make Jesus reveal himself as the Messiah.

The idea is that, well, you know, Jesus is the Messiah, Judas is thinking, but he's taken a long time to reveal himself, but I know what I'll do. If I have him get arrested, then he'll be forced to reveal himself and overthrow Rome and establish his kingdom. So that's what I'll do, you know, and they try to think the best of Judas in this way. The scripture doesn't give any indication that that's what was on his heart, so not much room or reason to believe that.

Some suggest, well, he was probably upset with Jesus. Because you might remember in John chapter 12, Jesus rebuked Judas when the vial of expensive perfume was broken and anointing Jesus with it. The woman was anointing Jesus with it. He said, hey, this should have been sold and the money given to the poor. I mean, this is wasteful.

And Jesus rebukes that thought, rebukes what was going on there and saying, no, you have the poor with you always, but I'm here and this is done as an act of worship by faith in honor of my burial.

And so maybe he was upset. Maybe he was offended. His feelings got hurt and he was upset. And so in a moment of, you know, anger and, you know, just being offended by Jesus, he turns him over and agrees to, you know, betray him to the chief priest. We don't know exactly what the motivation of his heart was. We have a little bit of insight and I'll deal with that in the final point. But the point here that I want to make is that he is now being used by Satan, right?

Whatever caused his heart to be in that condition, now he is a tool of the enemy. And it should cause us to consider our own hearts, our own lives. Are you being used by Satan? Are you being used by Satan? If Judas, one of the twelve, could be used by Satan, you and I, we are fully capable of everything he did. He had greater advantages than

He was right there with Jesus. We're capable of the exact same things. And the point I'm considering here in this is that, listen, when God is not first in our life, it leaves us vulnerable to be manipulated by Satan. Because when God is not first in our life, that means, well, there's something else that's first in our life. And that becomes a gripping point. The enemy is able to grab hold of that gripping,

And yank us around. And he can manipulate us. And abuse us. And use us. To be part of his work and his plan. We so often forget that we are in a spiritual battle. No matter what you see going on around you. Try to remember that we are in a spiritual battle. Ephesians 6.12 Paul says. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood. But against principalities and powers and rulers of darkness. Spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. And we do not wrestle against the power of the Lord.

Why does Paul need to say that? Because we forget. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood. When the person in front of us, we're engaged in some kind of conflict, we're engaged in some kind of battle, how often do we forget that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood? We forget quickly. We don't wrestle against people. People are not the enemy. Listen, Judas was not the enemy. Satan is the enemy.

Your boss is not the enemy. Your spouse is not the enemy. Your children are not the enemy. That's not who you're fighting against. You are fighting against spiritual forces. So remember that. But as you consider that, also understand you are not the enemy. But you can be used by the enemy. You are not the enemy, but you can be used by him if you do not fear God.

If God is not first in your life, listen, the enemy wants to destroy your family. He's just looking for an opportunity. It's like the chief priest. He's like trying to figure out, okay, how can I bring destruction on your family? How can I turn people away from God? How can I make people miserable? How can I make people rebel against God in your family, in your workplace, in this church? How can I do that? He's just looking for an opportunity.

And when we do not fear God, when there's something else that's more important to us than God, that becomes something he can grasp hold of. Or sometimes we refer to it as a foothold. It gives him an opportunity. It gives him a place to then manipulate you. A lot of times they start out as good things as well. You want to love your kids. But if you love them too much, now it becomes a tool of the enemy. You need to provide for your family. But if that becomes the pursuit of your life, it becomes a tool of the enemy.

If you do not fear God, you will be used by Satan. He's looking for those opportunities. He's seeking those avenues that are opened up whenever God is not first in our lives. We have to be on guard. We're in a spiritual battle. It's not against flesh and blood. We need to fear God. Well, the final point is in verse 5 and 6. And it's that if you do not fear God, you will put things before Jesus.

If you don't fear God, you're going to put other things in his place. Other things are going to be, well, more important to you than Jesus is. In verse 5 it says, And they were glad and agreed to give him money. So he promised and sought opportunity to betray him in the absence of the multitude. So it says they were glad. The religious leaders are so happy right now.

Have you ever had a problem? You've been wrestling with it for days, trying to figure out how to solve the problem. And then when you get the solution, it's like, oh, you know, this great rejoicing that goes on. This is what the religious leaders were doing. Because they got a real tough problem. They got to get rid of Jesus, but they can't do it with all these people around. So how are we going to do it? Now, Judas presents the solution, and it says they were glad. The word glad, it means to rejoice exceedingly, to be well, and to thrive.

They're like, yeah, this is living now. We're thriving now. Because we have the solution. We're going to be able to get rid of Jesus. They were glad. Because what Judas brought them was an opportunity for them to deal with Jesus in the absence of the multitude. Again, because they feared the people. They were concerned about what the people were going to say. They were really happy. Because now in the absence of the multitude, they would be able to

To get rid of Jesus. To put him to death. So they were glad. And it says that they agreed to give him money. So they were glad. And now he's glad. In Matthew chapter 26 verse 15. Matthew records the same event. He gives a little bit of detail though. Because it says there in Matthew 26 verse 15. Judas goes to them and says to the religious leaders. Hey what are you willing to give me if I deliver Jesus to you?

And it says, they counted out to him 30 pieces of silver. 30 pieces of silver. I can get you, Jesus. What can you get me? They said, well, how about this? Here's 30 pieces of silver. Now, there's been a lot of discussion throughout the history of the church. You know, how much is 30 pieces of silver worth?

Some will suggest, you know, it's worth maybe about $15. Others will suggest it's much more. It really depends on which coin we're talking about. The pieces of silver, you know, what kind of coins is being referred to. I would suggest to you most likely it's referring to the type of coin which one coin is worth four days wages.

And so 30 pieces of silver would be about four months worth of earnings for the normal worker. So you kind of work out the averages for our area, for our community. That's roughly $13,000. So it's not nothing. It's not a million dollars, but it's some amount of money.

Remember also that it was enough to purchase a field because later on Judas throws this money into the temple and the religious leaders are like, well, what are we going to do with this? Let's buy a field. And so they bought a field with the money. So it's enough money to buy a field. So it's not, you know, 25 cents. It's not $15. It's a little bit of a substantial amount of money. And this is something that Judas was very passionate about.

Again, that account in John chapter 12 where the woman breaks the vial of costly perfume and anoints Jesus with it. John points out that it's Judas Iscariot who says, hey, why wasn't this oil sold for 300 denarii or 300 days wages and given to the poor? I mean, this perfume is worth $40,000. Why wasn't it...

sold and given to the poor. But then it goes on in verse 6 of John 12. It says that he said this not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and had the money box and he used to take what was put in it. So he was a thief. He had the money box. He was the treasurer and he's embezzling funds from Jesus's ministry.

And so he thought, hey, it would have been way better if you put, you know, a full year's wages in this box that I have control of. And then I can, you know, give myself an allowance raise. You know, I can beef up my budget a little bit, have access to more funds. And that would have been way better. That's what Judas was saying. That's what Judas was thinking. That's what was going on in his heart. He values money more than Jesus. When you don't fear God.

This is bound to happen. You're going to put something else in that place. For Judas, it was money. They said, we'll give you 30 pieces of silver. And he's like, yeah. Oh, that's great. That's perfect. So they were glad and he was glad. They got what they wanted. He's getting what he wanted. Because his heart, well, it's not sold out to the Lord. He doesn't fear God. Money is more important to him. Now it's so easy for us to look at Judas...

to look at other people, what they've gone through and how they've fallen. It's super easy for us to think, I would never do that. It's easy for us to look at Judas and think, I would never do that. We think too highly of ourselves. It's easy for us to look at others and think, that would never happen to me. I would never let it go that far. But if Jesus is not first in your life, you will betray him. If Jesus is not first in your life,

You will betray Him. Guaranteed. No exceptions. If Jesus is not first in your life, you will betray Him. We need to fear God. We need to put Him first. To esteem Him more highly than anything else. Than anyone else. He must be more important. He must be the highest passion. This is what He commands. Because it's what's best for us. And anything less...

Well, it may not be immediate. It might not be instantaneous. But it will lead to you will fear people instead of God. You will be used by Satan to accomplish Satan's works. Now, I mentioned earlier, God is able to use those things and accomplish his own purposes as well. But think about what Jesus said. Hey, it's impossible that offenses not come, but woe to the one who brings the offenses. You don't want to be Satan's instrument. You don't want to be Satan's tool. Woe to you.

If you are. If God is not first, if you don't fear God, you will fear people. You'll be used by Satan and you're going to put other things first. Other things will be more important. And it will cause you to betray Jesus. If your children are the most important thing in your life, that's a problem. Wait, wait, wait. God doesn't want me to love my kids? No, He does want you to love your kids. But the best way you love your kids is by putting Him first.

it's a problem. If your children are the most important thing in your life, you will betray Jesus for your kids. It's going to happen. No, it'll never happen. I won't let it get that far. Not going to happen to me. If God's not first, if you don't fear God, it's going to happen. If your spouse is the most important thing in your life, you're in trouble. If getting a spouse is the most important thing in your life, you're in trouble. God must be first.

You will betray Jesus if something else is first. And you say, no, but I love Jesus and I read the Bible. Yes, but if something else is first. It happened to Judas, it could happen to you. It could happen to me. We're all susceptible. We're all capable of this. And that's why God says, put me first. You don't have to experience that kind of destruction. You don't have to be used that way. You don't have to hurt people that way. Put me first.

That's what's best for you. That's what's best for the people in your life. If money is the most important thing in your life, you're in trouble because you will betray Jesus for a little bit of money. Wow, I could get an extra $13,000 if I do this and that and get that promotion. Man, that $13,000 is going to be sweet. I could buy like two tires with that for my Escalade. Whatever.

Betray Jesus. Now you're compromising. Now you're disregarding God's instruction. You're practicing sin. Whatever the case may be, so that you can get that extra money. If pleasure is the most important thing in your life, you will betray Jesus for a few moments of fun. These are just a few examples. I would ask you to search your own heart. More importantly, ask God to search your heart and to show you, is He first?

Do you fear God? How do we do that? I mean, what do we need to do? If that's out of line, what do we do? You simply need to make the choice. It's a choice we have to make. It's not about some, you know, magic words we have to say. We would love it if it was like a once and for all. Like once and for all, boom, I fear God. That's it forever. It doesn't work that way. You got to choose it today and you got to choose it tomorrow and you got to choose it the next day and you got to choose it the day after that.

Remember, Judas was numbered among the twelve. He didn't start out the way that he was. But that's where he ended up. And that's where you and I can end up. And so this is a great warning. Red flags flying up for us to say, make sure that God is first in your life. Make sure that you make the decision that you choose to fear God and keep Him the highest priority, the first passion of all that you do.

Let's pray. God, I pray for all of us who are here. Lord, I pray that you would search our hearts. Lord, there is great danger in not having you in that first position. There's great danger in not having you as the Lord of our lives. And sometimes, Lord, we do allow ourselves to be deceived. We allow ourselves to be manipulated. And we allow other things to creep in and take control.

That first priority. They become most important. I pray God that you would highlight those things. Right now in our hearts. And Lord as you reveal those things to us. Help us to repent. We turn from those things. God we want to put you first. And honor your word above all else. We want to esteem you more highly than anyone else. Follow your instruction. And seek to please you more than pleasing anybody else. Help us God.

Help us to let that be true in our hearts. Help us to make that commitment and that decision to follow you, to fear you. Because Lord, we will stand before you. We will give account. And there will be no excuses on that day. Because you see everything. And so Lord, help us not to be deceived in thinking that we could get away with anything. But Lord, that we would stand before you

in openness, with transparency, confessing our sin, confessing our condition, and receiving your grace and mercy to help us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.