He was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.  Acts 1:17

Did you know that the betrayal of Judas was planned into the plan of Salvation?  Now, God didn’t make Judas betray Jesus—He is not author or the cause of evil, but God planned what Judas would do into His redemptive plan.  Just like God uses godless men throughout the scriptures to bring about and accomplish His purposes, He used Judas’ betrayal. 

Peter understood this which is why he says what he does in Acts 1:16-17.  He says, 

Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.  For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.

Peter says here that the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David about Judas’ betrayal.  Though Judas, like Peter, James and John—like Andrew and Thomas and the rest was called by Christ to be His disciple—though he was numbered among the 12, he was an enemy of Christ. 

Though some argue for the salvation of Judas, he was not saved.  One reason we know this is because of Jesus’ words in John 6:64.  He says,

But there are some of you who do not believe.  (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)

Here John mentions Judas in the same breath he’s talking about those who do not believe in Jesus.  We are also told in the Scriptures that it would have been better had Judas never been born.  If Judas’ betrayal, which sent Christ to the cross led to Judas’ salvation, why would it have been better for him had he never been born?  You don’t hear that kind of language used of Peter who rejected Christ or about Paul who for a time rejected him and persecuted Christians.  The reason being they were repentant and restored to God while Judas was not.

Though Judas admitted guilt, his repentance was on the basis that Jesus wasn’t a criminal, not on the basis that He was the Son of God.  There is a difference.  In Matthew 27:4, Judas says, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.”  Notice he does not say, “I have betrayed the Son of God.”  Judas was sorry because he believed Jesus to be an innocent man—same as Pontius Pilate.

For all of those reasons and more, believers are not going to see Judas in glory and its tragic—his story is one of the most tragic in all of Scripture.  Though he was associated with Christ and His disciples and His ministry, he did not belong to Him.

There are many in our churches like that today.  Though they have grown up in the church and around Christians and Christian ministry, they have never made Christ Lord of their life and we are told that in that future day when Christ returns they will be the ones who say, “Lord, look at all we did for you!  Look at how often we attended church, look at how much we served, look at how much we gave!”  And we are told that in that day He will respond by saying, “Depart from me.  I never knew you.”  Why?  “Because you never gave your life up and over to me.”  

"QUOTE" OF THE WEEK

While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.  John 17:12

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.  Acts 1:8

Many have argued that Jesus took a risk by leaving this great work in the hands of ordinary men.  What do you think?  Did He?  It appears as if He did because He gives them this assignment in Acts 1:8 and then leaves in Acts 1:9.  But as you carefully study this text, what you find is that Jesus’ confidence is not solely in these men and women, but in the person and work of the Holy Spirit.  In Acts 1:8, Jesus lets His followers know that they are going to be successful and are going to be His witnesses throughout the world because they are going to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.

He makes this clear in Acts 1:4 when he tells His disciples to wait on the promise of the Father.  It is very interesting that Jesus tells His followers to wait here because throughout the gospels He is either telling them to to “Come...follow Him” or “Go and make disciples.”  They are told to “come” and they are told to “go,” but here they are told to “Wait.”  Why?  Because Jesus knew that they were in need of divine power to be able to do the work that He calls for them to do.  He knew that for them to be His witnesses and make Him known where He is not known, they were going to need divine strength--they were going to need power from His Holy Spirit. 

Scripture is clear that if it were left to us alone, God’s mission would be in jeopardy.  We are in need of divine power and we have that in His Holy Spirit.  Without this power, none of us would be worth anything in ministry.  It’s His work in and through us that makes all the difference.

"QUOTE" OF THE WEEK

"What would these disciples do after the Lord left them? The first command was to wait. They were not to engage in ministry until they had been empowered…What a lesson for us … wait. Don’t rush off into ministry unprepared. Don’t carry on the Lord’s work in the strength of the flesh. The only way we can fulfill Christ’s command to witness is to be under control of the Holy Spirit who energizes us for service."  –Dr. Kenneth Gangel

Yesterday we started a new series through the book of Acts.  For an introduction and detailed outline of the book, click HERE.

"QUOTE" OF THE WEEK

"Thank God for the Acts of the Apostles!  The New Testament would be greatly impoverished without it.  We are given four accounts of Jesus, but only one of the early church.  So the Acts occupies an indispensable place in the Bible."  –John Stott 

I urge you, then, be imitators of me.  1 Corinthians 4:16

I have heard pastors say before, “Live as I say and not as I do.”  They say, “Don’t follow me, follow Jesus.”  Is that the biblical pattern for leadership?  Is that the model Paul left for us?  In 1 Corinthians 4:16 he calls for the Christians at Corinth to “be imitators of (him).”  He says, “Follow me as I follow Jesus.”

Those who say “Do as I say and not as I do” are guilty of what Jesus accused the Pharisees of doing.  In Matthew 23:2-4, he says,

The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat…they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 

The Scribes and the Pharisees had all of their doctrines in order.  They knew the Bible and could quote God’s law better than anyone.  They, however, had a major problem.  They did not have a lifestyle to match. 

That’s not the kind of example Paul sets forth here.  He doesn’t say, “Follow my teachings.”  He says, “Follow my life.”  Can you say that?  Can you tell people, “If you live the way I live, then you will be living the life Christ has called you to live?”  Can you say that?  If not, what needs to change?  What in your life is out of sync spiritually?

Christ has called for us to be His disciple makers.  To make disciples we have to live the way disciples live.  Scripture is clear that discipleship is so much more that teaching principles to people.  Discipleship is living principles in front of people.  That’s the way Paul viewed it and that’s why he called for us to follow him as he followed Christ.

"QUOTE" OF THE WEEK

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.  1 Corinthians 11:1

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners,  nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  Psalm 1:1-2

When men are living in sin they go from bad to worse. At first they merely walk in the counsel of the careless and ungodly, who forget God—the evil is rather practical than habitual—but after that, they become habituated to evil, and they stand in the way of open sinners who willfully violate God's commandments; and if let alone, they go one step further, and become themselves pestilent teachers and tempters of others, and thus they sit in the seat of the scornful.

They have taken their degree in vice, and as true Doctors of Damnation they are installed, and are looked up to by others as Masters in Belial. But the blessed man, the man to whom all the blessings of God belong, can hold no communion with such characters as these. He keeps himself pure from these lepers; he puts away evil things from him as garments spotted by the flesh; he comes out from among the wicked, and goes without the camp, bearing the reproach of Christ. O for grace to be thus separate from sinners. 

"His delight is in the law of the Lord." He is not under the law as a curse and condemnation, but he is in it, and he delights to be in it as his rule of life; he delights, moreover, to meditate in it, to read it by day, and think upon it by night. He takes a text and carries it with him all day long; and in the night-watches, when sleep forsakes his eyelids; he museth upon the Word of God. In the day of his prosperity he sings psalms out of the Word of God, and in the night of his affliction he comforts himself with promises out of the same book. "The law of the Lord" is the daily bread of the true believer.

Spurgeon, Charles.  The Treasury of David.  Volume 1.  McLean, Virginia:  MacDonald Publishing Company.  pp. 1-2.

"QUOTE" OF THE WEEK

"In David's day, how small was the volume of inspiration, for they had scarcely anything save the first five books of Moses!  How much more, then, should we prize the whole written Word which it is our privilege to have in all our houses!"  -C.H. Spurgeon