The man who got it wrong

Have you ever wondered why the Church doesn't have a feast day for Judas Iscariot? Probably not. He messed up big time and then killed himself rather than face the consequences. Why would anyone want to celebrate that? Do you ever have any sympathy for him, though? Does his human failure resonate with you at all? We often consider Peter, who from time to time let Jesus down, but we know that Jesus forgave him and restored him as chief apostle. Judas blundered big time, of course, but isn't redemption available whatever we've done?

Judas was perhaps from Kerioth, in the south of the country. How he met Jesus we don't know. However, he was appointed as one of 12 closest disciples and sent out as a missionary with the other first apostles. He was there at most of the intimate gatherings with Jesus' friends, when he explained things that were kept back from the crowds for the time being. He was empowered to preach, heal the sick and cast out demons on his mission trip, while living by faith. Judas was at Jesus' last meal with his friends, when he did his best to prepare them for what was about to happen when he would be arrested and killed. Jesus washed Judas' feet along with the other 11 disciples. Judas was right in there with the rest of them and trusted by Jesus to carry out his work, the work of the Father. How could everything go so wrong?

They say that the three big causes for downfall are sex, money and power. You probably are aware of, or perhaps even know personally, a Christian minister whose vocation was ruined through one of these. Sometimes churches are split because the main leader wants to keep control of everything and makes everyone subordinates; the circumstances which hit the headlines, of course, are more about sexual impropriety in the Church: adultery, sexual harrassment, sexual abuse, paedophilia etc. There have also been scandals concerning money, as leaders have syphoned off chuch funds to finance their own personal interests, sometimes leading to imprisonment.

We are not talking here about leaders who weren't really Christian, hadn't given their lives to God, had never been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Neither were these men and women insincere in their ministries. They were generally going great guns for God and then one of the three big temptations hit while they were off guard, and they fell. If the devil is going to work hard on bringing anyone down, it will be the leaders who facilitate church growth and the spread of the Kingdom of God - some of the most dedicated, sincere followers of Jesus. Let's not raise our hands in horror and ask, "How can that be? How could such a man of God do such a thing? He couldn't have been all that we thought." No, it's probably exactly because he was all that we thought that he was hit with a powerful temptation to get him out of the way.

We are all tempted; we all succumb from time to time and Jesus has already paid the price for our forgiveness, which we can choose to accept.

Judas was one of the 12 people in the whole world whom Jesus chose to be his closest friends and apprentices. He had been one of those handing out tiny pieces of bread to huge crowds on two occasions and both times finding everyone full up afterwards, with basketfuls of leftovers. Jesus had entrusted him with so much because he was a sincere disciple, and was so for nearly three years. But the temptation came and with him it was in the form of money. It seems that the other apostles worked out later that he had been stealing from the team's cash float for a while. When the opportunity came to earn quite a tidy sum, he had the same struggle that many have with additictions; he had become addicted to having money and, however much he didn't want to betray Jesus, the temptation was stronger. Perhaps he hoped that Jesus would pull out of the hat a miracle and prevent himself from being killed; perhaps he didn't care at that moment because the allure of 30 pieces of silver consumed him. We don't know, but we do know that we can all fall foul of temptation.

It was known that this was going to happen. It had been foretold that the price of betrayal would be 30 pieces of silver, that it would be thrown back in the Temple and that it would be given to a potter (Zechariah, chapter 11, verses 12 & 13). Someone was going to hand over Jesus and that had been prophesied hundreds of years before he was even born: Judas was the already quite powerful man of God who allowed himself to be drawn into fulfilling that prophecy, through his own weakness. It seems that he repented, which is why he killed himself. Jesus would almost certainly have forgiven him in person if he had gone back to ask for it - he died for the whole world through all time. I hope that Judas' repentance was sincere and that I shall meet him in Heaven. We don't, of course, yet know.

What we do know is that, if we are set on following Jesus, temptations will come our way. We are free from the power of sin and death (Paul's letter to the Church in Rome, chapter 8, verses 1 & 2) and so are able to resist them (Paul's letter to the Church in Corinth, chapter 10, verse 13), but from time to time all of us will fail (John's first letter, chapter 1, verse 10) and need to confess our sins (1 John 1:9). We may end up looking like the woman in the portrait above, our own sadness being because we have let down our saviour. Jesus, though, took upon himself the punishment for all of us, so there is no sin that is too big to be forgiven. There is always a way back to relationship with God in this life (1 John 2:1). Peter found it; Judas didn't. I pray that we shall all be like Peter.

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Be filled with the Holy Spirit!

After Jesus had gone home to Heaven, his disciples were left alone. They'd been out on mission, with him in the lead or with him in the background, but always somewhere not too far away. They'd been through the horror of his arrest, trial and crucifixion, which seemed to unravel everything and imply that they'd been living a fantasy for the last three years. They had met him alive after his resurrection, overjoyed that he was back with them and understanding for the first time that he had actually overcome death. Then he went away again. OK, he was alive, but not here.

Jesus had told them to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, when they would receive power (Luke's Gospel, chapter 24, verse 49). They had no real idea what this meant. In the end, it took only ten days, although it must have seemed a lifetime, with the Jewish authorities claiming that Jesus' body had been stolen and no tangible evidence left that they were lying. Something just had to happen. It was worth waiting for. Jesus had clearly gone to Heaven, so everything he said seemed to be true, but were there some doubts after a week had gone by about how amazing this power was going to be?

Then, of course, 50 days after Jesus' resurrection and ten after his ascension, the world was turned upside down. What happened on that first Pentecost after Jesus had redeemed us gave birth to the Church (Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2, verses 1 - 41), the collective term for followers of Jesus, or Christians, who now form the largest religion that the world has ever known. The word religion doesn't do it justice, though, since it isn't about doing things 'religiously' but rather freedom to live as we were meant to, in relationship with God, growing in the fruit of the Spirit and empowered by that same Holy Spirit through his gifts.

The Acts of the Apostles gives us a taste of what life in the Spirit can be as it recounts changed lives, healed bodies, minds freed from the control of demons, and an explosion of faith across Asia Minor and Southeast Europe - faith in Jesus as the Son of God who rescued us from the power of sin and death. That book of the Bible, together with the letters in the New Testament that were written by some of the players in the narrative, is a ripping yarn about an irresistable message of redemption and change, life and health, prophecy, teaching, evangelism and pastoral care.

Is that your experience of life? If you are a Christian, is that your experience of church? If not, you're missing out. The Holy Spirit who poured himself out on the believers almost 2000 years ago is the same God now as then. Yes, he is God! He is not a mysterious force or ghostly presence, but a divine person, part of the triune Godhead, part of the Trinity. He isn't just something that we mention in the Creed on Sunday mornings and believe is with us in some spiritual way by faith. The Holy Spirit manifests, makes real, the presence and power of the living creator in our midst. God is willing to live in you, change your life, set you free from slavery to sin, empower you to do the works that Jesus did and even greater ones. As Paul Hedger reminded us recently (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8FEVahg3oc), Jesus once cried out, "If anyone is thirsty, come to me and drink. As it is written, those who believe in me will have rivers of living water rising up within them." (John's Gospel, chapter 7, verses 37 & 38) By water, he meant the Holy Spirit (John 7:39).

How thirsty are you for God? How thirsty am I? If you really thirst for him like a deer pants for water (Psalm 42, verse 1), then don't accept anything less than a full baptism in his Holy Spirit. Allow him to pour himself into you as a glass filled with wine to the brim: then you also will receive power to live the Acts life.

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Fix your mind on things above

When Jesus was born, he left his glorious position in Heaven to come and live amongst his fallen creation. He did a really good job for something over 30 years, but it must have been quite a bit of a let down in many ways. He kept his relationship with his Father and the Holy Spirit going, so he didn't lose their company, but Heaven isn't fallen and its magnificence must be pretty compelling. We can tell from some of the things that he said that Jesus was looking forward to going back there and being properly with the rest of the Trinity.

Of course, he had to go through his trials, execution and resurrection before reaching the point that he was longing for: they were his central purpose for becoming human and living in Israel. Indeed, he knew by the time that he rose from the dead that he had defeated the power of death and Hell, sin no longer had an irresistable hold on mankind, and the devil's days were numbered. That must have been immensely satisfying. Yet Jesus still yearned to be properly reunited with his Father and Holy Spirit. Once he had spent some time proving to various people that he was truly alive again and given some important instructions, he was free to ascend back to Heaven, which he did from the Mount of Olives (Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1, verses 9 - 12).

We regularly think about Jesus' ultimate sacrifice on the cross. We often couple that with his resurrection. Jesus died and rose again to ransom and redeem us, bring about our atonement with God, bear the punishment for our sins and remove our guilt as far as the East is from the West. This is all glorious and the basis of our assured hope of eternal life. So what does Jesus' ascension add to our faith?

Various people at different times had heard a voice from Heaven declaring who Jesus was, but here all 11 of his core apostles actually saw Jesus going up into the sky. This was a physical demonstration that he really was, literally, going back into Heaven, alive as a man: Heaven exists and Jesus has a rightful place there. He told various people that they would ultimately be with him there after death, so the fact that he was clearly seen to be going there himself gives us confidence that he knew what he was talking about. We have a sure hope that God is with us as we live our Christian here on Earth and that we shall then join him in Heaven. Such a confidence in a glorious eternal future provides us with a strong motivation to live as disciples of our Lord and to encourage others to find Jesus as their saviour as well.

Knowing that there is a real Heaven also reminds us that we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. That Kingdom is based on high principles of love, joy, peace, mercy, self-control, goodness, kindness, gentleness, walking closely with God, doing the things that Jesus did and even greater ones. The list could continue, but what we see is that these are Kingdom principles which we can live up to if we keep our eyes on things of God's Kingdom, not the earthly kingdom around us. "You have been raised with Christ, so keep you mind fixed on things above, where he sits at the right hand of God," says Paul. "Do this instead of thinking about earthly things, because you died and your life is now hidden in God with Christ. When he comes again, you will appear with him in glory, because he is now your life." (Paul's letter to the Collossians, chapter 1, verses 1 - 4)

Let us allow Jesus to be our life, our whole life, with nothing held back, and so look forward to sharing in his glorious return to Earth.

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