Matthew 26 - Betrayed by Judas

And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born. Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said. Matthew 26: 21-25

During this wonderful Passover meal with His disciples (which we refer to as the Last Supper), Jesus relayed the good news of the New Covenant promised by God long ago. It would be instituted through Jesus' sinless, tortured, broken body and His blood. 

Jesus instructed them to symbolically eat His broken body (symbolized by the unleaven bread) and drink His blood (symbolized by the wine - the Passover cup of Redemption). This was a sobering concept, considering that the Law strictly forbid any Jew from drinking the blood of the sacrifice (the life was in the blood!) We know from the Gospel of John that Jesus had lost many of His followers when He told them that they must eat His flesh and drink His blood or they would have no part of Him.  As expected, this statement caused great confusion. It takes the Holy Spirit and the new birth in order to fully comprehend spiritual truths. Spiritual truths appear as pure nonsense to a natural man.

That evening, Jesus also warned His disciples that one of them would betray Him, just as it had been prophesied in the Psalms. (See Psalms 41:9). As one could imagine, the disciples were extremely distressed to hear this! They loved each other and they loved Jesus and had been through so many things together during the past three and half years. They could not fathom any of them doing such a dastardly thing! And yet, Jesus knew that it was Judas. 

The Bible is unclear as to when Jesus discovered the identity of His betrayer, but I do believe that He was not 100% ignorant nor was He 100% in the know during the time of His ministry. The Old Covenant tells us that Jesus was hurt by the betrayal of His good friend, as any of us would be hurt by someone we love selling us out to our enemies.

Forgiveness could have been available to Judas, but the Bible says that Judas never sought forgiveness for his evil deed. He became the Son of Perdition spoken of by the prophets years ago.

Links:
https://pjmiller.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/unheeded-or-misinterpreted-signs-the-destruction-of-jerusalem-70ad/

http://bible.christiansunite.com/jos/warindex.shtml

http://www.allthingsfulfilled.com/

http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/haggadah.html

Matthew 26 - The Conspiracy Begins

Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him. Matthew 26:14-16

As the Crucifixion week drew near, Jesus began to prepare His disciples for what was about to happen. He warned them that the Jewish leaders would conspire to kill Him, and as one would expect, this caused confusion and fear in the hearts of His followers. Even though Jesus had instructed them that His sacrifice was necessary for this New Covenant kingdom to be established, they did not have the understanding of what that meant - like most people of their day, they expected a physical kingdom ruled from the earthly Jerusalem. They did not yet have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that would help bring the spiritual revelation that they needed to understand this new, spiritual kingdom--which is still the case for many professing Christians today! Without the Holy Spirit, it is impossible to understand the things of a Holy, spiritual God!

Sensing that Jesus was not going to establish a physical kingdom, Judas (one of the twelve) took the opportunity to sell Him out to the Jewish rulers. And for what? Thirty pieces of silver, which is exactly what the law stated was the payment for an ox that gored an innocent servant. Amazing! When Jesus informed His disciples that one of them would betray them, they were all in disbelief! They loved each other and had been through so much together and couldn't imagine one of them doing such a thing. But they did not know the heart of Judas Iscariot the way Jesus did. Jesus loved him and viewed him as a close friend but was not surprised at his actions; it had been prophesied long ago that His dear friend would sell Him out for the price of a disobedient ox! See Exodus 21: 28-36.

Tragic!

Links:
https://pjmiller.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/unheeded-or-misinterpreted-signs-the-destruction-of-jerusalem-70ad/

http://bible.christiansunite.com/jos/warindex.shtml

http://www.allthingsfulfilled.com/

http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/haggadah.html