Missing The Boat

John 18:1 - 14

First off, you have to understand that ALL prophesy is going to come to pass!  In this passage, Jesus finds himself, exactly where he was supposed to be, Isaiah's words are about to be fulfilled ...

You can miss it
Judas came close, but he missed the mark with Jesus.  He was there, he saw the same miracles that all of the other disciples saw, he heard all of the same words as the other disciples did, he sat through all of the same lessons, he walked in Jesus' footsteps.  But, something went wrong inside of Judas, maybe he never really was a follower...

Remember that Judas was hand picked by Jesus!  Jesus knew what He was doing, he knew Judas' heart at the time as well as what it would be in the future.

You can not fool everyone
The other eleven had no clue who Judas really was, either during the three years of following and learning under Jesus, nor what Judas had been up to recently.  At the dinner table no one thought the betrayer of Jesus would be Judas!  They each questioned if they were the one.

And that is interesting, each questioned their own dedication, love for the master and faith.  Indeed we each know the truth about ourselves, as ugly as it can be sometimes.  The disciples were no different than us in this regard.

Your disappointment can yield disaster
Was Judas greedy?
Was he scared?
Or maybe disappointed that Jesus was not going to conquer the Romans?
Was he politically motivated?
Or religiously motivated, to do what he did?

Take your pick.  What did separate his mind and his heart from God and God's will in following Jesus?  We may never know, but whatever the source of his anger / frustration, it forced him on to a path of disaster.

You can trade true love for something far less
Judas is going to betray Jesus.
Jesus offers him a chance to reconcile, but to no avail.
Judas returns with perhaps as many as 600 soldiers, priests, servants and people.

A fight was expected, but none was given.

You do not need to be a Judas
We can learn from his mistakes!
Have no strings attached to your relationship with God.

And expect, the unexpected...