Easter | Jesus and the Betrayer (Judas Iscariot) | Easter's Villains Meet Easter's Victor - Part 2

Springcreek Church - Garland, TX Podcast

JESUS AND THE BETRAYER (Judas Iscariot)
Easter Villains meet Easter’s Victor - Part 2
Springcreek Church | Senior Pastor Keith Stewart
March 26, 2023
Few things will put you in a darker place than experiencing betrayal. As the Easter story unfolds, the darkness grows deeper when one of the trusted twelve betrays Jesus into the enemy's hands. Learn from Judas and still find hope in this story.

SERIES: EASTER’S VILLAINS MEET EASTER’S VICTOR
There are plenty of things to learn from the bad guys. In the Easter story, the villains multiply & bring their collective power against the Son of God. But far from a message of despair & hopelessness, Easter’s Victor soars above the conflict to bring light & salvation to all who seek it.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. As Stephen Covey said, “Trust is the glue of life.” It’s the foundation of all healthy relationships. Have you ever had your trust violated? What happened? How did it affect you? Have you healed from that experience and if not, what scars remain?

2. What made Judas’ betrayal so stinging was how implicitly he was trusted by all the others. He had a good name, an excellent reputation, and the full confidence of the disciples as evidenced by them putting him in charge of the group’s finances. Even when Jesus explicitly singles out Judas as the betrayer and Judas exits the feast, the others only impute good motives to his departure and do not suspect Judas at all. In light of that, what do you think of efforts throughout history to paint Judas as villainous, all bad, evil through and through? Why do we do this with those who have done awful things? What does this say about us?

3. Shame is a reality all of us have had to deal with in our lives. They say, guilt is a doing word and shame is a being word, meaning, I feel guilt over the things I’ve done, but when I do bad things, shame makes me feel like a bad person. Whenever we feel shame, the accompanying messages of shame distort the truth. Pastor Keith mentioned several of them.

• There is never a way back
• My sin is too great
• I have to atone for my sins

Think about your own self-talk when you have messed up. Do you fall prey to any of shame’s distortions? Based on what Pastor Keith shared in the message, what is the answer to shame’s distorted messages? How will you apply these truths in the future?

4. One of the most common ways people deal with shame is through self-punishment. This is an attempt to self-atone, to make ourselves suffer for the wrongs we’ve done. A.W. Tozer called it, “…the perpetual penance of regret.” How have you seen this played out in your own life or that of others?

5. Take some time as a group to compare Peter’s denial with Judas’ betrayal. How were they similar? How were they different?

6. On the day of atonement, there were two goats brought before the High Priest. One goat was slaughtered to pay the price for the sins of the people and the other symbolically had the sins of the people laid on it and it was abandoned to the wilderness to die. In a very real sense, Christ was the fulfillment of both types of sacrifice – the One Whose blood was shed to pay the price for our sins and the One upon Whom our sins were laid as He was led outside the city to be abandoned on a hill called Calvary. This means Jesus not only carried our sin but also carried the consequence of our sin which is shame. Both sin and shame met their match in Christ and He died so we could be freed from both. There’s no need to carry your shame or self-punish for your misdeeds. Jesus died so you wouldn’t need to do that ever again. Take some time to offer your thanks to Christ for all that He has done to remedy sin and shame in your life.
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