Judas: The What-If Story of Redemption

By James J. Sporleder

Judas: The What-If Story of Redemption is the tragic and unfortunate narrative of the path the man that betrayed Jesus took. This book describes a life of potential and the what-if story of salvation and ministry he could have had with Jesus. This book shows that his life was not destined for destruction, but for a much greater purpose. Jesus did not pick Judas to betray him, but to be a man of God and a fisher of men. His poor decisions allowed his flesh to control him, so he never lived up to his calling. Jesus never gave up on trying to help Judas. He witnessed to him many times in word and deed to show him the truth and the error of his way.

The choices Judas made were to get the things he wanted. These decisions led him to a place he did not want to be. Because he did not have a close relationship with Jesus, he did not have the spiritual depth to stand against the temptations that faced him, nor did he have the hope to cry out to God in true repentance. Therefore, he suffered the consequences for those decisions that he will regret for eternity.

Let this book show you how Judas was deceived so that you may learn from his example and see the areas in your life that may be hindering you and the signs from God he is using to help you fulfill that plan so that your life does not conclude in failure, but in victory.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685705602

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Judas

The What-If Story of Redemption

James J. Sporleder

ISBN 978-1-68570-559-6 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68570-560-2 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by James J. Sporleder

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Deception

The Anointing

The Disciples

The Roots of Betrayal

The Gift Gone Bad

Jesus Making It Plain to Judas

The Decision

When Sin Is Finished

Sin's Comparison

The Road to Redemption

About the Author

Chapter 1

Deception

The life of Judas was not to end the way it did. God may have allowed him to die as a martyr by hanging but not from his own hand.

After two days was the feast of the Passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. (Mark 14:1 NLT)

Let's take him by craft. Other translations¹ use words such as subtlety, cunning, trickery, treacherous, underhanded, and deception. The word deception means the act of causing someone to accept as true or valid what is false or invalid.² Other terms used are trickery, deviousness, lying, fraud, scheming, cheating, and sleight of hand. Satan did this with Adam and Eve and will use whatever means possible to steal, to kill, and to destroy you. He will use the trials and tests in your life to tempt you by deception of the truth and by getting you into the flesh realm to believe what you see and act out on what you feel. Trials are not the temptation, but the avenue by which it comes.

The Pharisees were giving up on catching Jesus messing up the law, so they were going to resort to whatever means possible—legal or illegal, moral or immoral, hook or by crook. They were taking the gloves off. In his scheme to destroy Jesus, Satan was able to use the Pharisees as tools and pawns. The Pharisees were the religious leaders of the day. They were the ones the people were to look up to and follow. What happened? They had the law of God, and they should have been the ones setting the example. At one time, they were very zealous for the truth, but this is what happened. The truth became a stumbling block for them, because they ended up looking at it through their eyes and not God's. They became so blind they could not see the truth. They started to interpret the Word so they could be in right standing, making the Word conform to them instead of conforming to it. They became prideful and high-minded. They did not see they had been deceived. The Word became rigid, no room for mercy, so everyone had to follow it their way or else. For example, when Jesus healed on the Sabbath, they said, This man is not from God, because he does not keep the Sabbath. When they caught the woman in adultery, they said, Stone her. When Jesus was casting out demons, they said, He cast out demons only through Beelzebub, the ruler of demons. No matter what good Jesus did, they always found fault.

You can use the Bible and the truth in it wrong, when you start interpreting the scriptures for your own good, when you start condemning and judging instead of showing compassion, and when you have no room for mercy and grace. This drives people that are searching and are hungry for the truth from the church. The Pharisees allowed and were not willing to judge and correct themselves. They thought they were getting more mature with God. Instead, they were deceived by their truth, which is what it had become, or perverted truth, that they did not see the Truth when he was standing right in front of them—just like when a lie gets repeated enough times, it eventually becomes the truth!

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20 KJV)

There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. (2 Timothy 3:1–7 NIV)

There is a metamorphosis that takes place when someone goes from the truth to the lie like the Pharisees. The first is you become self-serving—when the truth becomes about you and not about God. You see this in religion and politics. When you combine the two, it becomes very dangerous, because power comes into play. Not only were the Pharisees the religious leaders, but they also had political influence. Do not let your influence promote your agenda. Next, you prefer to serve and please man more than God. That is not always the plan, but a process over time, because self-serving is at the heart of most decisions you make. Eventually you must navigate the self-preservation waters and do, like the Pharisees, whatever it takes to stay in power, lie, cheat, steal, and even kill.

All these occurred from the decisions they made. This went on long enough and unchecked, and they could not be stopped. No one held them accountable. If someone tried, they were disposed of, and that was the major factor in why they persecuted Jesus so much. They did not want anyone upsetting their way. The Pharisees sought after like-minded people to maintain control, and sought out unsuspecting and easily swayed people to do their dirty work.

Then the leaders tried to arrest him; but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come. (John 7:30 NLT)

At that same time the leading priests and elders were meeting at the residence of Caiaphas, the high priest, plotting how to capture Jesus secretly and kill him. (Matthew 26:3–4 NLT)

Notice the Pharisees' plan did not include Judas. Nor did Jesus need him to fulfill his destiny. Paul went to Jerusalem without being betrayed, and the Jews would have killed him if he wasn't rescued