"THE THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER" (Mt 27:1-10)

April 22, 2009

Int. Consider what the shekels could not do.

I THEY COULD NOT REDEEM CHRIST FROM DEATH.

A. CONSIDER THE DISTANCE HE TRAVELED THAT NIGHT.

1. It was over that mile lying between the house of Caiaphas to that of Pilate, they led him away, "from prison and from judgment" (see Isaiah 53:7,8), to "deliver him to the Gentiles,"

2. (Isa 53:7-8) "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. {8} He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken."

B. CONSIDER THAT OUR LORD HAD PREDICTED THIS.

1. (Mat 20:19) "And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again."

A. Family N. T. Notes: "Gentiles; the Romans, who were then the civil rulers of Judea, and who alone had authority to put an accused person to death."

2. (John 18:32) "That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die."

A. (Mat 26:56) "But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled."

3. The Churchmen of the Apostasy imitated their Jewish predecessors when they called in the civil power to shed for them the blood of the martyrs.

C. CONSIDER HOW THESE BONDS WERE IDENTIFIED.

1. (John 20:31) "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name."

A. "GO TO MY MASTER" ---By Henry Mahan

"I never had a better idea of believing in Jesus than I once heard from a poor country man. I may have mentioned this before; but it struck me very forcibly at the time, and I cannot help repeating it. Speaking about faith, he said, "The old enemy has been troubling me very much lately; but I told him that he must not say anything to me about my sins; he must go to my Master, for I had transferred the whole concern to Him, bad debts and all.

"This is believing in Jesus; believing is giving up all we have to Christ and taking all that Christ has to ourselves. It is changing houses with Christ, changing clothes with Christ, changing our unrighteousness for His righteousness, changing our sins for His merits."

2. (John 19:19) "And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS."

A. So we note that Jesus was put to death by his own countrymen in his true character as the "Son of God;" and by the Romans as "King of the Jews."

3. Consider that the true bonds which bound Jesus were those of his wondrous love to man.

3. Other bonds could not have held him. He allowed himself to be bound, that man might be loosed from the bands of sin.

A. (Prov 5:22) "His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins."

B. (Lam 1:12-14) "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. {13} From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day. {14} The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up."

c. So likewise "by his stripes we are healed." (Isa 53:5)

"See how the patient Jesus stands,

Insulted in his lowest case!

Sinners have bound the Almighty’s hands,

And spit in their Creator’s face.

With thorns his temples gor’d and gash’d

Send streams of blood from every part;

His back’s with knotted scourges lash’d.

But sharper scourges tear his heart."

II. THEY COULD NOT PURCHASE THE REPENTANCE OF THE RULERS.

A. CONSIDER HEIR QUESTION TO JUDAS. (Vr. 4)

1. "What is that to us?" (Vr. 4)

2. Judas came to them saying, (Mt 26:15) "What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?"

3. They paid the price of blood, and were determined to shed it.

4. If the elders of Jezreel, to please Jezebel, murder Naboth, is it nothing to Ahab. see (1 Kings 21:19)

a. (1 Ki 21:19) "And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine."

B. CONSIDER HOW THEY CLEARED THEMSELVES OF ANY GUILT.

1. "See thou to that." (Vr. 4)

2. Those who betray Christ, and justify themselves, are worse than Judas.

3. The wicked encourage men to crime, and desert them after its commission.

C. CONSIDER THE COLD HEARTEDNESS OF THE PRIEST AND ELDERS.

1. (Mt 27:6) "And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury."

a. And speaking of the Treasury: "The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance." ----Cicero - 55 BC

2. Some believe they had taken the money out of the treasury to pay the price of blood.

a. (Mat 23:24) "Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel."

3. They were fearful of defiling the temple with blood money, while ruthlessly defiling their consciences with innocent blood.

a. Men are often scrupulous about trifles who slack not at great crimes.

4. They would give Judas the price of innocent blood, and yet scrupled to put the returned money into the treasury (Mt 27:6)

5. They would not go into the judgment-hall, for fear of being defiled, and yet would stand at the door, and cry out against the holy Jesus (Jn 18:28);

6. They would devour widows’ houses, and yet, they did indeed swallow a camel.

III. THEY COULD NOT REDEEM JUDAS FROM PERDITION.

A. CONSIDER SOME FOOLISH SPECULATIONS ABOUT JUDAS.

1. Some think Judas was partly induced to betray his Master by the expectation that, as Messiah, he could not suffer death, and that he would deliver himself from the rulers as he had done before.

2. He might, therefore, have calculated that in this case Christ would have the honour, the Jews would have the shame, and he would have the money.

3. They are mistaken who imagine that Christ will work his miracles in the interests of selfishness.

B. CONSIDER HOW DIFFERENTLY THE SILVER APPEARED TO JUDAS BEFORE AND AFTER HIS TRANSGRESSION.

1. He "cast down" the price of the innocent blood.

2. Consider how the victim now hates the snare!

3. (Job 20:12-15) "Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue; {13} Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth: {14} Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him. {15} He hath swallowed down riches, and he shall vomit them up again: God shall cast them out of his belly."

a. Riches are consider the most powerful charm that Satan has to offer.

b. Satan has lulled many a man to sleep in the paradise of fools.

C. CONSIDER HOW JUDAS WENT FROM DELIGHT TO DESPAIR BY HIS SIN.

1. Miserable indeed is the man who must go to hell for his life of ease.

2. The repentance of Judas was that of the damned at the judgment, when mercy’s door is shut.

D. THE REPENTANCE OF JUDAS FELL SHORT OF BIBLICAL REPENTANCE.

1. (John 17:12) "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled."

a. Paul identifies the son of perdition as "The Man of Sin." (2 Thess 2:3)

2. (Acts 1:25) "That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place."

3. The repentance of Judas was a repentance which needs to be repented of (2 Cor 7:10).

1. Had Judas gone to Christ, or even to the disciples of Christ, in his distress, he might have obtained some relief.

2. Sinners under conviction of sin will find their old companions miserable comforters.

3. The devil by the help of the priests drove Judas to despair.

IV. CONSIDER WHAT THEY FINALLY DID WITH THE 30 PIECES OF SILVER.

A. THEY PURCHASED A POTTER’S FIELD.

1. A potter's field is a place for the burial of unknown or indigent people.

2. The City of New York acquired Hart Island from John Hunter and son for $75,000. During the yellow fever epidemic of 1870, the southern part housed diseased persons confined to isolation.

3. Origin of name: This burial place was so called from having been used by a potter, no doubt to dig clay for his wares.

4. Thus several villages in England have the prefix Potter, probably from part of the ground having been formerly occupied for potteries

5. There is a Pottersbury, Northamptonshire. So the field at Athens, appropriated as a cemetery for those who fell in the service of their country, was called Ceramicus, from having been formerly used for brickmaking.

6. This, of course, would make a field unfit for tillage, though good enough for a burying-ground, hence the smallness of the price."

7. Pulpit Commentary: "Gave them for the potter’s field. This part of the citation is borrowed from Jeremiah’s purchase of the field of Hanamel The Christian writer introduces a second fulfilment of the ancient word. As the Lord appointed me. This must be the equivalent of Zechariah’s "the Lord said unto me" (Zech 11:13). The destination of these wages of iniquity was foreordained. They could not be used by the Shepherd, nor stored in the temple treasury, nor kept by Judas or the priests; they were to be employed for another purpose."

CONCLUSION: Folk, despair of the mercy of God is a fatal sin. One may know his sin, repent, confess, make some restitution, and yet be like Judas!