Editor’s Note: The AMI QT devotionals from Jan. 1-15 are provided by Pastor Ryun Chang (Ph.D.) who is the AMI Teaching Pastor. He and Insil have been married for 28+ years and they have three children: Christy (teacher), Joshua (grad student) and Justin (college freshman). They live in Philadelphia.
Devotional Thoughts for Today
Acts 1:15-6
In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16 and said, “Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus. 17 He was one of our number and shared in our ministry.”
Matt. 26:14-6: Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests 15 and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. 16 From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.
The TV show 48 Hours deals with murders involving middle-class Americans who have good jobs and live in nice houses. Viewing just a few episodes is all it would take to notice two repetitive themes regarding whodunit and why. As to who, likely your spouse; as to why, money! In one episode, a young professional with an M.B.A. kills his beautiful wife, even shooting himself 4 times to make the police believe that it was a robbery gone bad. But once the police discovered the $2 million life insurance on the wife, they had the motive to go with his inconsistent testimony.
So, why did Judas really betray Jesus? Some say that Judas the revolutionary hoped that Jesus would use his incredible power to drive out the Romans from the Holy Land. How disappointed Judas must have been when “Jesus, knowing that [the Jews] intended to . . . make him king by force, withdrew . . . to a mountain” (Jn. 6:15). So, the frustrated Judas tried to force Jesus’ hand by getting him to react so that it would begin a chain reaction to overthrow the Romans.
The Bible, however, gives a simpler reason why Judas “served as guide for those who arrested Jesus”: greed. After all, Judas said to Jesus’ enemy, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you.” By all account, “thirty pieces of silver” was a large sum of money then (as much as $15,000 today). An older John, recalling the events that occurred some 50 years earlier, wrote, “. . . [Judas] was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it” (Jn. 12:6). In other words, betraying Jesus for a small fortune was too good of an opportunity for this small-time thief to pass up.
One Korean proverb says, “A needle robber will become a cow robber.” The story of Judas, as well as many episodes of 48 Hours, is a powerful reminder to cut the cord to our greed before it begins to control us. Some suggestions: first, don’t take what’s not yours; second, be generous; and third, tithe, which is one effective way to rein in your appetite for more.
Prayer
Father, I’m so amazed by how Your Son Christ dealt with Judas until the very end. It encourages me to no end, seeing that Christ loved his betrayer, even calling him friend. I know that You have done the same for me. So help me to be more generous toward your work. Amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Genesis 8
Lunch Break Study
Read John 12:3-6: 3 Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
1 Tim. 6:10: For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
James 1:14-5: but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Question to Consider
- What is a root of all kinds of evil: money or the love of money? Why is this distinction important?
- How does greed work? How does a needle robber grow to be someone who steals cows?
- Recently, God laid on my heart to send a check to someone to encourage that person; but I hesitated. Then a close relative sent me a check as a gift and that amount was larger than what I planned to give. What would you do in that situation and why?
Notes
- Money itself is not the root of all evil but the love of money is. It is an important distinction because there is nothing wrong with trying to make money as long as it is done ethnically and without neglecting important responsibilities of life. Without money we cannot pay our bills, buy needed things, or support missionaries. But when we love it, we hoard it, becoming stingy and preoccupied with making more, which means little or no time for other things like doing God’s work.
- The component to greed that can turn into a lethal weapon is the feeling that no matter how much you have, you always feel like you don’t have enough. That feeling, given time, grows to become a force of its own and motivation behind all kinds of evil, such as impulsive investments, cutthroat business practices, and according to 48 Hours, even murder.
- I sent out the check right away after receiving the gift from my relative. The reason: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). A lesson learned: what God gives you is more than what you give back to Him or others in need (Mal. 3:6-12).
Evening Reflection
Since we aren’t living in an Islamic or communist state, we aren’t likely to face a situation where we have to choose between death or denying Jesus; but instead, our denial of Jesus is more subtle. Perhaps only you and God know what really happened. What are these ways? Did it happen today? What makes us such weak witnesses? How can we be more bold and authentic witnesses for God? Reflect. Pray. Change.
When I told my father, who was not even a churchgoer at the time, of my desire to enter the ministry, he was relieved, hoping that perhaps my partying days were over. On the other hand, the parents of my seminary roommate “Daniel,” who were good Christians by all accounts, weren’t happy when their MIT-attending son, whom they hoped would become a physician, told them the same. So to calm their displeasure, Daniel applied to several medical schools and prayed that none would accept him; God obliged, and that’s how he ended up in seminary.
This past December, I got to see an NBA game between San Antonio Spurs, a five-time champion, and Philadelphia 76ers, the league’s worst. Predictably, the game got of control fast and the Spurs won by 51 points!
Upon examining each roster, Jesus’ disciples would be more like the overmatched 76ers than the Spurs. It is said that, besides a handful of Philadelphia players with raw potential, the rest don’t belong in the league. And that’s who the disciples were. Being described by their detractors as “unschooled [and] ordinary” (Acts 4:5, 13) was merely scratching the surface. The disciples were initially divided not only from the rest of society but even among themselves. Simon belonged to a militant group called Zealots who violently opposed the Romans and those who worked for them, like tax collectors, among whom Matthew was one. The disciples’ favorite pastime was arguing about “who was the greatest” (Mk. 9:34); once, John and James sought to kill an inhospitable Samaritan (Lk. 9:51-5).
No one extolled the virtue of city life better than erstwhile Harvard professor Harvey Cox, who argued in his seminal work Secular City (1965) that modern city life is preferable over rural (traditional) life. Cox liked that in the city, “relationships are founded on free selection and common interest,” giving people a “wider range of alternatives,” unlike in rural life, where relationships are preset and any newcomer was held in suspicion unless one knew “where they came from and whether their family was any good.” Undoubtedly, he would prefer Sex and the City over The Waltons, a popular TV show in the 1970s featuring a large rural family.
My uncle had always been a man of bravado but not that day: he spoke slowly in a low voice following a grueling surgery to treat his cancer. A man of substantial wealth, he was living at a nice condominium during the treatment, but it paled in comparison to his house, a mansion. In fact, I had stayed at this sprawling property the night before while in town. As I was leaving, my uncle said, “Whenever you are in town, please stay at my house; in fact, it’s open for any Lord’s servant; I want my house to be used for the Lord’s work.”
Most evangelicals probably no longer care what Rob Bell has to say after he questioned the existence of hell in Love Wins (and later declaring, “Smile, there is no hell” ), but at one time he had their ears. Calling evangelical theology, “Evacuation theology,” he said, “Figure out the ticket, say the right prayer, get the right formula, and then we’ll go somewhere else.” That, he said, was “lethal to Jesus, who endlessly speaks of the renewal of all things.”
In effect, Bell points out: “Don’t be so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly good”. In a symbolic manner, this is exactly what the men of Galilee gathered at the Mt. Olive were doing: “Looking intently up into the sky as [Jesus] was going.” You can hardly blame them for being glued to what was a spectacular scene, but they must have stared too long. The angels were dispatched and after tapping their heads, they said, “Why do you stand here looking into the sky?” Reading between the lines, you could almost hear the angels shout, “Stop staring and get to work.”
A recent Mexican Coca-Cola ad produced a storm of controversy because of its insensitivity toward indigenous people. The commercial begins with sad natives “mop[ing] around a hillside feeling rejected by society. Then a group of young white hipsters turn up to save them, with the aid of coolers full of Coke and a Christmas tree. . . . The indigenous people can only smile in wondering gratitude.”
Over the years, conservative Christians have rightfully called out liberal scholars for holding to a low view of Scripture that results in the denial of important Christian doctrines, such as Virgin birth and resurrection of Christ. But those who say they believe the Bible aren’t entirely guilt-free for doing the opposite. Despite being told, “Do not go beyond what is written” (1 Cor. 4:6), that is exactly what some do, especially regarding the time of Christ’s second coming. Even though Jesus disprivileged himself by choosing to be agnostic about it, and reminded the disciples, just before his ascension, that “it is not for [us] to know the times or dates the Father has set,” there has been no shortage of people who do just that: setting the date of his return.
A pastor’s worst nightmare is being told how ineffective his sermon is, and that’s what recently happened to a pastor to whom this college sophomore said, “I’ve gotten nothing out of your sermons.” To him, the problem lies squarely with the pastor’s alleged inability to preach or teach well; but that may not necessarily be the case.
Once, a theology professor and former academic dean of a Reformed seminary, who used attend my church, said to me, “There is no spiritual power in the seminaries.” So, there might be some truth to people jokingly mispronouncing “seminary” as “cemetery.” But behind the humor lies good reason: first, since the Bible is treated as a textbook to be studied in dry academic fashion, it begins to lose its luster as a sacred book “sent” from above; second, seminarians “forget” to pray while juggling a demanding course load, church responsibility and perhaps even a part-time job; third, some seminaries are so hell-bent on imposing their particular brand of systematic theology, that those students who believe it begin to disdain others who don’t. That’s being carnal, not spiritual (1 Cor. 3:1-4).