Regret or Repent
Easter 2025 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Resurrection Sunday is really the story of 2 people.
And these 2 people beg a question: which one are you?
It would be easy to look at the two men on the crosses next to Jesus. But that is obvious.
This morning, as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, the EMPTY TOMB! The Defeat of hell and death!
We serve a RISEN Saviour AMEN!
Here in the Bible belt, there is a reality that we have to acknowledge.
It is obvious that there are people who live in our community that do not know Jesus. They don’t come to church, their lives are evident, they are lost. We know these people, and we should be motivated to fulfill the mission given by Jesus: To go and make disciples! AMEN!
But there are those who do go to church, who might be watching this video at home or where ever - who do not know Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
You can go to church your whole life - and never know Jesus. You can be around Jesus and think you know Jesus - but unless you personally ask Jesus to be your Lord and Saviour - You are not saved.
I want to tell you about someone in the Bible that fit this description:
Jesus said:
Truly I tell you, whoever receives anyone I send receives me, and the one who receives me receives him who sent me.”
When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in his spirit and testified, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.”
The disciples started looking at one another—uncertain which one he was speaking about. One of his disciples, the one Jesus loved, was reclining close beside Jesus. Simon Peter motioned to him to find out who it was he was talking about. So he leaned back against Jesus and asked him, “Lord, who is it?”
Jesus replied, “He’s the one I give the piece of bread to after I have dipped it.” When he had dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas, Simon Iscariot’s son.
He replied, “The one who dipped his hand with me in the bowl—he will betray me. The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for him if he had not been born.”
Judas, his betrayer, replied, “Surely not I, Rabbi?”
“You have said it,” he told him.
After Judas ate the piece of bread, Satan entered him. So Jesus told him, “What you’re doing, do quickly.”
Let’s look at one of the 2 people this morning.
Judas
Judas
Who was Judas?
John 13:29 “Since Judas kept the money-bag, some thought that Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the festival,” or that he should give something to the poor.”
We know Judas was the Money holder.
Between Mark 3 and Matt 10 - we know that Judas was called along with the others.
We know Judas spent 3 years with Jesus.
After Jesus was annointed at Bethany Judas made the decision to betray Jesus. - Mark 14:10-11
How much was Jesus’ life worth to Judas?
Then one of the Twelve, the man called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” So they weighed out thirty pieces of silver for him. And from that time he started looking for a good opportunity to betray him.
30 pieces of silver.
He fulfilled the prophecy of Psalm 41:9
Even my friend in whom I trusted,
one who ate my bread,
has raised his heel against me.
He led the arrest party and sealed the deal with a kiss.
SO let’s understand this:
Judas spent 3 years roughly, with Jesus. He was present for miracles. He witnessed virtually every miracle Jesus performed. He witnessed the casting out of demons.
He was present when Peter made the confession that Jesus is the Messiah.
And yet despite all of that: Judas never got it!
Instead when we read anything about Judas in the Bible, it is usually some form of disgust for the wasting of finances!
Judas was wrapped up with the things he could see, tangible things. His decisions were made with this world in mind.
But check this out: I don’t want you to think that I am being overly harsh to Judas.
See when Judas saw what his actions were leading to, he had a change of heart.
Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned, was full of remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood,” he said.
“What’s that to us?” they said. “See to it yourself!”
Judas had REGRET! His actions broke his own heart. But the actions couldn’t be changed. The Chief Priests were not going to change their minds. See actions have consequences!
Let’s Finish this out:
So he threw the silver into the temple and departed. Then he went and hanged himself.
Judas was so filled with REGRET that he ended his own life. The Book of Acts actually goes into more detail, it is rough.
But Check this out:
The chief priests took the silver and said, “It’s not permitted to put it into the temple treasury, since it is blood money.” They conferred together and bought the potter’s field with it as a burial place for foreigners. Therefore that field has been called “Field of Blood” to this day. Then what was spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him whose price was set by the Israelites, and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.
Then I said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed my wages, thirty pieces of silver.
“Throw it to the potter,” the Lord said to me—this magnificent price I was valued by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw it into the house of the Lord, to the potter.
THe PROPHECY FULFILLED! HOW? Because GOD knows all things!
For he knew who would betray him. This is why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
God KNOWS all things!
Jesus KNEW Judas was going to betray Him!
Judas had every chance to NOT betray Jesus! But he did!
Now this man acquired a field with his unrighteous wages. He fell headfirst, his body burst open and his intestines spilled out. This became known to all the residents of Jerusalem, so that in their own language that field is called Hakeldama (that is, Field of Blood).
Judas hanged himself and his body eventually fell into the field purchased with the money he was given - the potters field - the field of blood!
Judas’ story ends with graphic detail - and serves to remind us that little sins can lead us down a nasty road.
It also tells us that being FAMILIAR with Jesus is not enough! Don’t stop short! Understand that Jesus is not just a great friend, HE IS THE SAVIOR!
Now let’s look at the other person:
Peter
Peter
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
You are the Messiah!
Jesus asks a simple question: WHO do YOU say I am?
Peter makes the CONFESSION - YOU ARE MY SAVIOUR!
Peter is regularly pictured as the leader among the Disciples. He was SUPER CLOSE - INNER CIRCLE close to Jesus. Got the front row seat. And all of that led to Peter knowing to his core whom Jesus IS!
Now does this mean that Peter was perfect?
Absolutley not!
As a matter of fact:
Jesus replied, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly I tell you, a rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times.
And it happened!
They seized him, led him away, and brought him into the high priest’s house. Meanwhile Peter was following at a distance. They lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, and Peter sat among them. When a servant saw him sitting in the light, and looked closely at him, she said, “This man was with him too.”
But he denied it: “Woman, I don’t know him.”
After a little while, someone else saw him and said, “You’re one of them too.”
“Man, I am not!” Peter said.
About an hour later, another kept insisting, “This man was certainly with him, since he’s also a Galilean.”
But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Immediately, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. Then the Lord turned and looked at Peter. So Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.
Wept - to cry freely and profusely from sadness and distress
bittlery - expressing great anguish, resentfulness and pain
same image of Jesus weeping
Same hurt as GOD in Genesis 5 when God said He was DEEPLY grieved!
It is to the core!
And how does this story end for Peter -
Restoration!
3 times - Peter commissioned!
Regret or Repent
Regret or Repent
Look - is it possible that Judas repented and made it into heaven? YES! It is possible.
I won’t say that it is not possible - but the odds are not in Judas’ favor!
REGRET can lead you down dark roads to bad decisions!
But look at Peter!
Repent - to turn away from SIN and toward JESUS!
For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
MAKE THE DECISION!
