Summary: Sunday Evening Evangelistic Message #51 | Passion Week 2012 (#4) <br><br> Today is the fourth day of Passion Week. This day is called "Dark Wednesday" because it is the day when Judas Iscariot went to the High Priests and agreed to betray Jesus Christ to them for 30 pieces of silver. Now, the story involving the betrayal of Jesus Christ actually spans three days -- Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday -- so we will be dealing with the whole Judas scenario in this one message as we have four more days to go and four more messages to cover in our series titled "The Most Exciting and Eventful Week in History". Our message for today is titled "Jesus, Judas, and You." <br><br> By way of introduction, the name Judas is the Greek form of the Hebrew word "Judah" meaning praise. Most scholars agree that Judas' surname, Iscariot, means "a man of Kerioth." Kerioth was a town in Southern Judea. Thus, Judas would have been the only non-Galilean among Jesus' disciples -- he was the outsider of the group. However, we must still remember that Jesus chose Judas to be his disciple. <br><br> Most Bible scholars agree that the reason why Judas decided to betray Jesus was for money. But whatever the case, the Bible says in Matthew 26:14-16: "Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him." <br><br> That opportunity to betray Jesus Christ came on either the next night, Thursday night, or early Friday morning before dawn. Judas led the priests and Temple guards to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was praying and had Jesus arrested. <br><br> Sometime on Friday, either during Jesus' trial or while he was hanging on the cross, Judas began to feel guilty about what he had done. The Bible says in Matthew 27:3-5: "Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself." <br><br> Judas goes back to the chief priests, throws the money down in the Temple, admits his sin, declares that Jesus Christ is innocent. Then he leaves and hangs himself. <br><br> + Plus, listen to the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir singing "Resurrection Power" and Chris Tomlin singing "Amazing Grace"
