I. Early opportunity. Called to be an apostle. Sharing, too, in the prayers of Christ (Luk_6:12-13). His gifts marked him out for certain work. That work fell to his lot. Possibilities of such a calling.
II. Growth of evil (Joh_6:64-71; Joh_12:1-6).
III. The price of a soul (Joh_13:1-38.; Mat_26:14-16).
IV. The end (Joh_18:2-5; Mat_27:3-5; Act_1:18; Act_1:25, with Mat_27:5). The sentence of the Master upon his life and his work is this, “It were better for this man that he had never been born. (G. T. Kerble.)
A wicked minister
Let us adore the unsearchable judgment of God, in the choice of a wicked minister, whose unworthiness He knew. Let us learn from hence that no merit gives a right to the ministry, but the sole choice of God alone. Jesus Christ would not put saints into it, to oblige us not to judge of the holiness of the Church by certain of her ministers. He would not put into it any of the rich, noble, powerful, or learned, for fear lest men should affix ecclesiastical dignities to temporal advantages. Let us bear with the bad patiently; let us adore Jesus Christ and His authority degraded in them, yet without the virtue of His ordinances thereby suffering anything; and herein let us be assured that it is Jesus Christ who effects all in them, even by the most unworthy workmen. (Quesuel.)
