Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] John, chapter 13, verses 18 through 30 is where we will be. And if you have your Bibles there with you, hopefully you look a little bit before what's going on there. We looked at Jesus last week. Pastor Les walked us through chapter the first part of chapter 13, and Jesus washing the feet of his disciples was the text there that we walked through. And then today we'll start in verse 18, kind of the tail end of you just wash their feet and look at what happens after that.
[00:00:36] So you know this, I know this. Everywhere, people, and regardless of what culture you are in, people are trying to predict the future.
[00:00:48] In other countries, in other cultures, you might find witch doctors who are trying to predict the future of particular people. In a village, you might find psychics around who try to tell you your future and read your poems or whatever they do. There's people that look to make lots and lots of money off predicting the future. In the stock market, if you knew the future, how much money you could make there, you might go to the doctor's office and they look at what's going on with your body and they say, well, if you continue doing this and they do some level of predicting the future based on your actions now, and then there's, you know, there's other jobs that strive to predict the future that even if they don't do a great job of that they keep their jobs like newscasters. They can try to predict the future and try and try, and it doesn't always work out. But predicting the future is something that can be pretty, pretty incredible, particularly if it's specific predictions, general predictions. No one would really be significantly surprised if you got that right. But specific predictions can be pretty amazing if they happen, especially if your predictions are something far out in the future. For example, if I gave some prediction, let's say about, I don't know, just not pick on any of you here. So let's pick on my son. Let's say that I say from today, in 20 years, he is going to meet his wife. They're gonna meet at a coffee shop on Main street and they're going to date for three and a half years. And then after that they'll be engaged for two months and then they will get married.
[00:02:33] And they're gonna get married at a particular location at 4 o'clock and the ceremony will last exactly 17 minutes. And then two and a half years later, they're gonna have their first kid and they'll name him Silas, and that's my other son's name. And then after that and if I went on, you might go, okay, well either he has a time machine or he's just making this up. You also might be interested to go to wait 20 years and see what actually happens. Predicting the future is kind of an interesting thing as we try that today. But as we look at God's word, we see that predictions, or as we call them, particularly when prophets make them, we call them prophecies when they come to pass, it can be pretty incredible. Especially when those prophecies or predictions were made not about something that happened the next day or even the next year, but years into the future. And so today we look at one account that happens in Jesus life in the last week of his life, particularly the last 24 hours of his life. And one apologist named Josh McDowell says there's about 20 to 30 prophecies or predictions that are spoken of Jesus, particularly 500 to 1,000 years before Jesus, that came true about Jesus in a 24 hour period of time. So imagine 1000 years to 500 years before Jesus, 20 to 30 prophecies about what's going to happen in, in 24 hour period of time, they all come true. It's seemingly and statistically impossible. But Jesus does the impossible, doesn't he?
[00:04:17] One of these predictions in the life of Jesus is that he would be betrayed by not just anybody, but by a friend. And so in our passage today, we find Jesus sharing a meal, which culturally is very significant, much more significant than any sharing of meals that we do today. But sharing a meal for them is one of camaraderie, it's one of friendship, it's one of trust. Sharing a meal with someone who is going to betray him. And not just someone that he's sharing a meal with, but someone he's been traveling with for years, he's been doing ministry with for years. This is someone that is close to him.
[00:04:57] It also, because it's Jesus and it's been predicted and Jesus knows the Scriptures is no surprise to Jesus. Let's read the passage together starting in verse 18 and then we'll pray and continue on.
[00:05:09] Jesus has washed their feet. He promises in verse 17 he says that if you follow these things that I just demonstrated, that is a sacrificial kind of love. He says, if you know these things, if you know these things, verse 17 says, Blessed are you if you do them. And then he says in verse 18 where we'll pick up here, he says, I'm not speaking of all of you, I know whom I have chosen. He's specifically talking about not just salvation, but about his disciples, who he's going to be faithful to him. But the Scripture will be what fulfilled, that is, prophecy or predictions will come true in my life. Here. He who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me. I am telling you this now before it takes place, that when it does take place, you may believe that I am he. Remember, that's the purpose of why John's writing this Gospel. Because he wants people to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of who, God.
[00:06:09] Verse 20 says, Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever receives the one I send receives me. And whoever receives me receives the one whom I send. And then Jesus says, after saying these things, after saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit. It says in verse 21. And again he says, truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will what?
[00:06:31] Betray me? And that's what he's going to lean into here in these next verses. The disciples, those sitting at the table, looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. One of his disciples, whom he loved, was reclining at the table at Jesus side. So Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, lord, who is it? Jesus answered, it is he whom I give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it. When he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to who? Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then, after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered him.
[00:07:20] Jesus said to him, what you are going to do, do it quickly now. No one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that it was because Judas had the money bag. Jesus was telling him, go buy whatever we need for the feast, or that he should buy something for the poor or give something to the poor. Verse 30. So after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it well, Lord Jesus, as we come before you this morning, we've sung songs reminding ourselves this morning of your grace and of your forgiveness for us. That we can stand redeemed, we can stand forgiven before you. No matter what burdens, no matter what weight, no matter what things have happened in our life this week. We can come before you this morning with our head lifted high. Not because of our own work, but because of your work.
[00:08:11] And so, as we spend time in your word this morning, I pray that you would keep our heart reminded of our place before you as sons and daughters of you. For those of you here today who have trusted in you as their Lord and Savior. For those here Today, maybe. Who haven't? Lord, I pray that you would open hearts and minds to see the beauty that you have, that you possess, and that you desire to be known to all in this world.
[00:08:37] As we look through this passage, this hard passage about betrayal, about love, about sacrifice, move our hearts to see your incredible love in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:08:50] Well, we see here today that there is a betrayer. And this betrayer's name is what?
[00:08:57] And we're going to see later on. This is just the beginning of this story. Later on, Judas is actually going to persist in the act of betraying Jesus, of handing him over to the guards to have him taken into custody. But Judas, as such a significant person in this text and a name that we often avoid in naming our kids. I mean, how many of you know somebody named Judas?
[00:09:24] Do you know what Judas means in Hebrew?
[00:09:28] It doesn't mean betrayer.
[00:09:31] It means praise.
[00:09:36] You're like, what?
[00:09:38] That doesn't make sense. It seems like such a terrible name, Judas, because of what he did here. Now Judas is remembered as someone who betrayed Jesus. And the name Judas now is not one that is common. Though in the time of Jesus, it was very common. So much so that Jesus had a brother named Judas.
[00:09:58] So it's not some terrible name. It was a common name. There was another disciple named Judas as well. It was so common that Even of the 12 disciples, there was two of them named Judas Judas Iscariot. Though the one we're looking at today is always listed last when we see the list of the disciples. And it's always when referencing the other Judas, it clarifies. Oftentimes the. The writer clarifies Judas, who was not Iscariot. Just to clarify, and I'm sure Judas, the other Judas, appreciated that. Thank you for clarifying that. I'm not the one who betrayed our Lord and Savior. This Judas, Judas Iscariot, was key in redemptive history, even though his terrible act of betrayal left him with so much guilt, one of which he did not repent of, an action he did not repent of, but rather that he ended up taking his own life because of the weight of guilt that was upon him. Today he is remembered as, you know, as a hypocrite, a terrible representation of what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus. I think it's valuable for us to look again at his heart for just a moment. I put this on the screen. We find before this account, we find in Luke's Gospel that Judas was already working with the religious leaders to sell Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave. That's what they were willing to sell Jesus. He was willing to sell Jesus for John. Chapter 13, verse 2. Earlier on, in the text that we're looking at, or in the chapter we're looking at, we see that the devil had already put it on Judas heart to betray Jesus. Jesus knew this. The other disciples did not know this. Judas must have known that Jesus knew his heart. How could he not? He's walked with him for three years. He's watched him do incredible ministry, drive out demons, heal the lame, tell people things about them that they even did not know. He must have known that Jesus knew something was going on inside of the heart of Judas. And yet what we don't see from Jesus is Jesus pushing Judas away. But we see, particularly at this dinner, that Jesus leans in Jesus heart.
[00:12:09] On the screen here as well, we find this that Jesus, knowing full well the betrayal was coming, did not pull away from Judas, but rather he showed his love and his care towards him. This upcoming betrayal hurt Jesus incredibly. Obviously, Judas was someone he traveled with for years, but he did not allow his pain to keep him from obeying what God had called him to do. So let's start into this text. In verse 18, you could write this in point one on your outline we see this about the betrayer.
[00:12:43] It was prophesied. The betrayal was prophesied. Jesus knew this was going to happen. Verse 18. We read this earlier not speaking of all of you. That is blessing upon all of you, because not all of you actually are going to stick with me. But rather he says this, the scripture will be fulfilled. He who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me. Now Jesus is quoting a passage from Psalm chapter 41, verse 9. You could write that in. It's at the bottom of your bulletin as well.
[00:13:16] But Jesus, he references this passage. Notice there's a difference between what Jesus says though and what he's quoting from Psalm 41. Look at what it says, Psalm 41 on the screen. It says this. Even my close friend in whom I have trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. Notice what Jesus doesn't say in John, chapter 13, verse 19 there. He doesn't say whom I have trusted. Jesus did not entrust himself to Judas. He knew all along this was going to happen. But we see though that he does share this meal with him.
[00:13:55] This written by David in the book of Psalm, probably referencing the betrayal that he experienced of close friends, most likely even as he was king and his son Absalom was trying to take over the kingdom. And we have David coming along and saying something like this. You, friends, advisors, people who sat at the table with me are now willing to go after my son and let my son Absalom be king instead. Why would you do this? He felt betrayed. David did, by his friends. They had a sense, it had a sense of this treacherous, unexpected attack, taking cruel advantage of someone. I'm sharing a meal with you and now you're cutting me to the heart.
[00:14:38] Jesus knew also he says this in chapter 17 as well, that this would happen. Psalm 55 speaks of prophecy about Jesus knowing that a friend would betray him. Zechariah, chapter 11, verses 12 and 13 talks about how Jesus, 500 years prior Zechariah writes about betrayal happening for how many pieces of silver, 30 pieces of silver years, hundreds of years before Jesus? What's the point? Judas was not a surprise to Jesus.
[00:15:10] Jesus authority and plan have not been undermined by Judas, but rather supported by Jesus.
[00:15:18] Jesus wants his followers to know this, and he says this. Look at what it says in verse 19. You can go back to that previous slide by realizing this, by seeing that this would come to pass. He said more people would come to realize that he is God. Notice what it says there. And when it does take place, the betrayal takes place. You may believe that I am. Am he.
[00:15:42] It's so important, friends, that the disciples be told that Jesus is not the victim in the account of the betrayal, the arrest, the beatings, and ultimately his death. It'd be so easy of them to assume that since something bad happened, Jesus didn't know about it or it was outside of his control. But that's not the case with Jesus. For most of us, if we know something bad is going to happen or something hurtful is going to happen, we lean into it.
[00:16:13] No, we usually go the other direction. That's going to hurt. They're going to say something rude. I don't like that, I'm afraid. Whatever it may be, we usually step away from those situations. And Jesus doesn't do that. He steps in and says, this needs to happen.
[00:16:28] This needs to happen. Jesus is telling his disciples this is a reminder that no matter how bad things may seem, God is calling us to continue to obey. Look at verse 20, which seems to, like, not fit here, but I think it really does. Look at verse 20 with me. It says, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I, the one I send receives me. And whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. This is commissioning language, but it doesn't seem to fit with the betrayal. I think the point is the same. Jesus is still in control no matter what. Even though it seems like your friends are walking away, even though it seems like betrayal is still happening, Jesus is saying, this is not going to be the end of me. It seems like. And it will seem like, because I'll be arrested, I'll go to trial, I'll be killed. It will seem like this is the end. All the commissioning language that I gave you before. Go and preach the gospel. Go and preach the gospel. But now he's dead, so maybe it wasn't worth it. Maybe he didn't know it was going to happen. Jesus reminds them, no, the commission remains the same. Even in light of hardship. We see something else. We go on to point two. You can write this in. Not only was the betrayal prophesied that we know it was going to happen, but the betrayal was announced by Jesus. He didn't hide this particularly from his disciples. He says, I'm going to be betrayed. Look, verse 21, with me. After saying these things, he references prophecy. He references Old Testament text. After saying these things, it says that Jesus was troubled or restless. Agitated is the word. We see this in chapter 12, verse 27 as well, when he talks about his coming crucifixion. And then he testifies, truly, truly, I say to you, not just somebody out there is going to betray me. What does he say? One of you, one of you sharing a meal with me right now is going to betray me. Now, this would have grabbed everybody's attention because Jesus has said many things over the course of 33 years, and they sometimes would have listened on and go, okay, Jesus, I don't really understand that, but we'll just kind of nod. Have you ever done that before? I don't really understand that, but we'll just kind of nod. I'm sure the disciples, when he says, you know someone? He says earlier on that someone's going to betray him. Okay?
[00:18:55] And then he looks agitated, he looks troubled. They're sitting and sharing a meal with him. They've eaten with Jesus many times. They could probably see this on his face.
[00:19:05] And he says, probably with angst in his voice, I tell you the truth, one of you in this room will betray me. With a serious look. They realize as they're listening to Jesus, this is not some strange parable or some metaphor. This is real. This is about us.
[00:19:33] Clear language here. Jesus knew the betrayal was coming, but it doesn't mean that it didn't impact him. He knew it was gonna happen. But it doesn't mean he had no emotions around us, around it for us. Before we go to point three, consider this. Jesus knows that you and I are going to mess up. Do you know that? He knows tomorrow and the next day and the next year and five years from now and ten years from now. He knows what you're gonna do and what I'm gonna do. That's not the right thing. And is he just like, eh, it doesn't really matter.
[00:20:05] It probably hurts. He sees someone that he loves walking away from him willingly. Jesus knows that we'll do things that make him out to be either our sidekick or not out to be our savior. He knows that will happen with us. And yet he doesn't step away. But he leans in and he says, I still love you.
[00:20:25] He doesn't pull back. Just like with Judas here, he doesn't pull back. Look at point three with me. He announces this and then everybody else shocked in the room. The betrayer though, is still unknown. You can write that in. The betrayer is unknown.
[00:20:42] They don't know who is this person. Look at the disciples reaction here. The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. How many of you have played Clue before?
[00:20:53] Okay, like you wonder who done it kind of thing. You know something bad happened or you know that something bad happened to them. And the process, the game is figuring out who, who did it, who was the one who did that. In this situation you see not just a game, you see something very serious. Jesus isn't saying something in a parable or in a metaphor. He's saying somebody here who I've journeyed with for years, somebody here is going to betray me. So some of you have seen the famous art stuff about the Last Supper when they're all sitting at some big old banquet table, right? And Jesus is sitting right in the middle. And then you have all the disciples on the side. Have you guys seen that picture? Some famous picture that somebody painted?
[00:21:39] So that's wrong actually. The table would have been a U shape and they would have sat around the table all being able to mostly look at each other. They would not have been at one straight table like that. The table would have been raised slightly off of the ground and there would have been some cushions around the table. And so if I'm on one side of the table, it would have been a portion here. Some people sitting here, some people sitting across this direction and some other people sitting this way. So they would have been able to look at one another. Are you with me here look at one another. They would have been propped up on their left shoulder, on their left arm, and then been eating with their right hand. And their legs would have been out to the beside them or behind them as they're eating, which seems kind of awkward. Doesn't worked for them. And I'm still happy that we have raised tables and chairs. And then what would have happened is the person in this case Jesus as the honored guest, the most significant person there in the room, would have been in a place of honor. And then other people would have desired to be next to him, which makes sense, right? We still do this today. Hey, this is the popular person. I want to sit next to them. Jesus would next. And we see here in this text that John and Judas. John isn't named. He says that he's the disciple who Jesus loved.
[00:22:55] John next to him likely at his right side here, and Judas at the other side. Which seems also strange, being that Judas is his betrayer, sitting in a place of honor. The way he would have got there was by Jesus request.
[00:23:11] He doesn't just accidentally end up there. Jesus especially, remember hundreds of years prior, he just quoted this, says he's going to share bread with somebody who's going to betray him. If the person was sitting way over there, it's kind of challenging to do that, isn't it?
[00:23:27] So Judas was sitting next to Jesus as planned by God hundreds of years prior. And here Jesus is, he goes to sit at the table. Then he gets up, he washes the feet, which we heard about. He goes back to situation. John is there, Judas is next to him. And then we have what we're reading here. The disciples there looking at one another, which they could do as they glance around, uncertain of what's going on. Now, who could it be? Then one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, as we see, was reclining at the table at Jesus side over here, most likely to the right side. And so Simon Peter, who by the way is not next to Jesus, has to ask John to intercede to Jesus on his behalf. And so he asks John, ask Jesus, who is he talking about? Because we're all wondering here. This is a big question that everybody has at the table. As all 13 of them sit around this table. Only one knows the answer to this in John. He leans over to Jesus because he's sitting next to him. They're probably leaning up next to each other, probably just turns his head and asks Jesus, most likely in a whisper.
[00:24:36] And what does he ask, Lord, who is it? Who could this be?
[00:24:44] No one knows So a couple things I want to just draw out from here before we look on. I love that John and you might have seen this in other places. Well, this is the first time that John, the author of the Gospel of John, references himself as the disciple who Jesus loved. There's three other times after this. This is the first time that John does this. And what is so great about this is that John realizes, and I think you and I need to as well today realizes this is our primary identity before Jesus. You and I are people who Jesus loves.
[00:25:16] No matter what other things might be said about us, this is our primary identity of which we must hold tightly to John. Could say it was John, Jesus best buddy, but he doesn't say that. He doesn't say this is John, the guy who got to sit on Jesus right side. He doesn't say that either, but rather the disciple who Jesus loved. Did Jesus love the other disciples? Yes, yes he did. But we must as followers of Jesus today realize our primary identity is one who is loved by Jesus before anything else. And this is a real struggle for us Christians, isn't it? We have a lot of other voices that tell us other things about our identity. But this identity is the most important one that we must hold to tightly.
[00:26:02] Now why did they not know? Notice what didn't happen here? It wasn't one of you is going to betray me. Jesus says. And everybody turns and looks at Judas. That doesn't happen.
[00:26:16] Judas is sitting in a place of honor next to Jesus and no one suspects him. Even after Jesus says this, he dips some food in, he feeds it to. I'm jumping ahead of myself here. But he leaves. Their assumption still isn't it was Judas.
[00:26:32] What does this tell us? We'll say answer this question here before we look at point four is it can be hard to know people's hearts. We can make assumptions we don't know. And this is clear, they did not know. And it's wise as we see here for them to ask these questions. I love what one of the other gospels says this, the other disciples, they even asked this question, is it me?
[00:26:58] They thought the other disciples did it might be me. They thought this betrayal of Jesus might be unintentional. Because who in their right minds traveling with Jesus for the last three years, having seen everything that all of them have just seen, who in their right mind would betray Jesus?
[00:27:16] So they think, well maybe, maybe it's an accident, maybe we don't intend to.
[00:27:22] But Jesus indicates. Now point four, Jesus indicates this betrayer. Look what it says Jesus answered him. It is he to whom I give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it. Now, that seems like a pretty clear indication, isn't it?
[00:27:35] Now, most likely, as we look at this in context, this could have been something that Jesus just answered John with. John again, he's sitting right next to Jesus. Jesus could have said this. Not very loudly in this room with other people in it. So the others might not have heard what Jesus said to John. We don't know that. But we see here that the others don't seem to pick up on this until at least after the fact. Maybe John shares what Jesus says with them. So you see what happens here. Then Jesus does what? So he dips this bread into this morsel and he gives it to Judas.
[00:28:08] Jesus identifies this betrayer to John. But notice what John also doesn't do. Oh, it's Judas.
[00:28:16] I didn't know that. Oh, my. Thanks Jesus for letting me know. Most likely, Jesus says this. He dips this. He gives it. And then John's probably thinking, is this another metaphor? I don't understand this.
[00:28:29] Now, before we give John too much of a hard time, we do the same thing. Jesus tells us something really clearly and we're like, that doesn't make sense. Like, I'm not gonna. Okay, I'm just not going to do anything to that. He's like, okay, go and. Go and preach the gospel.
[00:28:48] I don't know. That seems strange. I'm not good with that. Go and love your enemies.
[00:28:55] Well, that's nice for other people.
[00:28:58] We have a tendency to take the things that Jesus say. And if it doesn't fit, the things that we are already thinking are already in line with that fitness. Our presuppositions about what we understand or want to believe, we have a tendency to sidestep it, but put it over here and say, maybe for somebody else. Or that doesn't make sense. Or maybe Jesus meant something else. Maybe Jesus didn't mean what he said here. Jesus meant what he said.5. You could write this in. The betrayer is now commissioned.
[00:29:29] Then, after he had taken this morsel, we see something that we don't see in other places in scripture, something that grabs all of our attention.
[00:29:41] After he has received this bread, Jesus has reached over. He's dipped it with his right hand. He's dipped it into probably something like a hummus or nuts mixed up with maybe olive oil or something dipped in. You have handed this to Judas, something that you do with a close friend. You share food with them.
[00:29:59] Now we do this with like adults and kids. Like a kid, a parent might scoop up some food and hand it to a kid. Right? I do that with my kids. Maybe you've done that with your kids as well. It's strange for adults to do that with other adults unless it's their wedding day and a cake. Usually we're not feeding somebody else in this culture. It's a way of demonstrating intimacy and closeness to somebody else. I trust you. I'm with you. You're with me.
[00:30:23] So Jesus does this respectful, kind, loving act of giving Judas this food. And after he had taken it, not something wonderful occurs, but something terrifying.
[00:30:36] What does it say? Satan entered into him. Wow.
[00:30:43] Wow. Satan has already been influencing his heart. You know that. We can see that from context from earlier on, but now we see that Satan has entered into him. It's important to remember, friends, this, that Satan is not like God. He's not able to be everywhere all the time, but rather he is in one space at one time and can be contained if God wants him to, which we see this in revelation, don't we? He's going to be contained. Throughout Jesus ministry we find Satan's, as many believe, minions, if you will, his demons indwelling someone or overtaking their body. Though here we don't see a demon entering Judas, but rather who Satan himself.
[00:31:28] It's almost like, and I don't know this, but it's almost like Satan wasn't going to entrust the job of making sure Jesus be put to death to a demon. He was going to make sure it happened himself. This is key for him. I want to see Jesus, the son of God gone. He knows the power of Jesus now. Although God is sovereignly orchestrating all the events of this betrayal, Judas remains morally responsible for this vile and horrifying act.
[00:32:01] Satan could not have entered into him if he had not granted him this level of permission.
[00:32:08] Had he been willing to say no at the beginning, all of his master's intercessory prayers was inevitable to impact his life. But rather we see here that Judas for a long time has been resisting trusting in Jesus. We see that he was regularly stealing from Jesus, not sacrificing to Jesus. We see a little while ago, early in chapter 12, that Judas, he was upset when Jesus feet were washed. He said, couldn't have this been used for something else? You see, his mind is not how can I honor Jesus, but how can I get from Jesus? What can I gain from this relationship? And then we have the triumphal entry. Maybe Judas is thinking, oh, this is going to be great. Maybe he's finally going to take the throne. And then what happened right before this? Jesus lowers himself to the lowest of the servants in the household and washes their feet. And Judas perhaps thinking to himself, forget this, I'm not going to follow some foot washing, master, I'm done with this guy.
[00:33:13] And now we see the time has come for Jesus to be betrayed very soon. So Judas, what happens here? Jesus says to him, go. What you're going to do? Jesus already knows what's going to happen. Do it quickly. Jesus knows the time has come and he's not delaying it any longer. And he sends him out, he commissions him, Go and do what you know you need to do. And has also been prophesied about you for hundreds, even hundreds of years ago. Jesus does not beg him to stay. Do you see that? He doesn't remind him, this is wrong, Judas, you shouldn't do this. You know people are not going to name their kids Judas anytime after this. You know this is a bad thing. You aren't going to be remembered. He doesn't try to beg him. He says what needs to happen is going to happen. And he says, go and do it slowly, quickly. And so Judas does this. He departs. You could write that in point six on your outline, Judas. Then the betrayer departs. We see in verse 28 that still no one else has picked up on what's going on here. Again, here's the table, this U shaped table. Jesus has just replied to John. He says, the person I'm going to dip this in and give it to Judas. He gives it to Judas. They're probably all still wondering what's the answer to Peter's question, To John's question, who is it?
[00:34:36] And Judas have a brief interaction and then Judas gets up and leaves. And they think good things about Judas. Do you see that? He's probably going to help people.
[00:34:49] No, no he's not.
[00:34:51] They speculate good things, but they aren't connecting this to the weight of the conversation and the weight of Jesus heart at this time. So with the taste of the bread that Jesus had just handed him and given to him still in his mouth, showing love and favor, Judas leaves his fellow disciples. He leaves his master and goes out into the night. The last night that Judas will ever experience with hate for Jesus.
[00:35:20] This is the last night that Judas will ever experience Jesus. Later that night, as we'll see in future weeks, that Judas will go through and betray Jesus. Jesus will be taken and arrested and we'll see later on that Judas is gripped with guilt. He realizes the weight of what he has done. He has betrayed an innocent man.
[00:35:46] And we know as we read through the text, that he ends up taking his own life because of how serious his guilt is.
[00:35:56] He doesn't run back to Jesus and seek forgiveness, but rather his guilt is incredibly strong.
[00:36:04] What does this teach us about Judas? Before we look at some application things, I encourage you, keep your bulletins there. I want to encourage you to write some things down.
[00:36:11] But one of the things we can learn about Judas as we consider this account is this. You can have the best Bible teacher. You can see miracles. You can hear the best preaching.
[00:36:23] You can have great friends, great crowd around you, examples around you, and still walk away from Jesus.
[00:36:33] This is heartbreaking, friends. Jesus didn't do anything wrong to make Judas walk away. But rather, Judas chose to use the godly people for his own benefit, while he could, and then he chose to leave. We see the hardness of heart there. We see something that breaks our hearts. And even more so, I would say this to show some level of compassion for Judas here after the fact, when he realizes his great sin, the guilt that hit him was huge. Huge.
[00:37:07] And what can we learn from this?
[00:37:10] It's this.
[00:37:12] We'll make mistakes sometimes. And here's what we can learn from Judas. Run back to Jesus.
[00:37:19] Run back to Jesus. Don't sit and wallow in your own guilt and shame. Run back to him because he promises to forgive. He will. We don't see in this text that Jesus had condemned him to hell. We don't see an eternal punishment that was damning him forever. God used him for a horrible act. Yes, that needed to happen. And because of this act that Judas did to send Jesus to the cross, he now could experience forgiveness. And yet he didn't because of his own choices. Some application things. You can go to the next slide. So what, the takeaways here, maybe jot some of these things down. I just want to touch on them briefly.
[00:38:02] Nothing, some truth here, nothing that sinful man can do can thwart the plans of God. We can look culturally, right now, around us and even politically around us, and you can see all the things. And we can get really anxious about some of that and say, what's going to happen? These people are doing the wrong thing. What are we going to do? But here's the reality, friends, is all of those things, no matter how sinful and terrible they may be, God is still in control.
[00:38:29] All 11 other disciples sitting there around this, when they find out that Judas has done this terrible thing can question, is God still in control? And the answer is, what? Yes.
[00:38:41] Secondly, what might look like defeat in your life or in my life, or in the world around us is still under the sovereign hand of God. What may look like a terrible, terrible thing. Why would God let that happen? Why would God let this illness happen or this death happen? Why would God let this broken relationship happen? You might be asking this about people in your life, about parents or about friends or family members. Why would God let something terrible like this happen? Just because something terrible happens is heartbreaking and hard as it is, does not mean that God no longer is in control.
[00:39:18] Thirdly, I think I touched on this a little bit.
[00:39:23] We can't be like Judas. We have to repent and run back to Jesus, not getting stuck in guilt that we might be experiencing. Fourthly, on the screen here, there's times that you might have, or I might have chosen to maybe unintentionally betrayed someone else.
[00:39:49] We have a tendency sometimes to look outside of us, but maybe just look inwardly for a moment, just like the disciples did. When Jesus said, someone's going to betray me, they asked, could it be me might be here today. And you might have betrayed someone, someone's trust, someone's friendship, maybe unintentionally, maybe intentionally, maybe because you felt like there was other reasons that you had. But someone was betrayed because of actions that you took that happened with Judas, didn't it?
[00:40:16] And that guilt, that weight, can stay with us for a long time. That could be in a relationship, in a marriage, that could be in friendships where, you know, I did the wrong thing. I betrayed the trust of somebody else.
[00:40:29] And here's what we can learn from this passage today. Jesus knew that was going to happen, and he leaned into his relationship with his betrayer.
[00:40:39] And then he called. By showing Judas that kind of love, he called him back to himself. I love you still.
[00:40:48] I went to the cross so that you can be forgiven. Friends, here today. The blood of Jesus is enough to cover whatever betrayal you might have been a part of. Whatever it is. The blood of Jesus cleanses you. And he calls you today to run back to him, to stand as we sung earlier, forgiven and redeemed, forgiven.
[00:41:13] Lastly, point five here that I just put on the screen there for you. Some of you here today might have experienced betrayal, also heartbreaking. You see Jesus, the Lamb of God, the creator of the universe, who knows all things, who is omnipotent and omniscient. It says in verse 21, he was troubled in his spirit because of the potency of betrayal.
[00:41:37] It is heartbreaking.
[00:41:40] Some of you know this firsthand.
[00:41:45] What do we do with that?
[00:41:49] Look what Jesus does.
[00:41:53] We show forgiveness.
[00:41:57] Notice what Jesus doesn't do.
[00:41:59] Reference. In Psalm 41, he picks out the portion of whom I trusted. There might be a time where you have to struggle with and learn how to rebuild trust with someone who has betrayed you. There's a process there. Forgiveness is saying, I'm no longer gonna hold it against you. Trust is saying, this is gonna take a little bit of time to figure out how we're gonna be in relationship again. Jesus went to the grass so that those who run to him, whoever it is, can experience complete forgiveness under the cross and healing for brokenness and healing for pain. It's a beautiful picture that we see in Jesus saying, love the people who have hurt you, and I am going to love the people who have hurt me, because I am, in the end, control of all things.
[00:42:49] And I want you to experience life in me, freedom in me. Let's pray together.
[00:42:56] Lord Jesus, we are so grateful for the power of the cross.
[00:43:02] One in which you are, one in which we can look to today and say, I am in awe. It seems impossible. It seems so hard. How could you do that? And yet you do.
[00:43:15] How could you forgive a sinner like me? And yet you do. And you call us to forgive others.
[00:43:24] And so today, as your people here this morning, Lord, help us to experience in a powerful way the forgiveness, the love that you have for us, so that we can display that same kind of love and forgiveness towards others, whether we are the culprit or the other is the culprit. Lord, we can demonstrate you, we can be ambassadors of your love, your mercy, your grace in the relationships in our own life, and that we can look to you and rejoice with our head up, knowing that we can approach the throne of grace, not of judgment, but of grace with confidence because of the cross.
[00:44:04] So this morning, Lord, I pray that for those who are here today that don't know you, that have yet to surrender their life to you, Lord, that you would show them your beauty and your love this morning. You are a God who is countercultural, one who stands against those of injustice and stands with the humble.
[00:44:25] So I ask that you would turn our hearts this morning towards you in a great and powerful way. We can entrust ourselves to you, whatever fears that we might have, Lord, we can lean more into the love that you have, the forgiveness, the grace that you have for us. In Jesus name, Amen.
