John 13:18-30 Lessons From The Last Supper (Part 3) August 31, 2014

Transcription of 14ID1544 John 13:18-30 Lessons From The Last Supper (Part 3) August 31, 2014 Shall we open our Bibles to John 13:18 as we continue our verse-by-verse study through John s gospel. And we are on Passion evening, Thursday night into Friday morning (as the Jewish calendar Friday began at sunset), and we are at the last supper with Jesus, who is preparing His disciples for what will come in the next several hours. The gospels, by the way, present the various parts of the last supper without much reference to one another, and because of that, it is extremely difficult to know what order things took place. So we would encourage you to read the other gospel accounts as we go through this so that you might get the full picture, and we ll pretty much stay with John s gospel for his purpose of showing us who Jesus is. So far we ve looked at verses 1-5, here in chapter 13, as the Lord shared with us that His motivation for serving was that He knew His time had come and who He was and where He d come from, where He was going. And we talked about the freedom that we have when we selflessly serve because we know where we re coming from, and we know what God has done, so we re not out for ourselves. We re out to serve Him. And then we looked at the foot washing, you remember, and the lesson to Peter that confession is an important part of our lives. Once we re saved, we can come with every day our sins, and the Lord will maintain our fellowship with Him as we confess our sins. So, it teaches us we have daily needs to depend on His grace, and it keeps you from being hard-hearted. Well this morning, beginning in verse 13, Jesus now tells us who His betrayer is, or points him out, identifies him. And John had mentioned him in verse 2 that Judas had already made a deal, if you will, to betray Jesus. We read about that in Luke 22, that Satan filled his heart, and he went out, and he betrayed the Lord there the last Sabbath dinner, that Saturday. John mentions there in verse 10 that Jesus said not everyone was clean, and he explained He knew who would betray Him. Well this morning we come to the betrayer. 1

We have a lot to learn. Relationships can survive just about everything. If you know someone or you love someone, you can get through almost anything together until you get to betrayal. Betrayal is one of those things that effectively can bring relationships to an end, and it is one of the hardest things to restore. In counseling with married couples who have someone who has been unfaithful, it is most difficult to get someone willing to forgive; and if you re unwilling, it s almost an impossible path. Betrayal. Well here s Jesus. He s about to be delivered over to wicked men to die for the sins of the world. And at dinner sits a man who has plotted to deliver Him over to His enemies for a few dollars. Though the Bible predicted his actions, Judas betrayal broke the Lord s heart. He is fully man besides being fully God. Verse 21 will say that He was troubled in spirit, that the Lord was moved by this wicked heart. He loved Judas to the end. He treated Judas with great kindness and mercy. Judas actions are without excuse. They are in the face of the loveliness of God. We hate it when we hear about injustice, when the bad guy gets away with something. We get angry. Or when the good guy is taken advantage of, or victimized. On the other hand, when the bad guy gets what s coming to him, we couldn t be happier. It s just the way, sometimes, we respond to what s fair. Well here s the worst crime that was ever committed that the Son of God was sold out for a few dollars by a man who had been allowed to be by His side and to hear every word and see every miracle for 3½ years. And, yet there is no one in this room who believes it s Judas. No one who says, I ll bet Judas is the guy. Not a one. Not one. No clue. Jesus will tell John, here, who will whisper it to Peter. But by then Judas is gone, or I think Peter might have had something to say to Judas. But it is such a horrible crime that, 2000 years later, Judas name shows up in the dictionary as a noun. Traitor. I don t know how many children we ve been able to dedicate over forty years of ministry, but I ve never dedicated a kid named Judas. (Laughing) Not one. Because of this betrayer. Betrayer. What a horrible word. It divides families, and it separates children from parents, and vice versa. Jobs are lost by betrayal. Wars are started because of it. And Jesus was delivered to His enemies by it. It is a horrible sin. When Nathan the prophet came to David (2 Samuel 12) and told him a story about a rich man who had thousands of sheep, but when his friends came to visit, he went to his neighbor s house, and he took the one sheep that he had (he only had one, he was poor), and he killed it, and he fed it to his neighbor, David said, That man deserves to die. And Nathan said, That man is you. And then the Lord said, through the 2

prophet, to David, I ve given you your master s house and your master s wives for safekeeping. I ve given you the house of Israel and the house of Judah. And if that had been too little, I would have given you much more. Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do such evil in My sight? It was the betrayal that was the sin that so set David apart. Well we read here in verse 18, Jesus saying, I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me. Now Judas betrayal was secretive. He thought he had gotten away with it. What he didn t know, and is now learning, is Jesus knew. He was well aware of the plotting and the dealing, but He knew there was one sitting at the table whose heart was far from repentant, whose desire was far from serving God. He was dirty from head to toe. He hadn t been washed like (verse 10) Peter had. He was a hypocrite. He was a traitor. And Jesus pulls an Old Testament Scripture out of a guy that very much approximated the actions of Judas. This fellow who had sat with Jesus for years who would have thought he did something like that?! King David wrote Psalm 41 about a coup that was carried out late in his life by his son, Absalom. David had sinned with Bathsheba, and that sin had caused him great illness both psychologically and physically. He wasn t seen in public for well over a year. Absalom used that time to win the crowd to himself. He was outside his father s castle. He used to say, Well, if I was king, I would be interested in what you want; not like my father, who s checked out. And over time Absalom got a following, and he came into town with soldiers to overthrow his father, and David, aware of his sin and also his guilt, left town. He wouldn t fight with his own son. He didn t want bloodshed. And as he looked amongst his faithful friends, a fellow, Ahithophel, who had been a counselor to him for years (in fact he said of him there in 2 Samuel 16:23, When I needed to hear from the Lord, I d go to Ahithophel. He had the heart of God, the ear of God. He was the voice of God ), Ahithophel was nowhere to be found. He d changed sides. And David prayed when he heard, Oh, Lord, make the counsel of Ahithophel of no consequence. Let it not be heard (2 Samuel 15:31). And he sent a young man back, who was also a servant in his court, named Hushai, who, when Absalom said, What do you think? Do we go after my dad now, or do we wait? Ahithophel said, Crush him while he s on the run. Hushai said, No, that s a bad idea because if he beats us, the whole movement s going to stop. We should be sure we can win. And the king said, Ahithophel, I m not listening to your counsel. I m listening to Hushai s. And Ahithophel walked 3

away dejected, failed. 2 Samuel 17:23 tells us that he saddled his donkey, he went home to his city, he put his house in order, and he hung himself, and he was buried in his father s tomb. And that s the verse that the Lord takes out here; the one that David had written about a friend who ate in his house, who turned his heel against him. And Jesus said of Judas, That s how I feel for this man that I have loved so greatly. It s interesting that both men you find guilt and fear and betrayal and sin and suicide. How do you get over those things? Well, you could look at Peter. He did the same thing. He denies the Lord, he talks a lot, he found mercy at the cross; and Peter would go on to great things because he was able to find the grace of God through Christ. Ahithophel and Judas died in their own bitterness and ended up in hell. But they both chose the path that they would take. The Lord wasn t surprised, but His heart was broken. God knows what you re going through this morning. He also knows what you re up to. And that can be a good thing. I mean, that should keep you like, I m not trying to fool Him! So often we fool others, we fool ourselves. But God knows. He s not surprised. You ll read several times in the Bible these words, And the Lord knew their thoughts. The woman at the well (John 4) when Jesus said, Go get your husband. Let s talk. And she said, I don t have a husband. Jesus said, Yeah, you ve had five, and now you re living with another man. And she said, I think You re a prophet! No, He s the Lord. He knows. He knows all. Imagine being in Jesus shoes here that you live your life knowing everything about everyone. I would rather not know. Ignorance is bliss. If you don t like me, and I don t know it, I don t care. If I know it, ugh, maybe it ll bother me. But to think that You would know that Peter was going to deny You, and Your family members were going to turn against You, and Your friends were going to betray You, and Thomas was going to doubt You, and all the disciples would flee from You He knew. And He loved Judas to the end. It had been written 1000 years earlier. Notice the words here, I know whom I have chosen. It s an important concept because God, knowing all, makes His choices. But we are allowed our choices, and we are held fully responsible for the choices we make. And yet God, knowing the choices we ll make, He ll use them for His own purposes. So Judas. The Lord used him to betray Him. Well, did He make him do it? No! Did He know he was going to do it? Absolutely He did. And He used him for His glory. Judas judged? Of course. But God, knowing all things beforehand, uses them by His foreknowledge. 4

Well, Jesus said in verse 19, to the disciples, Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am He. Now, why would Jesus pick a traitor? Well, for one thing, the Scriptures said there d be one. And I think that Jesus uses Judas to teach us how we can love our enemies while trusting the Lord. And here s my point no one knew Judas was the betrayer. There wasn t any evidence anywhere that he was the guy. If you don t like someone, and people hang around with you while they re around, most folks would be able to say, You don t like him much, do you? The way you speak to him, the way you look at him, the way you re dismissive to him. But look at Jesus. He treated him the same way that He treated everyone else. The love of God certainly provides the best opportunity for reconciliation and for repentance. But I m amazed at the Lord s kindness to Judas over all of that time. If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the Lord will reward you. Now it s written in the New Testament (Romans 12:20). It s also written in Proverbs 25:21-22. So, I watch, and I see Jesus just being kind to him to the very end so that there s really no excuse on Judas part. This decision was made in the face of God s love. I ve done lots of marriage counseling over the years, and one of the things that you find when people have been unfaithful is that most of those marriages end up divorced. Few are willing to choose forgiveness and love, but when they do, the restoration is wonderful the powerful example of what God can do. But someone s going to have to decide to do it the Lord s way. Love risks. And Jesus hurt over Judas, but He loved him completely. So the Lord says in verse 19, I m just telling you ahead of time. You know, one of the greatest benefits of knowing that God knows everything is that your faith can be made strong. Right? And how good is it when you run into things and you go, How did that happen? that you re able to say to yourself, Well, the Lord wasn t surprised. You re surprised a lot. Oh, man, did you hear what he said? Did you hear what happened today? Did you hear what happened at work? Did you look what happened in the paper? Oh, man! The world s going nuts! The Lord is not surprised. So it helps me to be strong in my faith knowing He knows all things. Certainly one of the greatest proofs of the divinity of Jesus, and the divine authorship of the Scriptures, is prophecy that s fulfilled. It is one of the arguments that the Lord uses in the Old Testament time and again to set Himself apart from the false prophets and from the false gods. And Jesus does it a lot as 5

well. He takes the prophecies, and He applies them to the present. In Isaiah 41, 44 and 46, the Lord taunts the false prophets. He says to them, in no uncertain terms, Let them show us the beginning and the latter end and declare them before they come to pass. I m the LORD. There is no other. I ll tell you the end from the beginning. Let them see them do that so we might believe in them. Let them show us those. You don t want to serve a God who s 80% right because you ll never really know if you re hanging on to that 20% where He s wrong. But it should develop a great confidence in us, and the Lord says this to them, Look, there s a betrayer here, and I m just telling you now so when you find out who it is, and what s going on, you ll know that I know what s going on. I wasn t caught. I wasn t deceived. I wasn t trapped. I m going willingly. I know what s waiting for Me. It produces in them a greater confidence in the Scriptures. In fact, if you continue reading out of the gospels into the early church, you find these apostles and disciples with great boldness in the face of death threats, proclaiming their faith. And you say to them, How can you do that? And the answer is they re just so persuaded the Bible s right. They came away with such confidence that the Scriptures were exactly what the Lord said, and so they were willing to die for their faith in Christ. If you parents want to be successful, may I encourage you that the one thing you want to do is pass along to your children the wonder and the confidence that you have in God s Word. Most parents want the same for their kids they want them to be successful, get a good education, marry the right person, have it all. But I ll tell you what if, as a parent, you convince your kids that Jesus is Lord, and His Word is to be depended on, you ve succeeded. Then it really doesn t matter what else they do. God will have His way with them, then. All those other things are good wishes, but they won t last. This one will. John Newton was a young man who was raised by parents who used the Bible to teach him to read. They made him memorize Scriptures as a young boy. He grew up for six years with them, learning the Bible, and then they were killed. They died, and he was sent to live with relatives that he hated. He had rough teenage years. He ran away and joined the British Navy. Went AWOL. Became a slave trader, on the run from England, for years. One time, coming back from Africa on a slave ship, they ran into a storm that everyone was sure they were going to die. And he was forced to face himself and his own life, and he writes, later, that he started to remember all of the Scriptures he d been taught as a child. And he said to the Lord, Forgive me. I want out. I want to be saved. And they were saved, and he landed, and he got off the boat and wrote Amazing Grace. It changed his life. The Word, planted in his heart, came to life years later. 6

Jesus said, I m telling you ahead of time, so when these things come to pass, your faith would be increased in Me. And then He adds in verse 20, Most assuredly, (or Amen, amen ) I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. The Lord wants to be sure that these men, hearing of a betrayer, won t be discouraged, to quit serving Him because there was a betrayer, but there was also a faithful God. And, The reactions of others to you are indeed their reactions to Me, and the fall of one should not discourage you from serving a God who is faithful still. I ve seen, over the years, people in church who I thought were doing so well, only to watch them go south and never come back. I don t mean come back to church. There re a lot of churches. But just come back to the Lord. And there s nothing more frustrating than to watch people quit on God. But God s not unfaithful. And the reaction of them to Him shouldn t really determine how I live my life because whether they walk away or not, God s still awesome. And these guys were going to be ambassadors for Jesus in a very ungodly world where most of the folks were going to reject them. It s kind of almost a picture of how ministry works, you know? Some people hear the gospel, and they get saved, and they re doing fine. And others pretend to follow for a long time. Sometimes they bail out. Sometimes you never get to see it. And still others just outright reject the message. But Jesus said, Look, it s in this environment that you re going to be My ambassadors. So if you receive Him who I sent you, receive Me. If you receive Me, you receive Him who sent Me. I don t know how Judas felt hearing these things. I don t know if he was sorry like a prisoner sorry sorry he got caught; not sorry, just sorry that he got sniffed out here. Not sure. I know he wasn t repentant kind of sorry. When Jesus had said these things, (to His disciples) He was troubled (brokenhearted) in spirit, and testified and said, Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me (verse 21). I want you to notice that word troubled because Jesus, the Friend of sinners, was deeply troubled by the betrayer. He wasn t any stoic. Don t think for a minute that the constant betrayal and rejection and refusal of Jesus, by the masses, somehow was easy for Him. It was not. When Mary came running out of her home, angry that Jesus hadn t shown up, and Lazarus had died, and He saw her weeping, Jesus wept (John 11:35). This was a difficult time the time to get the ball rolling to the cross. And Judas defection was now to be made known publicly, and it grieved the Lord that there was one who sat at the table whom God had not chosen (verse 18) because he had not chosen Him; and he had a deaf ear, and he had a hard heart, and these were his final steps to eternity. And so Jesus says there in verse 21, One of you will betray Me. 7

Verse 22 says, Then the disciples looked at one another, perplexed about it. It s a word that literally means, I don t know what to say. I m left speechless. And I suspect that these words changed the spirit of the evening because these guys knew each other s faults pretty well, didn t they? They were always arguing about greatness, and I suspect they were pointing out what was not great about each other. Matthew writes in chapter 26:22, They were exceedingly sorrowful when they heard that, and each of them began to say to Him, Lord, is it I? Now that ought to tell you something about these men that they were wanting to follow the Lord, but they had no misconception about their own hearts. They were all willing to say, Man, I hope it s not me. But they couldn t clearly declare of themselves that they were sinless; except for Peter, and this didn t turn out to be his finest moment. I ll tell you what you don t hear at the table. No one said, I ll bet it s Judas. I ll bet it s him. I never trusted that guy. Judas was not the man with the black cape and the handlebar mustache and the beady eyes. They respected him. He held the money. And Jesus hadn t done anything to mark him in any way. Sometimes it s hard to discern who really belongs to the Lord. You see it later. Sometimes you re surprised. The Lord never is. But Judas was not mistaken, and I think you need to know that of Judas. He wasn t mistaken. He didn t make a mistake here. He was willful and deliberate in his betrayal. In fact Jesus, in His parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13), said, That s the way the church is. Amongst the wheat is planted tares. They look just like wheat until the fruit is seen, and then the fruit of tares is black. It s not edible. Obviously the fruit of wheat sustains life. But the Lord says, Just let them grow together until the harvest, and then we ll separate them. So you never even really know looking around here who really is saved, who s walking with God. Who knows? Time tells a lot. You ll know them by their fruit. But no one suspected Judas. Well then we read this, verse 23, Now there was leaning on Jesus bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask who it was of whom He spoke. Then, leaning back on Jesus breast, he said to Him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it. And having dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. John s reference to himself is pretty cool. He always calls himself the one whom Jesus loved. I hope you see yourself that way this morning. You re the one whom Jesus loved. Pretty secure. The son of thunder. So overwhelmed by the Lord s love for him that it changed him. 8

We talked a couple of weeks ago about this u-shaped table that the men sat upon; and one side, left arm in, feet away from the table, eating with your right hand. And now we have a picture of it. John sat to Jesus right, the only place he could sit that he could lean back and put his head upon His chest to ask Him. But Judas sat on the place of honor, to His left. Jesus was able to take the bread and hand it to Judas. So, here s another reason no one would have thought it s Judas. He s sitting in the place of honor. The Lord gave him that special place. We might toast somebody, right? I propose a toast, and you want to honor somebody. At least at the supper, like this, you would honor somebody by giving them a piece of bread, dipped; and you take it, you re loyal, you re a friend, you re special to me. And Peter, at the end of the table the one who got his feet washed last, said to John (whispering tone), Hey, who is it? Who is it? Ask Him who it is. You can see Peter, can t you? And John quietly asked, and I suspect that Judas was sent, like I said, out the door before the answer came because we read in verse 28, But no one at the table knew for what reason He said this to him, What you do, (verse 27) do quickly. But we read, Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him (into Judas). For some thought, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus had said to him, Buy those things we need for the feast, or that he should give something to the poor. Having received the piece of bread, he then went out immediately. And it was night. So, Peter wants to know who it is. John asks the Lord. The Lord said, It s My guest of honor. I don t know what kind of hand signs he gave to Peter, but no one else knew it. No one else heard it. No one else was aware of it. Out of ear shot, the betrayer is sent out. It s his last chance to turn. He doesn t. The Lord knew that. But he had a chance. Eternity hung in the balance. Judas chose death. So, verse 27, the traitor is expelled. The exact moment is marked where Judas crosses the final frontier. No return from here. His doom is sealed. He rejects Jesus hand, and he goes from being driven by evil intentions to being driven by the evil one. In fact, in Luke 22:3, it said, Satan entered Judas, and he went, and he betrayed the Lord that Saturday before. Here, he again takes over, takes charge. And isn t it interesting that John writes here, in verse 30, It was night. Can you imagine Jesus looking into Judas eyes, and behind those eyes, the enemy is leering? But rather than being in charge, Satan, Jesus says, you just go do it right now. Still in charge. Not set up. In control. But John said this was the night. I don t think he just meant to tell you the sun had set. I think he literally means to say this is that moment of darkness. This is when Satan thinks he s got the thing won when the enemy goes after the Messiah. This one who loved 9

darkness rather than the light because his deeds were evil (John 3:19) went out into the night. And I thought about that a lot. I thought about Judas leaving the presence of the Light of the world and walking away from the fellowship of the saints, to go into the dark of night, driven by the prince of darkness, to the enemies of Jesus. And, as a result, his name is cursed forever, and he would not know one more minute of happiness not in this life or in the next. He went into the night. Ultimately, God knows you. That you are either leaning on His breast, listening to His Word, or you re behind His back, plotting your own ways. You should never take the goodness of God or the patience of God and somehow interpret that to mean His approval for your way of life. Judas could have used that argument for 3½ years, Man, the Lord s always blessing me. I m living like I want, and I m still blessed. Well, it s because God is good, and the rain falls on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45). But that doesn t mean He approves. There is a day of reckoning. And either this morning you are rejoicing His heart, or you are troubling His heart. The will of God is that you would be saved. But you also have a will. You were given a will to exercise. He loves you so and has blessed you, even when you re not very faithful to Him. But know this He wants you. And the minute you want Him, He says, I ve chosen you. Why can He say that? Because He s chosen all of us. Now, what are we going to do? And how are we going to respond? What a horrible time this must have been for the Lord just in tears sending this guy out to do his dirty work. Oh, it will accomplish the will of God for sure. But Judas, this man of sin, is lost for good. And yet, it s for that very purpose the Lord came. Submitted by Maureen Dickson September 3, 2014 10