The Betrayal (John 13:18-30)

We're in the Gospel of John chapter 13 starting verse 18.

John 13 · chapter mention

And actually, Luke, do you want to come teach?

I feel like people would probably be a lot more engaged if you came up here to this.

But John 13 starting in 18, and we're really we're picking up here in the middle of this narrative of chapter 13, where Jesus and his 12 disciples are around this U-shaped table.

They're laying down, they're sharing this meal together.

Jesus had just washed their feet.

He had already alluded to the fact that somebody within their midst was going to betray him.

And so we're picking up on that same idea of this betrayal of Jesus.

So if you're able, would you please stand for the reading of God's word?

John chapter 13, verses 18 through 30.

John 13:18–30

So Jesus speaking here, he says, I'm not speaking about all of you.

I know those I have chosen, but the scripture must be fulfilled.

The one who eats my bread has raised his heel against me.

I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe that I am He.

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 the 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.

After Judas ate the piece of bread, Satan entered him.

So Jesus told him, What you're doing, do quickly.

None of those reclining at the table knew why he said this to him.

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.

After receiving the piece of bread, he immediately left, and it was night.

Let's pray.

Lord, as we do each week, we thank you for your word.

We thank you that you have left this for us to be able to read and study and understand.

So I pray, God, that you would use your word to accomplish your perfect will here this morning.

In each one of us and as a church as a whole, would you do the shaping and the molding that is necessary?

Would you do the convicting and the encouraging in every area that we need both of those things?

Would you teach us not to just have a head knowledge of this passage, but a heart knowledge of this passage, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So, like I said, we're jumping in right in the middle of this scene here in chapter 13.

And if you missed last week, I want to encourage you to please go back and listen to it online.

All of these are in a podcast format that you can find on our website because this is all tied together.

Everything that we went over last week is really carrying over to what we're going through this week.

You know, Jesus had already mentioned this traitor being in their midst.

You know, in verse 10 of this chapter, Jesus says to Peter, he says, You are clean, but not all of you are clean.

For he knew who would betray him.

This is why he said, Not all of you are clean.

And even still, Jesus continues, as we saw last week, he continues to love and to serve Judas.

Already knowing what Judas is up to, he continues to love and to serve him.

We're going to see that again today.

Jesus actually honoring Judas in this passage that we're looking at, loving him and serving him until the end.

You know, and I hope what we realize in our text today as we go through it is that if Jesus loves his enemies like this, think of how he loves his own.

Think of how he loves us.

You know, last week it said to the end, meaning the uttermost, where there's there's nothing left to give.

That's how he loves you and me as disciples of Jesus Christ here today.

You know, we pick up today, continuing with all of those same thing, themes that we went through last week, but Jesus really starts to narrow down in our passage which disciple is going to portray him.

So we pick up here in verse 18, look at it with me.

I'm not speaking about all of you, so not all the disciples that are sitting here.

He says, I know those I have chosen.

You know, it always strikes me here that Jesus chose these disciples, knowing full well that Judas was a traitor, knowing full well that Peter was gonna deny him three times, and knowing full well that the rest of the disciples were gonna abandon him during his arrest and his trial.

So, was it that Jesus was just a really bad picker?

Do you think that that's what maybe he could have used zip recruiter back there, you know, to get some people that are a little more faithful?

No, I don't think so.

But do you ever struggle with the question of does Jesus really desire me?

Could he really love me?

I mean, he knows our struggles, right?

He knows our thoughts, he knows all of our shortcomings, he knows our sins past, present, and he knows our sins future as well.

He knew that these disciples were going to sin against him before his disciples knew that they were going to sin against him.

Think about that.

You know, if you need any assurance that God, that his love toward us is not performance-based, but it's unconditionally based, you know, what greater proof do we need than Jesus telling these disciples, I know these I have chosen.

And he tells them this right before Judas betrays him, right before Peter denies him, and right before the rest of them abandon him.

Yet we still find him loving and serving them all to the end, to the uttermost.

He loved them at full capacity, and he does and will through all of eternity.

You know, and even Judas, his enemy, is treated like a friend here.

He's treated as family.

He's eating with him, with Jesus, over and over and over again over this three-year period.

You know, eating back then was this act of intimacy that they took very seriously, a lot more serious than we do in our culture.

You know, if you remember, the religious leaders were furious with Jesus because they said he was eating with tax collectors and with sinners.

You know, and for all this time of Jesus' disciples being with him, he was sharing a table, he was sharing food, he was sharing campfires, he was sharing these long distance trips with Judas.

And look at what Judas is going to do with that here at the second half of verse 18.

He says, But the scripture must be fulfilled.

The one who eats my bread has raised his heel against me.

So Jesus right here is quoting from Psalm 41, 9, where it says, Even my friend in whom I trusted, one who ate my bread, has raised his heel against me.

So Jesus is quoting right there from Psalm 41.

You know, and heels in the Bible are symbolic.

They're symbolic both of strength and of vulnerability.

You know, vulnerable in the sense of them, your heel being struck or your heel being caught by something or in something.

But strength in the sense that they can trample, they can walk over things, they can kill things with force.

And we see this going all the way back to Genesis.

Genesis 3.

It's also the first prophecy of the Messiah that we're going to look at when God's describing the curse to man and to the serpent.

He says, This I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.

He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

You know, Satan is about to strike Jesus' heel right here at the crucifixion.

And he's going to use Judas to do this.

You know, in John 6, 70, as we already saw, Jesus calls Judas a devil.

He already did that in chapter 6.

And it's going to look like, at least for three days, that Satan is not only going to strike Jesus' heel, but he's going to trample him as well.

It's going to look like that for three days.

But after those three days, the resolution, I'm sorry, the resurrection is going to be the ultimate crushing of Satan's head by Jesus.

You know what did Jesus just say, quoting Psalm 41:9, the one who eats my bread has raised his heel against me.

Psalms 41:9

And then Jesus goes on in verse 19 and says, I am telling you now, before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe that I am He.

Jesus' death and the appearance of Satan crushing Jesus to death is going to shake these guys, these disciples that he's talking to right now.

And Jesus didn't want them thinking, you know, Judas was a traitor this whole time, and Jesus didn't even know it.

Or that Jesus wasn't powerful enough to stop Satan from this arrest and crucifixion that's about to take place.

So Jesus is just letting them know, you know, I'm telling you, this is going to happen, really, so that you don't lose faith that I am the prophesied about Messiah when things start to look very dark and very upside down for a couple days.

And Jesus goes on reassuring them in uh verse 20 here.

Look at that with me.

Truly I tell you, whoever receives anyone I send receives me, and the one who receives me receives him who sent me.

So Jesus' ministry is going to go on through these disciples, isn't it?

They're going to be sent ones.

They're going to be called apostles that Jesus is going to send out.

His death, he's telling them, is not going to be the end.

Just like Judas's betrayal is not going to be the end.

You know, it's kind of like he's saying, you know, regardless of what happens next and what you think is happening in the moment, I'm going to be living through you.

You know, and whoever receives or welcomes you in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives the Father also.

So he's reassuring these disciples, and I think maybe at the same time he's telling Judas, if you don't receive me, you're also rejecting the Father.

Who knows?

But this is all preparation.

Jesus is preparing his disciples for what comes next.

Look at verse 21 with me.

When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in his spirit and testified, Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me.

Now we get a picture, I think, right here, of the humanity of Jesus Christ.

It says, troubled in his spirit.

This is the same exact word in the Greek that was used when Jesus was talking to Mary, Lazarus' sister, right before they exited off to go to the tomb, and Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

It's John 11, 33.

It says, when Jesus saw her crying, saw Mary crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, he was deeply moved in his spirit and troubled.

Same word.

You know, and that word means to agitate, to cause an inward commotion, you know, to literally take away the calmness of mind.

And this wasn't sinful worry that Jesus was experiencing, obviously.

This was just raw emotion of betrayal that Jesus is experiencing in this moment.

You know, yes, he's absolutely dreading the pain of the crucifixion and all that's entailed there that he's about to face.

But a friend, a disciple, somebody that he just spent three years with, loving and pouring into.

You know, he loved Judas perfectly.

He treated him perfectly.

Yet this guy is about to betray him.

He's about to literally sell him out.

And then this same friend, this Judas, is going to commit suicide and reject Jesus for all of eternity.

You know, I don't think for a second that Jesus wasn't hurt or saddened by the fate of this disciple that he loves so much.

Because Judas just isn't rejecting or betraying Jesus, he's betraying his own eternity as well.

You know, in Matthew, it says, it would have been better for him if he had not been born.

For God to say that about you, that's that's some tough stuff right there.

You know, later Jesus would be troubled by what's ahead of him, you know, and we'll see that in the Garden of Gethsemane.

But right now, he's troubled by and for Judas.

You know, if you've ever experienced, you know, anything like this in your own life, you know what's going on here within Jesus.

You know, obviously we're incapable of loving perfectly like Jesus does, but maybe you were a really good friend to somebody, and all of a sudden they just turned on you, and you've never been able to understand why.

This happened to Jesus.

He knows, he understands, and he's not only compassionate towards those things, but he's empathetic as well.

He was troubled by and for Judas, right here, his betrayer.

So after Jesus tells them this, look at verse 22, it says, the disciples started looking at one another, uncertain which one he was speaking about.

So it wasn't like Jesus said this to everybody, and everybody's like, Oh, it's Judas.

It's definitely Judas.

Like, remember, I called this three months ago.

I told you guys, you wouldn't listen, but I totally called.

It wasn't like that at all.

He tells, you know, um, you can tell that later in these disciples' writings that they despised Judas after the fact of what he did.

They can't mention him without saying, yeah, Judas, the one that betrayed Jesus.

Like that it's just in there all the time.

But at this moment in time, at the last supper, they were looking at each other like, what?

Which one of us?

Which one, you know, would actually do that?

They didn't have a clue.

Judas looked and acted just right, just like the other eleven.

You know, in the other three gospel accounts, we see that Jesus sent out his 12 disciples out to preach about the kingdom of God.

He gave them power and authority to cast out unclean spirits and anoint and heal the sick and raise the dead and all of those things.

And they came back and they reported about all the things that God was able to do through them.

And it never says, and eleven were able to do this, you know, but not Judas.

It never, he was one of them for three years.

They had no clue that Judas was the was going to betray Jesus.

You know, nobody knew or suspected him, but Jesus knew the whole time.

You know, I always wonder: is it possible that Jesus selected Judas as a lesson to the other disciples?

To be wary of wolves in sheep's clothing.

You know, maybe a lesson to us all that wolves cannot stop what God is doing and what he wants to do.

And that God can even use wolves to accomplish his purposes.

Never condones wolves, he tells us to drive them out.

But like the line in the song that we just sang, you know, there is nothing that can stop our God.

He can work all things together for good, even Judas's betrayal.

Look at verse 23 with me.

One of his disciples, the one Jesus loved, was reclining close beside Jesus.

You know, I love that John doesn't refer to himself as John.

This is he's referring to himself here.

But he just calls himself a couple times in this gospel the disciple Jesus loved.

Not implying that he didn't like the other guys, but think about this.

This is how John liked to think of himself in relation to Jesus.

So I have a really tough question for us here.

Is that how you think of yourself in relation to Jesus?

You know, I think that's how Jesus wants all of us, all of his own, to see themselves in relationship to him.

But let's get real here.

Can you say that about yourself without feeling weirdness?

Do it in your head right now.

Say, I'm the disciple Jesus loves.

Does it feel weird?

I want to encourage you, if you're following Jesus, figure out how to make that not weird.

Jesus, his love, it's without a condition, scripture tells us.

It's not based on you, it's not based on how you're doing, it's not based on how many times you sinned in the last week.

We are the disciple that Jesus loves.

And if I still haven't convinced you that you can say that about yourself without feeling weirdness, ask yourself what Jesus would need to do to prove that to you so that you would believe that as truth and you can say that without weirdness.

You know, for example, maybe he would, you know, let's just say, lay down his life for you.

Would you then be convinced?

Because he already did that for you.

Just by the act of love on the cross alone, we should be convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that we can say that in all honesty.

I'm the disciple Jesus loves.

And we should be able to say that with confidence, just like John, our author, is able to say it right here in John 13.

Look at verse 24 with me.

Simon Peter motioned to him to find out who it was he was talking about.

You know, I just imagine Peter's probably across the table from uh from Jesus and John at this point, and he's just like, you know, he's like, ask him who it is, you know, and John's like, and he's like, just you know, that whole thing's going on.

Remember, they're laying down, they're not at a table with their legs tucked under, they're all laying on their left arm, they're eating with their right as they would at a meal, like this, on a very low table in front of them.

Verse 25.

So he, John, leaned back against Jesus and asked him, Lord, who is it?

So Jesus is here, John's here, left elbow, they're eating, and John just kind of leans back on Jesus' chest, and he's like, Lord, who is it that you're talking about?

And there's this intimacy, I think, that we see in this scene.

That's not weird at all.

He reclines against Jesus' chest.

Jesus was not and is not this aloof person, this aloof God that's always frustrated and annoyed with his disciples.

Look at the love in this scene that's going on here without any weirdness.

The disciple that Jesus loved is leaning on his chest and just simply asking him a question.

Look at verse 26.

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.

So notice something.

Jesus' last act to Judas was an act of generosity, was an act of friendship and peace.

You know, in this culture, this was an act of honoring a guest.

For the host to dip a piece of bread and then offer it to them in this way.

When Jesus says to love your enemy, what better example do we have than this right here?

He loved his enemy.

All the way to the cross, didn't he?

You know, think about it.

He never gave Judas a single reason to justify what Judas was about to do to him.

Judas could never say, you know, Jesus drove me away.

He treated me poorly like an outcast.

He told me to leave and get out.

And then he threw a glass of wine in my face, you know, or whatever it might be.

There was nothing like that.

His last act to Judas was love.

And then look at what happens here in verse 27.

After Judas ate the piece of bread, Satan entered him.

If you remember at the top of this chapter, verse 2, it says, Now when it was time for supper, the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas to betray him.

But something happens here.

After taking this piece of bread from Jesus, something happens, something changes here.

You know, he accepted honor from Jesus while having hate and betrayal in his heart toward him.

And that's the definition of a traitor, isn't it?

This was a decision that Judas made in his heart that he would not follow Jesus, but instead would profit from him.

Think about that.

And I think that is what opened the door for Satan to enter into him.

This was a decision that Judas made.

Because Satan cannot enter into a true follower of Jesus Christ.

Tempt, yes, absolutely.

But enter in, no.

No, a switch just got flipped here, I think, with Judas.

This act of Judas accepting the blessing of Jesus with betrayal in his heart at the same time.

Which leads to Jesus saying here at the end of verse 27.

So Jesus told him, What you're doing, do quickly.

They both knew at this point, Jesus and Judas.

And now Judas knows, he's found out.

We see that in Matthew's account.

So Jesus tells him, do it.

You know, is Jesus the victim here?

Or is he in the driver's seat of this arrest and crucifixion all the way to the end?

You know, last week we saw that all things had been given into his hands by the Father.

It says that.

So Jesus is not the victim here.

He never loses control of this situation.

He tells Judas what to do next after Judas completely rejects him and allows Satan to enter into him.

You know, this means Judas wasn't forced.

But after he makes his decision, Jesus is directing him on what to do next.

Look at verse 28.

None of those reclining at the table knew why he said this to him.

Though the disciples, it appears, other than John and Judas, they weren't up to speed.

Like these conversations are happening, they're hearing bits and pieces and parts, and they didn't hear what Jesus had told John about Judas being the betrayer.

So they're not all up to speed.

You know, one commentator pointed out, you know, if Peter was up to speed at this point, do you think he would have let Judas leave that room?

Probably a very slim chance of that happening.

You know, Peter's about to cut some guy's ear off here in only a couple hours.

Look at verse 29, though.

Since Judas kept the money back, some thought that Jesus was telling him, buy what we need for the festival, or that he should give something to the poor.

These two things must have been very common within Jesus' ministry of Jesus telling Judas to go out and to do these things.

And I think it's neat to see that they were giving from what they had, and what they had was donations that were given to Jesus' ministry, yet they were still giving to the poor.

And I think it's just another amazing example that Jesus left us.

Look at verse 30.

After receiving the piece of bread, he immediately left, and it was night.

So another question, lots of questions for you guys today.

But another question.

Do you think Jesus could have done anything more to save Judas's soul?

Absolutely not.

And I'm going to speculate here, but here is where I've arrived personally.

You know, Judas betrays and rejects the love of Jesus, Jesus, the love of Jesus, I think, for two reasons.

One, he's greedy.

That's evident from what we know about him.

But two, I don't think Jesus met Judas' expectations of who or what God should be.

I believe that if Jesus had completed his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and then led this mass rebellion and took over the Romans and took hold of Jerusalem and became its king like so many were expecting him to.

I think if Jesus had done those things, I think Judas would still be arm in arm with him.

What next, Lord?

Just tell me what to do.

But Jesus wasn't meeting Judas's expectations, was he?

You know, I can't help but wonder if it was the foot washing that was the last straw for Judas.

Realizing he was not getting the strong military king that he was hoping for, but instead he was getting a humble servant that would be led to the cross as a lamb to the slaughter.

You know, for us, like Judas, if we make God into who we think he should be, instead of learning the truth of who he really is, it'll lead us down a very dangerous and a very proudful path, just like we see here with Judas, trying to make Jesus more like us, as opposed to us becoming more like Jesus.

The Bible has told us who Jesus is.

All that we need to know about God is right here in our hands as we hold our Bibles here this morning.

And that's really why we put such a high priority on God's word here at Abide.

Why we see it as the compass that directs everything that we do as a church.

And why we encourage each and every one of you to stay in God's word personally on your own.

You know, it just happened to be the time that we put out the reading plans for the year through the Bible and a year.

They're back on the info table if you want to take one of those home with you.

Um, if you're interested in that.

But it's just one more way that we try to get you to stay in God's word, to get the whole council of God's word, not just on Sundays.

This isn't enough.

But to be in it for your own.

So grab one on the way out if you're interested in starting that.

You can start it now.

You don't have to wait until January 1st to start the one-year reading plan.

Get ahead, that way you don't feel as guilty when you miss a day later on.

But that's why they're back there.

There's one more reason.

Because we need this truth.

We need an understanding of who he is, not who we think he should be.

That's how so many Christians in churches get off track, and we're not perfect.

I'm not saying that we're the perfect church.

But the ones that do tend to get off track, they start to go down the path of, well, God couldn't really mean this in scripture, kitty, because you know, that would make him unloving.

Or, you know, how could a loving God do this?

Or how could a loving God say this?

And then they start to change scripture, or they start to change their interpretation of scripture to fit what they believe to be loving at the time, which always tends to be like very similar to our cultural norms at the time, doesn't it?

And our cultural norms tend to change every generation.

So God's love then becomes whatever we decide that it should be.

But God's unchanging, and his word is unchanging, and the interpretation of his word is unchanging.

You know, when you think about it, who are we to even try to define love?

And then hold God to our standards?

You know, who are we to pretend we understand these things better than he does and then hold them to our standards?

Go read Job 38.

We don't have time to go through it now, but go read that this this week, Job chapter 38.

Job 38 · chapter mention

It's great at just God saying, Where were you when I did all of these things?

But it's a dangerous path that I think Judas went down.

Again, this is all my opinion.

But I think and I know that we need to be careful not to go down that path for ourselves.

Yet, Jesus loved him to the end, didn't he?

And I want to end with this.

You know, as I said in the beginning, if Jesus loved his enemy to this extent, think about the love that he has for each one of us.

He loves his own, his disciples, his followers to the uttermost, to where there's nothing else left.

He doesn't withhold any love from us.

You know, John 4.8 tells us that God is love.

Jesus is love.

You know, in chapter 15 of John, we're gonna be there in a couple weeks, we'll see Jesus say, No one has greater love than this, to lay down his life for his friends, which is exactly what Jesus is going to do for his disciples and for us disciples as well here today.

Lay down his life in place of ours, dying the death we deserve in our place for us because he loves us that much.

You know, if you're here today and you want to become a friend of God and you've never been able to say that, if you want to be able to call yourself the disciple that Jesus loves, just like John did, you simply need to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved.

John, same author in 1 John 1.9, says, if you confess, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If you do that, you can say with all honesty that you are the disciple that Jesus loves.

You know, and I think here is our encouragement for all of us, kind of our marching orders before we go out that door.

Follow Jesus, become more like him, stay in the word, and know that you are loved.

That you are loved to the uttermost by Jesus.

Will you please pray with me?

Lord, it's hard for us to wrap our head around the love that you have for us.

Lord, when we think about all of our shortcomings, when we think about all of the things that we've done against your will, the sin in our life, Lord, that has just caused so much havoc, the rebellion in our hearts against you.

But you desire us and you love us to the uttermost.

So, Lord, help us to wrap our head around the love that you have for us, just knowing that you love us that much that you would lay your life down in place of ours.

Help us to be able to refer to ourselves as the disciple Jesus loves without having weirdness, without having thoughts of, yeah, but I did this.

Yeah, but this is in my past.

Yeah, but I'm having these feelings right now.

Whatever it might be, help us to know that your love is unconditional.

It is not conditional upon what we do, it's not conditional upon us being sinless.

That's impossible for us.

You just love us that much.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

We thank you that your love is unconditional.

But Lord, in that, help us to become more like Jesus on a daily basis.

With every thought, with every action, with everything that we put our hands to, with everything that we put our eyes on.

But help us to become more like Jesus.

And we realize we can't do that under our own strength.

It's only by your strength that that can happen.

So help us to be submitted to your will.

Help us to stay in your word, to stay in prayer, to stay close to you, abiding in Jesus Christ and becoming more and more like you and depending upon you more and more each day.

We need your help so badly in that, Lord.

We fall short so often.

But we thank you that your love is unconditional and it doesn't change based on our behavior and based on our performance.

So help us uh to grasp that a little bit deeper today and this week, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.