96 John 13:18-30 JUDAS IDENTIFIED AS THE BETRAYER Introduction: Jesus and His disciples were about to teat the Passover Supper. Jesus took out from the supper and washed the feet of His disciples. After He washed their feet they proceeded to eat the supper. It was during the supper that Jesus identified Judas as the betrayer. He identified Him only to John as the betrayer. I. The revelation that not all of the apostles were saved, V. 18a V. 18, "I speak not of you all..." Jesus had earlier explained to them the symbolic meaning of the footwashing. He had explained that salvation is symbolized by a complete bath. Salvation cleanses the soul of all sin and qualifies one for heaven. However, one who has had a complete bath would get his feet dirty as he walks. Therefore, even though he would not need a complete bath, he would need his feet washed. Jesus used this to illustrate that all who are saved have been cleansed from all their sins and are qualified to go to heaven. Yet each saved person, in his daily walk still commits sin. He does not need to get saved again, but in order to maintain good fellowship with God, he needs to repent of those sins and be restored to good fellowship with the Lord. This is pictured symbolically by the washing of the feet. Thus a saved person does not need any further washing in order to go to heaven. He is already washed by the blood of Jesus which has cleansed him from all sin. But he does need to repent of his daily sins in order to maintain good fellowship with God. Back in verse 10 Jesus had told Simon Peter that he, along with most of the other disciples had already been cleansed as far as the salvation is concerned. Jesus had also told him back in verse 10 that not all not all of them were clean. That is, not all of them had been saved. One of them was still unsaved. In verse 18 Jesus reminds them of what He had said in verse 10, that not all of His disciples were saved. There was one of them who was unsaved. He had never been saved. This is essentially the same thing that He had told them back in John 6:70. Even back then Jesus had told them, "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" So not all of the twelve had been cleansed spiritually. There was one of the twelve apostles who was still unsaved. Jesus was talking, of course, about Judas Iscariot, but He does not tell them at this time that He was talking about Judas. II. An Old Testament prophecy about the betrayer Now it might seem to some that Jesus made a mistake by choosing a man to be one of His apostles who would betray Him. But Jesus never makes mistakes. It had been prophesied in the Old Testament that one of His close companions would turn against Him. (V. 18), "...I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me." Jesus had deliberately chosen a man whom He knew would betray Him to be one of His apostles. He chose him in order that he might betray Him into the hands of the Jews. It was in keeping with God's plan. The prophecy about that betrayal had been written by David in Psalm 41:9. David had prophesied that the one who would betray Jesus would be one of His closest friends, one who had eaten His bread. David had prophesied that just such a friend would kick against Him. That is, he would viciously seek to injure Him. You will note that Jesus still does not tell them who the betrayer will be, but He does declare to them that He will be betrayed and that it will be one who is very close to Him. God would not cause Judas to betray Jesus. He would only allow him to do so, and He knew that Judas the man would betray Jesus if he were allowed to do so. III. The reason Jesus informed them beforehand V. 19, "Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he." Jesus said in effect, "I do not want your faith in me to be shaken when I am betrayed and crucified. I want you to know that this is the plan of God. This is what I have come to do --- to give myself a sacrifice for the sins of man. When this comes to pass, I want your faith in me to be strengthened by it rather than shake by it." Then Jesus said something that at first seems totally out of context. He said in V. 20, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me." I am not certain that I fully understand just why Jesus said this at this particular point of time, but I do want to point out this to you. Jesus wanted to reassure those disciples who had genuinely received Him as the Christ and as their Savior that they were in good standing with God the Father. He wanted to know that His crucifixion would not disrupt their standing with God. Furthermore, He also wanted to remind them that they were still chosen by Him to carry His gospel message to the unsaved and that who would believe the gospel and would be in good standing with God. In addition to this, He wanted to make it clear that the man who would betray Him had never genuinely received Him and by betraying Him into the hands of the Jews he also betrayed God the Heavenly Father. One who is an enemy of Jesus is also an enemy to God the Father in heaven. IV. Sorrow for Jesus and shock for the disciples V. 21, "When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me." John mentions now for the second time that Jesus is troubled in His spirit. That is, He was greatly disturbed emotionally. The first time John mentioned this was back in John 12:27. In that verse Jesus was disturbed because of the suffering on the cross which lay ahead. In this verse, His deep sorrow was caused by the knowledge that Judas Iscariot would betray Him to His enemies. At this point, it was not the fact that He would be betrayed which bothered Him. What bothered Him was that it was a man who was supposed to be His friend. It was a man whom He had accepted into His intimate circle of friends. It was like having a brother to betray Him. It grieved Him that one so close could betray Him. It grieved Him that one so close would suffer such great penalty for his evil deed. In Matthew 26:24 Jesus said that it would have been better for Judas if he had never been born. The disciples were having their own problem. They could hardly believe that one of their own group would betray Jesus and it caused them great shock. V. 22, "Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake." All of the apostles except one were in doubt as to who the betrayer could possibly be. According to Matthew all of the disciples began to ask Jesus, "Master, is it I?" Even Judas asked, "Master, is it I?" Jesus answered him by acknowledging that he is the one. This must have been done very quietly and the others were so busy talking to one another about the matter that they did not hear the conversation between Judas and Jesus. V. An inquiry by John V. 23-25, "Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it?" The disciple who customarily showed the most affection to Jesus and leaned on His breast was the Apostle John, the writer of this book. So it is John who is spoken of as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." Jesus, of course, loved all of His disciples, but He had a special love for John because John had a special love for Him. This gives us a clue how we, too, can have more of the love and blessings of God. The more we love Jesus, the more He will love us. But let us get back to the text. Simon Peter really wanted to know who was intending to betray Jesus. Knowing something about the nature of Simon Peter from the scriptures, I have an idea that he wanted to find out so that he could stop him. Peter was fiercely loyal to Jesus. At any rate, Peter knew that if anyone could find out from Jesus who the betrayer is, John was the man. So Peter motioned to John and indicated to him that he should inquire and John did. John must have asked very quietly so that nobody would hear the question but Jesus. He leaned upon the breast of Jesus so that he could speak softly in His ear. VI. Judas identified to John as the betrayer V. 26, "Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon." Also from the general context of the passage, we are to understand that Jesus answered John very quietly so that the others did not hear. If they had heard, they would all know who the betrayer would be. But none but Jesus heard the question that John asked and none but John heard the answer. Therefore, the others did not know that by giving the sop to Judas Jesus had identified Judas as the betrayer. Jesus knew and Judas knew and John knew and that was all. VII. The departure of Judas V. 27, "And after the sop Satan entered into him..." Almost immediately after the sop, Satan entered into the heart of Judas. Back in verse 2 of this chapter John tells us that Satan had already put it in the heart of Judas to betray Jesus. So Judas had already begun to formulate a plan whereby he could accomplish the deed. But now Satan enters his heart and prompts him to do it quickly. Up to this time Judas had not made contact with the Jewish authorities, but now Satan urges him to get with it. Get up and go! Oddly enough, Jesus was at least partially in agreement with Satan's suggestion. (V. 27), "...Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly." There was a difference, however, in what Satan was telling Judas to do and what Jesus was telling him to do. Satan was specifically telling Judas to betray Jesus. Jesus was not specifically telling Judas to betray Him. He was simply telling Judas that whatever he was going to do about the matter he should do quickly. If he was going to repent and change his mind he must do so quickly. If he was going to betray Jesus, he must also do that quickly. Time was running out. V. 28-30, "Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor." None of them knew that Jesus had identified Judas to John as the betrayer or that Jesus had answered the question of Judas Iscariot acknowledging to Judas that he is the betrayer. All they knew was that Jesus had told Judas that what he was going to do, he should do it quickly. V. 30, "He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night." Judas now makes and he immediately gets up from the table and departs. He will go to the temple and seek a conference with the enemies of Jesus. VIII. Some things which we should learn Listen, we should learn some things from this passage. We should learn that greed and selfishness can lead one to do some terrible deeds. The love that Judas had for money helped to lead him to betray Jesus. We should learn that one can be religious and still be lost. Judas was not an atheist. He was not anti-religious. He was religious, --- but lost! There are millions of people today who are religious --- but lost. Oh, how they need to be saved. We should learn that one can be baptized and still be lost. According to the Acts chapter one all of the twelve apostles of Jesus had made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ and had been baptized. That means that Judas had made a profession of faith and had been baptized. But Judas was lost. He was unsaved. He was still on the road to hell. He is in hell today. Millions of people today who have been baptized --- or, at least they have what they call baptism ---, but they are lost and on the road to hell. There are millions who are in hell right now who were baptized, but their baptism did not keep them out of hell. We should learn that one can be a member of a church and still be lost. Judas was a member of the first New Testament church that ever existed. He was a charter member of the church that Jesus organized. He heard Jesus preach and teach. But Judas was lost and his church membership would get him into heaven. There are millions of people in the world today who hold membership in some kind of church that claims to be a Christian church who are still unsaved. We should learn that one can be an officer in a church and still be lost. Judas held two offices in the church. He was an apostle and he was the church treasurer. Both were honorable offices. There was nothing wrong with either office. Yet neither of these brought salvation to Judas. He was still lost and headed for hell even though he was an officer in the Lord's church. Down through the years there have been many other unsaved people to hold an office in a church, but their church office did not help to get them into heaven. We should learn that if an unsaved person wants to get saved, he must do so quickly. Time runs out so quickly. We are told that now is the day of salvation. We are not promised tomorrow. We are told that we know not what a day may bring. Just one day can bring death and eternity. If you are unsaved you had better take advantage of the time which God has given you and turn to Jesus Christ and be saved. We who are saved and desire in our hearts must also do that quickly. Just as the unsaved have a limited time in which to get saved, even so we have a limited time in which to serve. Conclusion: Listen, lost friend, do you want to be saved? Why not now? Listen, Christian friend, do you want to serve the Lord? Then why not now?