Betrayor

INTRODUCTION

Betrayal is a fact of our earthly life.

it is throughout the Bible with

David and his son

Samson and Delilah

Joseph and his brother

It is hard to see the good

when you are in the middle of an attack

yet God promises to bring all things to good for those He loves according to His Purpose

We know the story from todays verses

but as we go through this remember

TWO THINGS

Christ works all things for Good

Christ works all things according to the will and glory of GOD

Lets....

Set the Scene

Jesus and the Disciples are Still at the Last Supper

We have all scene the painting from Leonardo da Vinci.

Now the scene in the famous art work is not necessarily accurate.

The table would have likely been U shaped with Jesus at the top center and the disciples flowing around the outside.

This was so the servers could easily get to the people with out reaching over any one.

Jesus in our narrative has just amazed the group but washing their feet

Jesus has washed His Disciples — His closest friends

It was Jesus acting the Servant and not the Served

It was a lesson for the Disciples including us that we SERVE OTHERS

they are sitting at the table and my assumption is they are talking among themselves

likely about what just happened.

I picture them in many small conversations

and Jesus breaks the chat time

with

John 13:21 (ESV)

21 After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”

Lets look at the verse right before this.

John 13:20 (ESV)

20 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

Who is the One that He sends?

Jesus is foretelling of the Holy Spirit

But Jesus is troubled.

It appears to be that this is amazing

Jesus, God in the flesh is troubled!!!

What a lesson that we will explore in a few weeks

John 16:33 (ESV)

33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

But Jesus is troubled

and Jesus leads the conversation

One of you will betray me

The Bible Exposition Commentary (Chapter Thirteen: The Sovereign Servant (John 13:1–35))

The remarkable thing is that the others at the table with Jesus did not know that Judas was an unbeliever and a traitor.

Up to the very hour of his treachery, Judas was protected by the Saviour

whom he betrayed

Had Jesus openly revealed what He knew about Judas,

it is likely that the men would have turned on him.

The Bible Exposition Commentary (Chapter Thirteen: The Sovereign Servant (John 13:1–35))

From the very beginning, Jesus knew what Judas would do (John 6:64),

but He did not compel him to do it.

Judas was exposed to the same spiritual privileges as the other disciples,

yet they did him no good.

The same sun that melts the ice only hardens the clay. In spite of all that our Lord said about money, and all of His warning about covetousness, Judas continued to be a thief and steal from the treasury.

In spite of all our Lord’s warning about unbelief, Judas persisted in his rejection.

Jesus even washed Judas’ feet!

Yet his hard heart did not yield.

Jesus had spoken before about a traitor (John 6:70),

but the disciples did not take it to heart.

Now when He spoke openly about it at the table, His disciples were perplexed.

The Reveal

I would think the room went quiet,

But i think after a moment of silence, the men started to talk amongst themselves

The Bible Exposition Commentary (Chapter Thirteen: The Sovereign Servant (John 13:1–35))

Peter signaled to John, who was the closest to Jesus at the table,

and asked him to find out who the traitor was.

The Lord’s reply to John was certainly not heard by all the men;

in fact, they were carrying on discussions among themselves about who the traitor might be

It appears that Jesus only spoke the answer to John

look at this verse

John 13:25–26 (ESV)

25 So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?”

26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.

So they are sitting around the table and Jesus breaks the discussion with the revelation was heard by all ONE OF YOU IS GOING TO BETRAY ME (John 13:21)

and it was so striking that they turned to one another and started to discuss.

Peter is further away from Jesus, with John next to Jesus.

Peter gets John to ask the BIG QUESTION

WHO?

Jesus answers indirectly

the traiter among them is exposed to John and John alone

I would think that if all had heard --- then at least Peter if not all would have attacked Judas

But remember the lesson today.

TWO THINGS

Christ works all things for Good

Christ works all things according to the will and glory of GOD

Jesus knew what needed to happen

and submitted to the Will of the Father

The Bible Exposition Commentary (Chapter Thirteen: The Sovereign Servant (John 13:1–35))

Keep in mind that Judas knew what he was doing and that he did it deliberately.

He had already met with the Jewish religious leaders

and agreed to lead them to Jesus in such a way that there would not be any public disturbance

John 13:26–30 (ESV)

26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.

27 Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”

28 Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him.

29 Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor.

30 So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.

JUDAS

If I was able to travel to hell for 15 minutes

and not experience any of the torment or environment

if I would be able to talk to one person,

especially with the subject in my mind wouldn’t that person be Judas?

Wouldn’t you just want to ask him one question one word

Why? Think i have to give you a little bit of history here so you can kind of understand what was going on

at the time of Christ? There was alot of religious sects.

one of them was the Zealots

and our scripture tells us something about some of the disciples

and let’s keep in mind disciples isn’t there there’s the 12 that are present here

including His inner Circle --- John, James and Peter

and in that Circle there is one --- the one He loved — the author of our Book of John

the scripture also tells us that there was another group that was larger that there was around 70 people and another designation of 120

and then the larger group of Believers who had believed in Christ as the Messiah

We are looking at the 12 and one of  Those is a betrayer and we know him as Judas

Judas had a lot of things going on first of all the disciples we know that 11 of them came from the area around Galilee,

Judas

His surname, Iscariot, might be related to "Kerioth," (KER RE OTH) a town in Judea south of Jerusalem.

Iscariot was not his last name but where he was from

Judas was the outsider and a Zealot

I wanna switch gears.

Matthew was the tax collector.

In charge of likely the most profitable position in all of Jerusalem area in Israel of the Roman Empire,

Matthew was in charge of the area along the spice route. More wealth more taxes

these tax collectors collected the taxes from Rome

and they were able to put a surcharge on top

so the more taxes coming in more taxes collected the more money

Matthew was the one who was gifted in money affairs

Judas was an outsider and a Zealot

the Zealots believe that Roman needed to be overthrown

and there was only ONE GOD --- and only in God would they trust

   Judas conversion to Jesus arguably might’ve been more complex then the others

Being a Zealot ---- it was not a theologically simple as the others

11 of the Disciples believed in the traditional Jewish Beliefs

God would send a Savior

Judas would have been firm in ONLY ONE ---GOD

this would likely have caused Judas to doubt Jesus even more

and we can infer that Judas was NOT a true believer

Judas would be overcome by his man-made belief system

That He could be mastered by no one but GOD alone

it sent me that we could theorize that Judas wasn’t totally bought Jesus

Judas was alot like the crowds in His belief

and i believe he

started to accept Jesus was NOT going to overthrow Roman Rule

He decided to be part of the same solution that the Jewish Leaders had

and never bought into

that JESUS WAS GOD on earth.

Also know that Judas was handling the money bag

and don’t you have to ask the question why wasn’t it Matthew?

I mean if Matthew was one of the elite tax collectors

he would’ve been the only one

that we know that would’ve had any kind of accounting experience

Lets AGAIN remember that Jesus works all things to glorify God and to bring glory to himself

it’s another reminder of the power and insightfulness of all knowing of God

Judas as a zealot would not have trusted Matthew

Matthew was a Publican

Publicans were essentially tax collectors who often worked as contractors.

They would bid on the right to collect taxes in a specific region from the Roman government.

The tax collectors were assumed and known to be corrupt

BUT it was Judas and he had been a thief from the beginning

so Judas didn’t trust Matthew

it would be my experience in life

Is people who are untrustworthy don’t trust people

They want in control

I proposed this morning that JESUS knew from the beginning

was planned from the very beginning to do what he’s doing today.

Judas aligned and met with the the Jewish leaders

They knew who he was and knew how he thought

and he was the one to take the 30 Pieces of Silver and betray our Lord .

The Reaction of the Traitor

It always amazes me that Jesus yielded so much to the Will of the Father that

we tells Judas to GO DO WHAT YOU INTEND TO DO

Wouldn’t you have taken some other action?

Seized Him

Stopped Him

Worried about your SELF

I think we have insight that JOHN knew also

to fully trust the plan of Christ --- NO MATTER WHAT

To do as the Son, and not our SELF

it is tough doing the Christian Life

and it should never be understated

Christian Living is not EASY, but it is ETERNALLY WORTH IT.

Christian Living in This Life

So now we know what happened

and How Jesus dealt with it.

What is the Lesson for us from this Passage?

TWO THINGS

Christ works all things for Good

Christ works all things according to the will and glory of GOD

We must learn as Christian the TRUTH

we will have close friends betray us

but we like JOHN

Must learn to COMPLETELY

and FULLY

Know and Trust that Christ

works all things for the GOOD

if Judas did not betray Jesus

we would not have the RESURRECTION and the HOPE we have Today

Lets PRAY