John 13:18-30: The Glory of Christ in the Betrayal of Christ

Scripture Reading

Psalm 36:7–9“How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.”

Intro

What can we learn from the Apostle Judas?

What does Judas have tell us about Christ and salvation?

That’s an odd question isn’t it?

We think of the Apostles… the Twelve… the Heroes of the faith!

The ones who delivered the faith once for all to the saints from Christ’s own mouth (Jude 3).

The first Christians and foundation of the church (Ephesians 2:20).

But not Judas!

Judas is the Betrayer!

An Apostate!

The Son of Perdition!

What could Judas possibly have to teach us about the glory of Christ and salvation?

What does Judas possibly have to say about anything?

Ironically… quite a lot.

In his betrayal Judas gives us a funhouse mirror a picture of who Christ is and what it means to have true saving faith.

In the betrayal of Christ we see the glory of Christ and what it means to be saved by grace through faith in Him.

The Big Idea for today as it has been so often in the Gospel of John

Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God and the only way to be saved is by receiving His person and work by grace through faith in Him.

As we come to John 13:18-30 and Judas leaving Jesus and the disciples to go and betray Jesus to the authorities… I want to shift our focus to Christ.

And in keeping with John’s purpose of His book… that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name…

I want to look at the betrayal of Christ and ask what does it show us about Jesus… His person and work.

And I want to look at Judas as almost a case study of unbelief and what he shows us about salvation and true saving faith.

And when we look at the betrayal of Christ from this angle what it shows us is that Christ is the Messiah and Son of God long prophesied to save us from our sins…

And the only way to be saved is by genuine, wholehearted faith in Him.

Receiving with all our heart… all our hope… all our trust… His person and work as our God and our Savior and the only way to be saved and forgiven of all our sins.

We are going to have two points today…

The Betrayal of Christ Reveals the Glory of Christ.

And The Betrayal of Christ Reveals the Need for True Saving Faith in His Glorious Person and Work.

Let’s start with point number 1…

I. The Betrayal of Christ Reveals the Glory of Christ

John 13:18–19 I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted 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.

After having just washed the disciples feet, Jesus now turns His attention to Judas and His imminent betrayal at Judas’ hands.

As He was washing their feet, Jesus had just said If I do not wash you, you have no share with me… And you are clean, but not every one of you. For He knew who it was to betray him; that was why He said, “Not all of you are clean.” (John 13:8-11).

And from here He goes on to explain what that means.

Judas is on the outside… he has not been cleansed by Jesus because he has no faith in Him.

So even here Christ is calling us to saving faith and our desperate need to be cleansed by Him.

And that’s when Christ says I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen.

Jesus is not talking here about election… about God choosing us before the foundation of the world.

He is talking about the Twelve.

In John 6:70 Jesus said “Did I not choose you, the Twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.... He spoke of Judas Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.”

This was unthinkable… one of Jesus’ closest disciple’s… one of the Twelve… one of the Apostles… was going to betray Him?

Its so utterly unthinkable that basically every time the Gospel writers mention Judas they make a note of the Betrayer.

But the Scripture will be fulfilled.

That’s what Jesus says.

Judas did not catch Christ unawares.

It was all according to God’s sovereign plan.

Comfort from Shock

One of the reasons Jesus said this was to comfort the disciples.

All that was about to happen was all according to plan.

His Betrayal, death, and crucifixion was all part of God’s plan from the foundation of the world to save His elect.

Comfort from Enemies

Jesus was also comforting the disciples that the enemies of Christ would not prevail… they would not win.

A lesson they would ultimately need themselves as they carried the Gospel out into the world and face the enemies of Christ for themselves.

They needed to know… God is sovereign over all…. no matter how dark… including our enemies.

The gates of death will not prevail against the church (Matthew 16:18).

1. Long-Promised Messiah

Fulfilled Prophecy

We should not just brush over Jesus’ words the Scripture will be fulfilled.

In those words is a powerful apologetic… a defense… of the truth of Christ and the Christian faith.

That Jesus is the Long-Promised and Long-Awaited for Messiah.

Jesus didn’t come into this world in a vacuum.

He came into the world after hundreds and thousands of years of prophesies all promising and pointing to Him.

And there were so many prophesies over such a long period of time with some of them being so highly specific that would be basically impossible for someone to fake or make up or just happen by chance.

Let alone all of them come together in just one single person.

But God gave these hundreds and hundreds of prophesies hundreds and thousands of years in advance to anticipate and confirm Jesus’ identity as the Messiah and do so in such a way and with such specificity that Jesus’ identity would be impossible to deny.

As God’s way of saying this is the One you’ve been waiting for.

The One I promised would come and save you from all your sins and here’s how you know.

He fulfilled this prophesy… and this prophecy… and this prophecy… and this one… and this one… and that one… and all the prophesies of the Old Testament.

This is why all throughout the Gospels and Acts they’ll point out something about Christ’s life and say this was to fulfill what spoken of by the prophet or this was to fulfill the Scripture.

It all pointed to Him.

Jesus even said in John 5:39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.

All the Scriptures testify that Jesus is the Christ… the Messiah who alone can save us from all our sin.

Appeal

Maybe if you’re on the fence trying to figure out if all this is true?

How can I know Jesus is the Messiah?

How can I know if I believe in Jesus I’m believing the Truth?

Maybe this will help you and encourage you to believe and take the leap of faith.

It would be almost impossible for anyone to fulfill almost all of these, let alone every… single... one essentially begging the question…

If Jesus is not the Messiah than who is?

And if He really did fulfill these prophecies the hundreds and hundreds of them… even those that would have been outside His intentional choice or control… then maybe He really is the Messiah and the Savior of the World.

All the Prophesies testify that Jesus was who He said He was.

Prophesies like:

The Messiah would come from the line of Abraham… the line of David… and the Tribe of Judah (Gen 12:3, 2 Samuel 7:12-13, Genesis 49:10, Matthew 1:1).

That He would be born of a virgin in the little town of Bethlehem (Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:22-23; Micah 5:2, Matthew 2:1).

That they would try to kill Him and His family would be forced to flee to Egypt (Hos 11:1. Matthew 2:15; Jeremiah 31:15, Matthew 2:17-18).

That He would come preaching in parables, casting out demons, opening blind eyes, healing the sick (Matthew 13:35; Isaiah 29:18, Matthew 11:5, John 9:39, Matthew 8:17).

That He would be betrayed and sold for 30 pieces of silver (Psalm 55:12-14, 41:9, John 13:18; Zechariah 11:12-13, Matthew 26:14-15).

Even in His death, it was prophesied that Jesus would be crucified between two sinners (Isaiah 53:12, John 19:18).

That He would be despised and rejected by men with the crowds yelling Crucify Him! We have no King but Caesar! (Isaiah 53:3, Matthew 27:16-26).

His hands and feet would be pierced (Psalm 22:16, Matthew 27:31).

Soldiers would cast lots for His garments (Psalm 22:18, John 19:23-24).

He would be given gall and vinegar to drink (Psalm 69:21, John 19:28).

And when the Jews wanted to have His legs broken so they could go and celebrate Passover, Jesus was already dead to fulfill what the Psalmist said Not one of His bones would be broken (Numbers 9:12, Psalm 22:17, Psalm 34:20, John 19:36).

And then when they buried Him, they buried Him with the rich man in His death (Isaiah 53:9, Matthew 27:57-60).

And this wasn’t Jesus’ disciples trying to fake it.

It was other believers who simply wanted to honor Jesus.

And then He rose again as prophesied in the Scriptures because He had no sin of His own and the the pangs of death could not hold Him (Psalm 49:15, Mark 16:6, Acts 2:24-28).

And now He has ascended into Heaven and exalted as the King of kings and Lord of lords at the right hand of the Father and heir of all nations (Psalm 110:1, Daniel 7:13-14, Genesis 49:10, Acts 2:32-36, Psalm 2).

Not to mention all the types and shadows that all pointed to Christ.

Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac.

The Exodus.

Passover and the Passover Lamb.

The Temple, Priesthood, and all the sacrifices.

Moses and David as Prophet and King.

Not to mention all the promises of the New Covenant of the New Birth and forgiveness of sins.

All these things were fulfilled in Jesus… and that’s just a fraction of the list!

The Big Idea is that all the prophesies of the Old Testament proclaim that Jesus is the and long-promised and long-awaited for Messiah.

He is the fulfillment of the Scriptures and all the promises of God are Yes and Amen in Him (2 Corinthians 1:20).

As I said… all of Christ’s fulfillment of prophesy is a powerful apologetic and assurance of the truthfulness of our faith…

And something that nobody could have faked or made up with a Bible that contains 66 different books written by about 40 different authors in 3 different languages over a period of about 1500 years.

(Barry Cooper, “The Authority of Scripture,” Simply Put Podcast, https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts/simply-put/authority-of-scripture#:~:text=The%20Bible%20contains%20sixty%2Dsix,fishermen%2C%20farmers%2C%20or%20kings).

All the Prophesies of the Old Testament fulfilled in Christ with not one missing or falling short show us that Christ is the Messiah.

The one long promised and long awaited for.

2. Victorious King

Betrayal Prophesy

Now specifically in our passage the prophesy Jesus is referring to deals with is one of His betrayal by Judas from Psalm 41:9 where it says He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.

Psalm 41:9 is a Psalm of David and as a whole its not Messianic because it speaks of David and His sin in Psalm 41:4 O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!

But as Jesus said there are aspects of it that are definitely Messianic meaning pointing to and having their fulfillment in the Messiah.

The Psalm itself refers to David’s trust in God in the midst of his enemies… obviously pointing to Christ.

And Psalm 41:9 specifically probably refers to David’s betrayal by Ahithophel.

Ahithophel was David’s trusted counselor but in Absalom’s revolt, David’s son, Ahitophel sided with Absalom and David was driven out of Jerusalem and from the Kingdom.

David was betrayed and so he prayed “O Lord, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness,” which God answered in Absalom’s rejection of Ahitophel’s wisdom leading Ahitophel to hang himself… the same fate that would eventually fall on Judas (2 Samuel 15:31, 17:23).

But here’s the point… it was a betrayal by a close friend… one who ate my bread as Judas does here.

In fact, the Psalm itself could even be translated as literally a man of peace in whom I trusted… and we all know Judas betrayed Christ with a kiss.

(Köstenberger, “John,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic; Apollos, 2007), 486).

The idea of lifting his heel is the idea of a crushing blow so the attack and the betrayal would be to crush Jesus… to utterly defeat Him.

But here’s what’s really cool.

The Psalm doesn’t end there. It doesn’t end in death and defeat.

It ends with great hope.

Psalm 41:10–13 But you, O Lord, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may repay them! By this I know that you delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me. But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen.

The Psalm ends with the great hope that David… and ultimately Christ… would triumph over His enemies!

That their plans would fail and Christ would rise victorious.

That even in His betrayal Jesus is the True and Greater King David.

The True and Better King who… like David… overcome all His enemies and restore the Kingdom.

The Kingdom of God…

The Kingdom of God’s Glory and Salvation. The Kingdom of Redemption.

Its God’s Kingdom of All Things New… of Life, Blessing, Peace and perfect Rest.

Its the universal rule of God over all things to the blessing and salvation of His people.

Now keep that in mind because its going to come up later.

Judas… and Satan in him… would lift his heel to crush Christ, but in doing so Christ would be crushed for us.

And in being crushed for us, He would crush the head of the Serpent and deliver us from all our sin (Genesis 3:15).

Christ would rise again in Triumph over all His enemies and in His death we would be saved.

So even in the betrayal of Judas, we have the good news of the gospel!

3. Son of God

And then Jesus says verse 19…

John 13:19 I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he.

So earlier we saw that He was the Messiah…

Then we saw He is the victorious True and Better King David…

And here we see that He is the Eternal Son of God.

Future

Jesus said I am telling you this now before it takes place.

God alone can tell the future because God alone is sovereign over the future.

Throughout Scripture telling the future is one of the things that God uses to distinguish Himself from all other false gods.

God alone is the only One who is sovereign over all things and works all things together towards His almighty Sovereign will.

No other false God can say that.

Isaiah 46:9–10 God said I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.

Jesus is God.

I AM

And going even further than that just to make it explicitly clear Jesus says I AM the Great I AM.

When it says that you may believe that I am he, literally in Greek, Jesus says that you may believe that I AM… no he… taking the Divine Name… Yahweh God… upon Himself.

We get the sense of what Jesus is saying here in Isaiah 43 which uses the same words in the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

Isaiah 43:10-12 That you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior… I am God.

That’s what Jesus is saying here.

I Am Yahweh… I Am the One True Sovereign Eternal God and Covenant Keeping Lord of Salvation.

That’s what Yahweh means… you can go back to our sermon on John 12:27-28 titled Show Me Your Glory!, to get more of that.

But that’s what Jesus says.

I Am… Lord and Savior.

Sovereign Eternal God and…

Covenant Keeping Lord of our Salvation.

And that’s who Jesus says I am.

I’m telling you this before so that when it takes place you may believe that I Am he.

The Lord God and Messiah. The Savior from all our sin.

Victorious Kingdom

And finally from there Jesus goes on to say…

John 13:20 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.

Now at first glance it might look like Jesus was talking about one thing only to immediately shift to another subject altogether.

But that’s not what’s going on here.

Jesus is giving His disciples assurance that His mission and His Kingdom still stands.

Remember how we said Jesus is the victorious True and Better King David?

Here he says He is the True and Better Victorious King David who rules over a victorious Kingdom as King of kings and Lord of lords.

Put yourself on that side of the cross.

The Messiah’s going to die. The one we’ve been waiting on.

The One who would restore the Kingdom.

What are we going to do?

And Jesus is saying the Kingdom and salvation all goes through the cross.

I might be betrayed.

I might die.

But the Kingdom and the Mission still stands!

This is not defeat.

I am the Messiah and I am the Son of God.

I will Triumph over my enemies and I will conquer sin, Satan, and death and send you as my servants and messengers that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth (John 13:16).

That’s where we are today.

Sent by Christ to proclaim His Kingdom and His salvation to the world.

And even though our enemies in the world might be strong… Christ is stronger.

Because going back to Old Testament Prophecies:

He shall have dominion from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth (Psalm 72:8, Zechariah 9:10).

And Psalm 22:27–28 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.

The Gospel will go out to the world and will work itself throughout the world by Prayer, Preaching, and the Power of the Holy Spirit until all is leavened.

That’s the hope we have in Christ’s victorious mission.

But Christ’s point here for the disciples is that His betrayal and cross would not be the end.

It would be the seed that would lead to a great harvest that would go forth to all nations and reach to the ends of the earth.

Transition

So in the betrayal of Christ we see the glory of Christ’s person.

He is the long-awaited Messiah.

He is the Eternal Son of God and Great I Am.

He is the One True God, Yahweh…The Almighty Eternal Sovereign God and Covenant Keeping Lord of our Salvation.

And He is the King of kings and Lord of lords who is victorious over all His enemies and rules over all to the salvation and blessing of His people and of the increase of His dominion and peace there will be no end (Isaiah 9:7).

In short, He is our Great God and Savior and the hope of all our faith who alone can save and cleanse us from all sin.

That’s how the Betrayal of Christ reveals the glory of Christ.

He is the object… the focus… the root and ground of all our faith.

And that takes us to point number 2.

Not only does the Betrayal of Christ reveal the glory of Christ in His person…

But…

II. The Betrayal of Christ Reveals Our Need for True Saving Faith in Christ’s Glorious Person and Work

John 13:21–26 After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke.

One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at 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 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.

This was probably a private conversation between Jesus and John almost spoken in a whisper because none of the other disciples seem to hear it.

When Judas gets up to leave, John tells us they all assume he’s going to buy more food or give money to the poor (John 13:29).

But what I always find amazing is that none of the disciples immediately thought to look at Judas.

That’s him!

Just the opposite.

When Jesus said one of you will betray me the other Gospels tell us that all the disciples started asking is it me?

But here’s the point you need to see: Judas was a hypocrite.

He looked the part… Walked the part… Talked the part.

But he did not have true saving faith.

On the outside he looked just like everybody else… one of Jesus’ disciples… one of the Twelve!

In fact, he looked so much like everybody else that he managed all their ministry funds even though John tells us earlier that he was skimming of the top, but at the time no one knew it.

Judas walked with Jesus.

He followed Jesus for three long years.

He heard His preaching.

Went on missions.

He did everything a disciple would do… but have saving faith.

He did not trust in Christ.

He was not saved.

That’s an important lesson for us because for one… we need to guard ourselves against hypocrisy.

Of following Jesus on the outside but not from the heart.

That’s the discipleship of Judas.

But for another what Judas shows us is that the only thing that saves is true saving faith.

A whole-hearted trust… belief… and love for Jesus that produces a whole-hearted all of life commitment follow after Him.

Do you have saving faith?

Coming to church doesn’t save you.

Listening to sermons doesn’t save you.

Praying or singing songs doesn’t save you.

For all you kids in here, having Christian parents doesn’t save you.

You need a personal faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

One that we’ll see in a little bit… receives Him as Savior and Lord and wholeheartedly trusts in Him.

You need to be born again.

That’s the difference between Judas and the rest of the disciples.

As Jesus said you are completely clean but not every one of you (John 13:10).

The only way to be clean and forgiven of all your sins is through faith in Him.

Sin

But before we get to that… notice Judas’ hard-heart of unbelief because it has application for us.

John 13:26–27 So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”

What you need to understand is that Judas is responsible for his own sin.

Satan entered into him, but Judas was a willing participant in his own sin.

God gave him over to the sinful desires of his own heart and in giving him over, Judas gave himself over to Satan and sin.

He made himself a willing slave and child of the Devil.

As Jesus said Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin… and you are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires (John 8:34, 44).

That’s Judas.

He was reprobate. God had ordained Judas to sin… Satan had entered into him… but ultimately Judas was responsible for his own sin.

Jesus said after Satan had entered into him… What you are going to do, do quickly… laying the responsibility solely at Judas’ feet.

Now here’s the important point for us.

Sin is the outworking of our own hearts.

Satan had thrown it into his heart to betray Jesus all the way back in verse 2… but Judas had watered it.

He nurtured it… he nurtured his temptation until he ultimately reaped a harvest of his own corruption.

It wasn’t like Judas all of a sudden up and decided to betray Christ.

He slid there.

He slowly, methodically, surely… one compromise after another… entertained the thoughts and temptations of the Devil until he made himself the son of destruction (John 17:12).

But that’s not where Judas started.

He probably didn’t start following Jesus thinking I’m going to betray Him.

That came with nurturing temptation to sin.

So what does that mean for us?

Repent

Number 1… we need to repent of our sin from the heart.

Not just give lip service to our sin, but actually put our sin to death.

Take it to Christ and say will you forgive me and help me to follow you.

That’s what repentance is… turning from sin to follow Christ.

Guard

And number 2… we need to guard our heart.

Proverbs says Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life (Proverbs 4:23).

James 4:5 says He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us.

Our God is a jealous God (Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:14; Deuteronomy 4:24).

And He will share our hearts and our love with no other.

Should we not then be jealous over our hearts and our own godliness?

Guard the borders of our godliness and put to death the even smallest temptation or seed of corruption that Satan would throw at us?

If God yearns jealously over the spirit he has made within us we should jealously guard our hearts for Him.

Sovereign Plan

Going back to our passage we should notice Jesus said What you are going to do, do quickly.

Jesus is still in sovereign control over this whole situation.

He tells Judas to go and Judas obeys.

Earlier Jesus had said, No one takes my life from me. I lay it down and I take it up (John 10:18).

All of this… His betrayal and His death and crucifixion was according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23-24).

When Christ died, He offered Himself as a willing sacrifice.

He bore our sins in His body on the tree that you and I might be washed clean… completely clean to use Jesus’ words from washing the disciples feet with our sins removed far from us as east is from the west (1 Peter 2:24, John 13:10, Psalm 103:12).

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11).

Jesus said unless I wash you, you have no share with me (John 13:8).

And this washing is the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).

The New Birth by His grace as a gift through faith in Him.

Saving Faith

So what is true saving faith?

What did Judas not have?

The key is all the way back in John 13 verse 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.

Its receiving Christ.

Putting all of our faith in and believing in Him.

The 1689 London Baptist Confession describes it like this.

Faith thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is alone the instrument of justification (1689 11:2).

Instrument

Saving faith receives and rests on Christ.

The receiving emphasizes that faith is a gift.

It is the work of God alone.

God regenerates our hearts and the first cry of the New Born Christian is saving faith: Jesus save me!

That’s why faith alone is the instrument of Justification because by its nature faith looks outside of itself.

It looks to another for help, mercy, and grace.

Salvation belongs to the Lord and all of it from beginning to end is a work of His sovereign mercy and grace.

Receiving

And when we talk about receiving Christ we are talking about receiving His person and work.

Its receiving Him as God and Messiah.

Savior and Lord.

Everything we talked about in the first point of the sermon.

Its receiving Him as our One True Sovereign God and Covenant Keeping Lord… Messiah… King of kings and Lord of lords.

And then receiving His sacrifice as the sacrifice… the satisfaction for all our sin.

Resting

And then saving faith also rests on Him… rests on His perfect person and work.

This is the difference between knowing the truth of the gospel and believing the truth of the gospel.

Saving faith doesn’t just receive Christ’s person and work it rests on Christ’s person and work.

This resting on is casting all the weight of the soul in dependence on Him.

Relying on Him and His perfection righteousness alone as our justification and salvation from all our sins.

As John said earlier John 1:12–13 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name,…

receiving and resting on Christ

…he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Born again by God’s grace as a gift.

Receive and rest on Christ.

Cast all your soul on Him and you’ll be saved.

To receive Christ is light and life… to reject Him is darkness and death… eternal condemnation for all our sin.

The same darkness and death Judas now experiences in rejecting Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

The last few verses of this sermon.

John 13:28–30 Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. 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. So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.

Night describes the hour and power of darkness (Luke 22:53).

But it also represents Judas’ spiritual condition.

He rejected the light and now all that was left for him was darkness… death… Hell… and condemnation.

That’s what Judas teaches us about saving faith.

Without it there is only night.

This is the fate that awaits all those who reject Jesus Christ.

To reject Him today… turn from Him today… to harden your heart as Judas did today… is to invite eternal night and the condemnation of your soul.

To yourself become a son of destruction like Judas.

Unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins (John 8:24).

Unless!

That’s the good news of the gospel.

Left to ourselves we are all Judas doomed to die and perish in our sins… lost forever to the darkness.

But Jesus is the light of the world… the Messiah… One True God and Covenant Keeping Lord of our Salvation.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:4–5).

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8:12).

Let’s Pray