Undercover Unbeliever

Undercover Unbeliever

Suppose for a moment that a prophet came into our building. This is just a thought exercise, and the point is not whether there are still prophets today as in the Old Testament sense, but just to get you thinking about a response you would have. 

So let’s pretend for a moment that a true prophet were here speaking to us, and he made this startling statement: “There is someone in this congregation in deep sin. It is sin that will eventually destroy that person, because it is going to bring them to complete physical and spiritual destruction and that person will be in hell for an eternity of conscious torment and anguish.”

Since we are pretending that this man was the real deal, a prophet who had been proven to be a true prophet by verifiable means, who had made absolutely true predictions in the past, had proven to be faithful to God’s Word, and whose words were those from God himself. And if that person told us that someone among us was overcome by a terrible sin that would ultimately mean spiritual death and eternal damnation to someone right here in this room, what would be your first thought?

I think I will be a bit bold here and say that we would be asking ourselves some questions. Many would be looking around, trying to figure out who this sinner was. We perhaps would be calculating the likely possibilities of several candidates we think must be the guilty one. We would be doing this based entirely upon our own observations and perhaps rumors we had heard, and our curiosity would have our minds running at full speed, trying to know who this person is. 

Perhaps we think it must be the person who was rude to us, maybe we remember that so and so used to be an addict and has slipped back into the habit. Perhaps we would assume it was someone who had a divorce or bad marriage, or someone else who did time. The way our minds work, in our rush sometimes to have all the current gossip, we may look quickly around and within moments come up with several people we think this could apply to. 

How many of us would be completely unconcerned about who else it may be and instead be concerned that we were the guilty one? How many of us would react to the news that someone in our group was surely going to perish in hell by thinking about whether it could possibly be ourselves? Would we examine ourselves? Or would we examine everyone else?

Jesus gave this very prediction to a small congregation. Jesus, a proven prophet, who had been verified was real through miracles and accurate prophecies, one commended by God in clear ways, and who rightly handled the Word of Truth, and who had proven himself to actually be the Truth, said to the small congregation gathered for Passover on the night he was betrayed. 

Matthew 26:20–25 ESV

When it was evening, he reclined at table with the twelve. And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” And they were very sorrowful and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.”

So Jesus tells the disciples that one of them will betray him. No one blurted out, “It’s Judas! I knew it! We never should have trusted him with the moneybag!” Let’s consider 2 reasons I believe they did not react this way, by pointing out Judas as the one. The first reason is that the Disciples simply were not thinking that way. After spending almost 3 years with Jesus, they had attained a level of maturity. Not perfection, but they had grown. So their first response was not to point the finger. Every one of them had probably at times been personally rebuked and challenged by Jesus in their thinking. So the first reason I believe they did not start pointing the fingers is because they had Christian maturity and had learned to examine themselves. 

The second reason is that it was not obvious to them that Judas was an unbeliever who had turned the corner regarding Jesus. He was an undercover unbeliever. Not one of the other disciples suspected him to be a fraud, even though there may have been hints. And as we take communion this evening, we remember that as part of this, we are to examine ourselves. And our example is here at the time that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. 

Before Jesus took the bread and the cup, he makes this very disturbing statement. Think of this small group. They had been with Jesus for many months, serving him, learning from him, participating in ministry together, and surely they had become, in the midst of all of that, good friends and companions as well. It must have been shocking to hear Jesus say what he did, that one among them was going to betray him, that the consequences for that betrayal would be so severe that the one who is guilty would have been better off having not been born at all!

Other than Judas, Each of those disciples must have known their own level of commitment to Christ, they had saving faith and the security of being one who Jesus had called, and yet, they each heard this statement of Jesus and each one immediately had to ask if it was them. They were concerned that Jesus might know something about their future they could not imagine, and so they each, one by one, ask, with this sorrow and concern “Is it I, Lord?”

Nobody said it is probably Peter, he is so rash, or it must be the brothers who argued who got to sit on his left or right, or anything else. No, they asked Jesus, is it I? And so as we set out to examine ourselves when we take communion, we would do well to not only look at our own selves, for we can deceive ourselves, but rather we should ask the Lord Jesus Christ, “is it I, Lord?” Am I in danger of falling?” We must ask him, “Lord, reveal my hidden sins, even the ones I myself have tended to overlook.”

We must not look around the room, and think, “I hope they are confessing, the one who offended me. I hope they are confessing, the one who I know has done this or that, I hope they are confessing, because they are surely in deep trouble if they do not change their ways quickly.” No, like the disciples, we must ask the Lord Jesus to reveal to us our own nature, because we are all too quick to ignore our own failings and gloss over our own offenses. 

Sometimes the one who seems most visibly in trouble with God is nearest to His grace, and the one who thinks they are doing well is the closest to falling. Recall the tax collector who prayed humbly and beat his chest, compared to the Pharisee who stood tall with the confidence in himself that was his own condemnation, and consider how the disciples reacted with trembling when Jesus said one of them would fall. None of them had such confidence to look around trying to figure out the puzzle. No, they each in turn, and with great sorrow, went to Christ to ask him to reveal to them if they were in danger, and so we must examine ourselves as well. 

 We know what became of Judas, and we don’t think we would probably go that route. If we are in our flesh and our worldly confidence, we cannot imagine we would ever fall, but if we are honest, we must acknowledge that we cannot keep his commands on our own. 

The following passage is to you only if you have a saving faith in Jesus, and if you do not, do not think the promise is for you, but I pray you would discover its truth and meaning by the Holy Spirit’s work. If you are a believer, there is great hope here in this passage:

Romans 8:1–11 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

This is the good news and why we celebrate today, that Jesus has indeed paid it all. 

Matthew 27:45–54 ESV

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

There were two reasons the disciples did not react to Jesus that night when he told them of the betrayal by looking around in judgment. First, they applied the Words of Jesus by checking themselves to see if they were the one. They examined themselves by inviting Jesus to reveal to them the truth, even though that examination might prove to be very troubling.

Second, they did not suspect that Judas would be the traitor. He had not made it plain to them, only Jesus was aware of his deception until that moment. You don’t have to be a Judas to fool others. You may not be in full betrayal mode, but still fooling many around you. Our desire should be that we are authentic, that our behavior and thoughts match our profession of faith. That we are really who we claim to be. That we are people of integrity, whose behavior is the same when people are not watching as when they are. 

And so the lesson to us is that we must, no matter whether we are new to this faith or have matured in it for many years, we must never consider ourselves to be above asking the Lord of Life “It is I?” He is our teacher, but he must be our Lord as well. All of the disciples asked “is it I, Lord?” Except Judas, who asked “Is it I, Rabbi (or teacher). Judas was only willing to have Jesus as a teacher, not as Lord. We must make Him our Lord as well.

Matthew 26:26–29 ESV

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”