The Traitor Revealed

Jesus Establishes His Sovereignty

The betrayal of Judas was not a surprise to Jesus.

“I speak not of you all.”

A reference back to verses 1-17 and specifically verses 10 and 11.

Not all of them were true disciples

Not all of them were truly clean.

“I know whom I have chosen”

There are some who try to make this phrase about the doctrine of election. The truth is that some have a tendency to see election everywhere. This is not about election but simply the choosing of the twelve apostles.

Jesus has already proven to His disciples that he knows their hearts and minds.

While it is not recorded there was a moment between Jesus and Judas where Jesus looked him in the eye and said follow me, knowing full well who Judas was and what he would one day do.

Why would Jesus choose Judas? - “That the Scripture might be fulfilled”

Jesus then quotes Psalm 41:9 Even my close friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me.

Jesus is no ordinary prophet.

He is not just relaying a prophetic word from the Lord as all other prophets did.

He was the actual source of the prophecy.

He was and is the power behind the fulfillment of prophecy.

In this we can see the establishment of Jesus’ sovereignty. He not only made the prophecy He was the cause of its fulfillment some three years earlier when He chose Judas as one of His disciples.

Judas was a necessary part of God’s redemptive plan.

Zechariah 11:12-13 I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my wages; but if not, never mind!” So they weighed out thirty shekels of silver as my wages. Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD.

Jesus knew what Judas would do long before Judas was born.

Why was a betrayal a

Psalm 55 - implies that it would be a close friend to betray the Messiah

John 6:70 Jesus answered them, “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?”

John 17:12 “While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.

Judas’ betrayal was a part of God’s plan and in that sense was foreordained by God, but that does not absolve Judas of his actions. It was his choice to betray Jesus and God chose to use his betrayal for His glory.

Application: I hope that as you read this and consider the scope of Christ’s sovereignty you find yourself in complete awe of God: Father, Son and Spirit.

Jesus Explains a Part of the Plan

Why did Jesus find it necessary to explain to the disciples that he would be betrayed?

As Peter will soon prove, by denying the Lord three times, the faith of the disciples at this point was upon the edge of a knife.

By telling the disciples ahead of time he prevented the betrayal from becoming a stumbling block to their faith.

Consider the doubts this could have caused:

If Jesus was God why would He have allowed Judas to betray Him at all?

If Jesus was God why would He choose Judas as one of the twelve?

Why didn’t He stop Judas?

Did Judas really find it so easy to deceive Him?

The Explanation

“Now I tell you before it come” - before the betrayal actually happens (the disciples may have been wondering what “it” was; the betrayal and crucifixion were still future events for them.)

“when it come to pass” - when they witness the betrayal

“that ye may believe”

John’s key phrase

John 20:31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

“that I am He”

This is a phrase that Jesus used multiple times to show that He is the Messiah that the O.T. predicted.

Here Jesus uses the phrase to clearly teach the disciples that He is the one who Psalm 41:9 speaks.

Jesus explains how they will continue to fit into the plan after the betrayal. (v. 20)

Verily, verily or truly, truly

John 13:20 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”

The point that Jesus is making is that even after His death their commission remains the same. This is the building block of what would later be the great commission. This is not the first time Jesus has commissioned His disciples using similar language. Matt. 10:40 “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.

It is this commission that takes disciples or followers and makes them apostles or sent ones.

Jesus announces the betrayal. (v. 21)

Before this statement in verse 21 you could have perhaps interpreted Jesus’ warnings about betrayal in a nonliteral sense, but not here.

Notice Jesus’ mood

“troubled in spirit”

John 11:33 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled,

John 12:27 “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.

The disciples could tell something was wrong.

He testified

A word rarely used in the other Gospels

Used 33 times in John.

It designates that He is about to say something important.

“Verily, verity, I say unto you that one of you shall betray me.”

Jesus drops the hammer

A cold but clear revealing of what is about to take place.

Jesus Exposes the Traitor

The disciples begin to question themselves. (v. 22) They would have been concerned about three things:

Who would betray Jesus?

Was this betrayal intentional?

How serious would this betrayal be?

Eventually the meal went on and they began to talk of other things. But there was one disciple who could not let this go. (v. 23-25)

John in his narration gives us a clue as to how all of this looked.

Their dinning room table looked very different from ours.

It would have been a short table or matte that the food was placed on with cushions all around that they could recline on.

Leonardo’s painting of the last supper is terribly inaccurate. (why are they all sitting on one side of the table like they are posing for a picture?

Here is a better picture, though not perfect. (Jesus probably would not have had His head covered.)

John tells us that the disciple “whom Jesus loved” was next to Him.

Why not name him?

Probably because this is John himself and he is trying not to draw attention to himself.

Peter somehow got John’s attention and tells him to ask Jesus who would betray Him.

Knowing Peter he probably intended to intervene.

As he would do in Gethsemane during Jesus’ arrest.

The Traitor Revealed (v. 26)

“He it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it.”

A “sop” is an old English word for a piece of food, usually bread, that is dipped into a sauce or other food and then consumed.

A better translation for modern readers would be morsel or just bread.

In eastern meals it was customary to give the honored guest the first piece of bread.

“And when He had dipped the sop, He gave it to Judas Iscariot the son of Simon.”

This appears to be a private conversation between Jesus and John.

In His last interaction with Judas, Jesus offers him bread one final time.

This was genuinely and act of love. One last chance for Judas to accept not only the bread being handed to him, but also the bread of life.

Was Judas already planning the betrayal or did he do it on a whim or a moment of weakness?

John 12:4-6 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?” Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.

Judas’ betrayal was a cold and calculated act on his part.

Now that John knew why didn’t he do something?

Perhaps over the last years of ministering with Jesus, John had learned not to act on impulse but rather to wait for Jesus’ instructions.

And so John does nothing.

Jesus Exhorts the Devil

Judas is possessed by Satan himself.

“The Lord knew what had happened. The devil himself now leered at Jesus through the eyes of Judas. Abruptly Jesus dismissed Judas from the fellowship of his people. He bade him be about his terrible business and to hurry up with it.” - John Phillips

The Exhortation

In the hearing of all of them.

“That thou doest, do quickly.”

Now Judas knew that Jesus knew, but that did not stop him. Nor would we expect it to for Judas was now under the complete control of the evil one.

Jesus isn’t interested in delaying the inevitable.

With these words Jesus pulls the trigger on His own death.

The Disciples were confused (v. 28, 29)

Food for the feast - the feast of unleavened bread

Give to the poor - perhaps a common practice near feast times

Judas quietly disappears into the night (v. 30)

Judas was planning the death of Jesus

He didn’t know that he would hang from a tree a mere hours before Jesus hung from the cross.

Application

Lost opportunity / wasted privilege - the time Judas spent with Jesus

Love or money or power - Why Judas was with Jesus in the first place

The vileness of betrayal

The Mercy of Jesus - toward Judas

Nothing sinful men can do will thwart the purposes of God.