What Drives You?

INTRODUCTION

Hello my name is Ian and I am one of the pastors here at FBC. If you are new here I would like to thank you for joining us either online or in person.

This morning we will be in John 13:18-30 if you would like to open your bible to there.

ILLUSTRATION

Have you ever felt betrayed in your life by someone? I am pretty sure all of us can speak into the fact that we have felt the feeling of betrayal at different points in our own lives. Through relationships, family, work situations and many other instances we have all gone through.

Can you imagine right now the feeling that takes place when you feel betrayed? I am sure we all know that gut wrenching feeling that seems to hit us all to our very core.

Now I want you to remember that feeling this morning because sometimes we forget that Jesus Christ felt the pains of this world the same as you and me. I would actually go as far to say that he knows those feelings better because He took all of our sins and carried that burden for us.

Jesus was betrayed by Judas in a way that led to the death of Jesus Christ dying on the cross. And Jesus knows the feeling of being betrayed like you and me. But the difference is that Jesus spent his time bringing Judas close, rather than push him away like most of us would do to someone who is going to betray us.

WHEN WE HEAR THE NAME OF JUDAS

When you hear the name Judas what comes to mind? Hypocrite, Traitor, a fraud? We can continue to come up with words that describe Judas but one of the biggest focuses that we see is that this is the man who betrayed Jesus Christ.

The Devil was able to use situations in the life of Judas to place him on a path separating him from Jesus Christ.

The betrayal itself was not actually an act of violence but instead was an act of affection. Wrongly motivated affection, a sign of friendship with a kiss.

We all have weaknesses and the devil will exploit those weaknesses just like he did for Judas.

PASSAGE BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT INFORMATION

If you remember in John 12 we had a meal take place in the house of Lazarus where the feet of Jesus were washed by Mary. Now we have another meal taking place with another foot washing, but this time it is from the Master Himself. They are sitting together having this meal and have done this in the past. They have been together for a few years now and you can imagine that the topics and discussions may be the same, but this meal is going to be different. This meal Jesus is going to express some more thought.

Meals mean something don’t they. When you invite someone over for a meal it is a time of fellowship. Yes, in our time we have fast food and restaurants that get you in and get you out, but when you are specific and say “Would you like to come to our house for dinner tonight” or whatever day you set there is a stronger bond. It is intimate and the meal that is taking place with Jesus and the disciples is intimate as well.

So let's begin this morning in John 13:16 because I believe it helps set us up for this time of fellowship they are having together.

SLIDE 1

BIBLE VERSE

John 13:16-21 NIV

16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. Jesus Predicts His Betrayal

18 “I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned[a] against me.’[b]

19 “I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am.

20 Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.”

21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”

EXPLAIN THE TEXT

We start this morning with an intimate setting where Jesus has just washed the feet of the disciples and is now laying down some heavy thought for the discipled to think about. See Jesus knows it is the end of his time and He is really expressing some final thoughts here and wants the disciples to know some things. Jesus is taking the time during this meal to bring up some things he is wanting to express before He is no longer with them in the World. Then through this conversation time Jesus hits them with a whammy in verse 18 when he says;

SLIDE 2

BIBLE VERSE

John 13:18 NIV Jesus Predicts His Betrayal

18 “I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned[a] against me.

ILLUSTRATION

This dinner conversation has now become a lot more serious.

Imagine sitting around this table and listening to what Jesus Christ is telling you and then He says this. I can only imagine the disciples looking around and wondering why Jesus would say this. To their knowledge everyone sitting with Jesus has been faithfully following Him the past few years and this is it, this is the elite. So why would Jesus not be referring to all of them?

Remember that your sin in your life may not be known to those around you and that's what makes it so dangerous. You can keep things in secret and put on a happy face to everyone else and live this double life without anyone else knowing. But Jesus will know and will always know what you are doing or desiring in your life.

Jesus in knowing this and knowing the desires of your heart also knows the feeling of betrayal, the feeling of being let down and I can only imagine that Jesus is going through these feelings in this situation and feeling the full weight of what Judas is about to do. Knowing that He is about to be betrayed.

BIBLE VERSE

John 13:2 NIV 2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.

THE TEMPTATION

So here we have Jesus already knowing that someone is going to betray Him and He says this out loud. He says this while Judas is sitting there with his mind already moving to a path away from Jesus.

The temptation had already entered into Judas. Throughout our life the devil will speak into our weaknesses and exploit that weakness to cause us to stumble or lead ourselves into a path apart from God.

Now I am not 100% sure that the temptation was only money in the case of Judas because I am not him. But I can read previously in John 12:4 when Judas questioned why Mary poured the nard which was an expensive perfume onto the feet of Jesus instead of seeing the act of service that was taking place.

When Judas approaches Mary his thought process isn't on the service that took place but instead it was because of the value of the perfume that Judas questioned it.

Then we also hear in the book of Matthew when Judas is about to turn over where Jesus is to the chief priests.

BIBLE VERSE

Matthew 26:15 NIV 15 and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver.

JUDAS AND MONEY

So we have these two elements we see from Judas where he is driven by money in his life or the thought of money. I am not certain this is all that was taking place in the life of Judas to lead him to turn in Jesus, but I can say that money was obviously involved and played a factor into the decisions Judas made in these moments.

The devil is going to use things in your life that you find important, interesting and use them to turn you away from God even though while you are in the situation it can look very comforting or desirable.

This is what the devil does in our lives. HE DECEIVES US!

The devil knows that through using these situations in the life of Judas that he is able to manipulate little things each and every day through various events in order to slowly guide him off the path.

That is why Jesus said back in:

BIBLE VERSE

John 8:42-45 NIV 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me.

43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.

44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!

EXPLAIN THE TEXT

This is the manipulation that the devil uses in our lives and changes these small things so that all of a sudden the big picture is not something we wanted, but all of these small changes lead us to slowly turn from God and before we know it we are going in a completely different direction.

In verse 2 we know that the devil prompted Judas to betray Jesus and what took place to motivate him is not 100% clear. The thing about the devil is that he will use what you value in this world to motivate you to turn away from God and make these things seem more desirable to you. In this case it seems that Judas can be driven by money and maybe the devil used this as a motivator in the mind of Judas and this is what was used to deceive Judas, but I am not sure what other factors came into play.

But another thing we can see here is that Judas was being manipulated by these small situations in his life that has somehow led him to make up his mind and no one else at the table knows this except Judas and Jesus. So, this conversation taking place is open to all who are listening but also closed to just Judas and Jesus without anyone else knowing.

The devil desires you to be separated from God and will use situations in your life to bring you further from God and now that Judas has made a choice the mindset of Judas has changed. But Jesus also knows the desires of your heart and knows the betrayal that is going to take place.

Can you imagine the feeling that Jesus is feeling? Knowing that someone is going to betray him and instead of pushing Judas away and reacting in the way we would probably act Jesus instead keeps Judas close.

Have you ever been in a situation where you feel like the person talking is speaking directly to you and you feel like everyone else sees it too? When you know you're doing something wrong or have done something wrong and you feel that someone else knows too. Just that uncomfortable feeling. I think this is possibly the way that Judas was feeling.

And there is a couple examples that Judas may be hearing that Jesus is using to say, "Hey I know what is going on."

I HEAR YOU

First we have the statement in

Verse 18

18 “I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen where I feel Judas may have been feeling that was directed to him.”

Then again in

Verse 21

21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”

And if we look back at last week

Verse 10

10 when Jesus says, "And you are clean, though not every one of you.”

These verses are these blows that I hear from Jesus where Judas is feeling smaller and smaller while sitting and I can imagine the room to him at least feeling very small and claustrophobic at this point.

When you know you are about to do something wrong, you can feel it in your own heart. For Judas this was possibly contributed to the desire for money, but for you it could be something else in your life that separates you from the intimacy from God. For you something else can be in front of you that looks incising, but it is being used by the devil to move you away from that relationship in God. The question is can you identify it in your life? Can you see the small changes in your life that are guiding you away from God?

SLIDE 3

BIBLE VERSE

John 13:22-24 NIV 22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant.

23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him.

24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.”

JUDAS IS DIFFERENT

So now in this room that the vibe has completely changed and the disciple leans against Jesus and in verse 25 asks, “Lord, who is it?

The disciples are confused because from their viewpoint everyone in that room was following Jesus. This was His core group and all of them have chosen to follow Jesus Christ, so they are confused as to who it could be that would betray Jesus.

You see Judas is different from the other disciples because although he left everything to follow Jesus in the same way, he also allowed the devil to manipulate him. Back in John 12:3-6 in the house of Lazarus Judas has a mental shift due to the value of the perfume which gives the devil the chance he is waiting for and in verse 4 it says,

BIBLE VERSE

John 12:4 NIV 4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected,

THE OPENING THAT JUDAS GAVE THE DEVIL

Judas objected and He is opening himself up in this moment to allow the devil to come into his life because Judas is choosing to not see the situation from the viewpoint of Jesus, but instead of his own selfish desires thinking what the money could be used for. Judas still has a stronghold to a worldly possession…MONEY.

Now as I stated before I do not know everything that Judas was going through that made him make this decision and the contribution of money may have just been that one piece that pushed him over the edge.

The devil manipulates people by using things in their life to slowly change their mindset without seeing the big picture. Over the course of some time the devil will guide you away from God.

Now maybe your sitting here this morning thinking well I am not greedy with money and this doesn't have an affect on me, but maybe you have something else in your life that you choose over God. There are many things that can cause you to change directions in your life and those changes don't need to be big but instead small changes that can be used by the devil to tempt you and steer you away from God and left unchecked and unmonitored you can find yourself way off of the mark.

ILLUSTRATION

The 1 in 60 Rule:

What happens if a plane is one degree off course?

This rule states that for every 1 degree a plane flies off its course, it misses its target by one mile for every 60 miles that you fly. The further you travel the further you become from your destination. The further you travel from God, the further you will end up from the destination God has for you.

Now for a few miles it may not look like such a big deal, but over the course of many miles (or many years in your life or many steps) you will end up way off track unless you place checkpoints in your life.

With this rule lets look at some parameters.

After 100 yards, you’ll be off by 5.2 feet. Not huge, but noticeable. So with God your still walking with Him, no big deal.

After a mile, you’ll be off by 92.2 feet. One degree is starting to make a difference. You can see God but maybe now you cant hear Him, but hey He is still there.

If you veer off course by 1 degree flying around the equator, you’ll land almost 500 miles off target! God isn't even in your life now.

To put this into perspective if you leave Benicia CA and drive to San Diego you will travel around 500 miles. That is how far off track you can become from a small choice in your life.

THE DEVILS INFLUENCE TO KNOCK YOU OFF COURSE

The devil will take small changes in your life to change your direction just one degree because you will not notice how big of an impact this will make in your life until you are further down the road. You will go on for a while and say "Hey i’m not far off the path, I can see it right there" "this isn't so bad". Then this continues until one day when you wake up and those small changes have turned into you being completely off course in your life.

IF YOU KNEW BETRAYAL WAS IN FRONT OF YOU

If you knew 100% that the person you were with in any given moment would betray you without a second though. You would know that no matter what happened that you were going to be let down… would you be around that person? Probably not.

If you knew someone was slowly trying to change your though process for the worse, to change who you are as a person and to make you slowly become something you are not and never wanted to be would you let that person in your life? Probably not.

The problem is that the devil doesn't look bad in these small situations because it is a little here, a little there but nothing big and impactful. Then all of a sudden your gone. All of a sudden Judas was gone and Jesus could have walked away like most of us would. But Jesus didn't, instead he kept Judas close to Him.

But this is what Jesus does for all of us. He let us all in knowing full well that our sinful nature would ultimately be the reason why Jesus would need to suffer and die on the cross. Jesus knew that Judas would betray him and kept him close.

Jesus knows that there are small decisions we make in our lives that will continually lead us to letting Him down time and time again, but he doesn't leave our side. He doesn't want you to leave the table.

Why?

JESUS IS THE TRUTH AND LOVES YOU

Because Jesus loves you and wants you to see the TRUTH even if that meant that He would need to die for you to see it. Even if the truth comes after his death because to Jesus you are worth it. Jesus wants you to have as much exposure to Him not matter what the cost in order to give you a change to change your life and follow him. Now even after all this time and the few thousand years after Christ gave himself with outstretched arms on the cross for your sins, He still wants you to see Him and change your ways. Judas ultimately learned of his fault which we will read in later verses and tries to change the outcome because he realized what he was now doing.

But Jesus knowing this kept him close because He wanted to teach him. Jesus does this with you too.

THE PERFECT LOVE OF JESUS

Sometimes we forget that Jesus was the perfect man. Jesus lived a life sinless in order to be a perfect and holy sacrifice for you on the cross for your life. And because of this life the Love that Jesus has for us is perfect.

So this perfect Love that Jesus has for us is still for Judas even though he was going to betray Him. Even though Jesus knew this would happen, he felt perfect love for Judas and also has perfect love for you.

So when you are thinking of not being good enough for Jesus and not wanting to admit you are wrong because you feel guilty. Know that Jesus loves you no matter what and wants that relationship with you.

Jesus will continue to love you even if you are about to betray Him in your life.

SLIDE 4

BIBLE VERSE

John 13:26-30 NIV 26 Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.”Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.

27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”

28 But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.

29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor.

30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.

AN UNDERLINING CONVERSATION

We have this exchange of words and this heavy conversation between the disciples and especially between Judas and Jesus. Then we see Judas leave the dinner and some thought he was leaving because Judas would be buying food for the festival when it says in

SLIDE 5

BIBLE VERSE

John 13:27 NIV 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.”

THE PERFECT LOVE OF JESUS CONTINUED

Jesus knew that Judas knew in his heart that he would betray Jesus and this is why Judas leaves. Jesus just handed the bread to Judas after telling them that the one who Jesus gives this bread to is going to betray Him.

You want to know how much Jesus loves you. He loves you enough to know through this whole conversation that Judas would betray Him which would lead to Him dying on the cross a painful death. But through His death He will rise again and defeat sin and death for your benefit.

Jesus loves you so much that he stretched out His arms and guarded you from a death that you would not rise from alone. To protect you from a death in eternity in hell separated from Him.

He loves you enough to step in front of you and say, I got this. He loves you enough to know that you will lie to Him, betray Him and deny Him and He will still ask you to sit with him because he knows the cost of His life is better than the cost of your life separated in eternity. The only thing you need to do is trust in Him, repent, and ask for forgiveness and chose daily to follow Him in your life. Will you mess up, yes you will! But Jesus paid the debt that you can never pay because He already knew that about you.

He already knew you would be unable to do it on your own, so he wants you to come sit with him at the table and join Him in fellowship because if you stay close to God and make daily choices to stay on the path of Him, then you will be less likely to wake up one day 500 miles off course not knowing where you are.

This morning you have an opportunity to say I will no longer follow this path I am on and instead I will choose to follow Jesus Christ in my life. All you need to do is choose to put your faith in Him, choose to follow the lifestyle he has laid out for you to follow. If you are here this morning I encourage you to think if you would like to take this step in your faith. Maybe you are here and you feel you have moved in a different direction and are no longer on the path you should be and you want to turn around. This is your chance right now and at the end of this message I will speak about an opportunity to start today on the right path.

BIBLE VERSE

Romans 3:22-24 NIV 22 This righteousness is given through faith in[a] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

JUDAS WENT TOO FAR

Judas continued down this path because he allowed the devil to guide him to do something that would betray Jesus. Judas made the choice and it wasn't until it was too late that he changed his mind and wanted to take those choices back.

LAST MINUTE CHOICES

No matter what you are doing in life and where you think you are you have the ability to change and turn around from that moment. It doesn't matter if you have a lifetime of Sin in your life there is always a point you can turn around.

Remember in Luke 23 when the thief who was being crucified next to Jesus spoke:

BIBLE VERSE

Luke 23:40-43 NIV 40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?

41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

APPLICATION

Even in these final moments of the thief decided to turn from his life of sin and acknowledge who Jesus Christ was in his life and you can too. You are not too far gone, your sin is not too much for Jesus to take from you. Remember that you are feeling overwhelmed in your sin because you are not strong enough to hold onto it, but Jesus Christ is.

A starting point can be how you live daily in your life. Here at FBC we say Worship, Connect, Grow and Go. Through this process we continue to stay on the right path daily. Worship God in your daily lifestyle, Connect with others to build fellowship together and have that  accountability, Grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ and Go engage the world to teach them to do the same. If you continue daily to make that change to follow Jesus Christ then you will continue to keep yourself on the correct path.

CONCLUSION

The Lord wants to be with you, live with you, eat meals together and grow in fellowship together because he loves you. The choice you have this morning to make is if you will allow the greed in your life to change the outcome of that fellowship with God. Will you let it drive you away until it is too late or will you see the error in what you are doing and make that change and turn away from the sin in your life.

Don't be like Judas and allow things in your life to grow out of control to the point you realize too late that you were wrong. Prepare yourself to catch those times you may head down the wrong path.

The question is are you going to give Jesus the quality time because we see through this whole message that Jesus clearly wants you around regardless of how broken you may think you are in your life. Jesus wants a relationship with you.

I said I will speak to you of an opportunity at the end of this message and I would like to get into that now. We all here are in different places in our lives. Some of you may be new to faith or still wondering if being a Christian is a choice you want to make. Others may be looking into their heart and know that even though they are Christian and believe in Jesus over time they are not on a different path and have felt they needed to make a change to go the right direction again.

I would like to ask you now to bow your heads and close your eyes. If you would like to make this commitment to Jesus Christ right now in your life I encourage you to repeat after me silently in your seat and I would like to pray for you right now. If you decide to pray this prayer of salvation this morning to receive Jesus for the first time or to get back on track I would love to hear about it and will be up front after the service and can speak further about next steps for you.

Lets pray

PAUSE

Dear Lord,

I admit that I am a sinner.

I have done things in my life that do not please you

and I have lived for my own desires.

I am sorry and I repent and ask you to forgive me.

I believe that you died on the cross for me to save me.

You did what I could not do for myself.

I come to you now and ask you

to take control of my life and put me on the correct path.

I give my life to you.

From this day forward I choose to trust and believe in you

and I ask you to help me live every day for you in a way that pleases you.

I choose to receive you as my Lord and Savior.

Amen