of the gospel of John. Please open to John chapter 13. John chapter 13. As I've explained before, beginning in John 13 through the end of John 17, there's a transition that's happening in the gospel of John. The public ministry of Jesus has come to an end at the end of chapter 12. Beginning in 13 through the end of 17, Jesus is alone with his apostles. He's alone with his disciples and he's giving them his last words. Most of it is taking place during the last supper, the Passover meal that he has with them. He's preparing them or striving to prepare them for all that's about to come. Remember that that night he goes to Gethsemane, that night he's betrayed by Judas Iscariot, that night he's taken to trial, beaten, badly beaten, and the next day crucified. So this is all right before that night. Sorry, right before that coming event. And around this table, our Lord is encouraging His disciples the best He can. He's preparing them. He's even going to pray for them in one of the most beautiful prayers in the Scriptures in John 17. And He's hoping to prepare them for this great event, this terrible event that is about to come. The reality is that He was about to be betrayed by one of His own. And He's talking in great detail about this betrayal, and He says that it shakes Him to His very core. So we're going to discuss this particular passage, this betrayal, and we'll see that Jesus is not going to let a betrayal come between God's will for Him and the redemption of His people. So we'll read John 13, beginning in verse 17. John 13, beginning in verse 17. And I'll read all through verse 32. 17 through 32. Please stand, actually, for the reading of God's Holy Word. John 13, 17. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I'm 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'm telling you this now before it takes place, that when it does take place, you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. 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 the 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 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. Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, What you are going to do, do quickly. Now, no one at the table knew why he had said this. Some thought that because Judas had the money bag, Jesus was telling him, by 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. When he had gone out, Jesus said, now is the son of man glorified and God is glorified in him. And if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once. Amen. Please be seated. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God Stand forever. Let us pray. Almighty God, we are humbled to have the Holy Scriptures, the Word of God in our hands. We pray that by your Holy Spirit you would do what no one else can ever do. And that is teach truth to our souls. Lord, open our eyes, unstop our ears, soften our hearts. that we might hear and receive the Word of God. Use this broken stick to strike a straight blow in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, what we see in this particular passage is the almighty, ever-present, powerful Savior Jesus Christ. In this passage, we see the great confidence that He has. I've got three C's for you. the great confidence that He has, the great compassion that He has, and the great courage that He has because He knows His Father, because He trusts His Father, because He knows the goodness of God. Confidence, compassion, and courage. He has confidence in the plan, compassion for the lost, and courage in the face of the most terrible trial that anyone will ever experience in life. Understanding God's sovereignty is a great comfort to the Christian, knowing the Father's will was the great confidence of Jesus. Robert Murray Machen, preached that there was absolutely no inconsistency in declaring the absolute sovereignty of God, yet with the unimpaired responsibility of man. We see that in this passage. The absolute sovereignty of God and the unimpaired responsibility of man. The sovereignty of God gave Christ confidence. All things would happen exactly as His Father had determined. And yet, Judas was required to be obedient. Obedient and to follow God. And he rejected that. And is held accountable for that. But there's a nuance of his sovereignty that is referenced here, and that's the fulfillment of Scripture. You see, God has secret plans, but He reveals some of His plans to us. And this is seen in the Scriptures. Nowhere else. There's no more prophecy. There's no more words that will will give us new revelation. We've got everything that we need in the Scriptures. Well, the fulfillment of prophecies and Scriptures is also part of the sovereignty of God revealed to us. And Jesus says it will happen. So this knowledge of the Father's heart, of the Father's plan, gave Jesus confidence. And that's our first point. He had confidence in the plan. He had confidence that Scripture would be fulfilled. And this all, of course, is speaking of God's sovereignty on the world. Look at verse 17 with me. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I'm not speaking of all of you. I know whom I have chosen. Again, this is just very quickly. You see that you are blessed if you do them. That's man's responsibility. And as so often in the Scripture, we see this right in the very next breath. He speaks of God's absolute sovereignty. is electing love. I know whom I have chosen. And yet you are only blessed if you do them, if you do the will of God. Well, of course, only the chosen, only the elect have the ability to do the will of God. Only those who have put their faith in Christ can obey God. But he's speaking here very clearly of election, he knows he has elected some to life. Why would He say that in the midst of this? This discussion? He's telling them really, one of you will betray Me. Not all of you. You're not all wicked. You're not all evil. One of you is. But not all of you. Some are going to be faithful. He's preparing them. He's letting them down, if you will, as easily as possible. He's providing a soft landing as He can in stormy weather so that they might know that even though this betrayal is going to happen, God is still with them. They can have confidence. And He shows them the confidence that He has. The next few verses help the apostles in three ways. Most of all, He tells them that this is part of God's plan. And when it all happens, they will remember and know that He is God. He also tells them that this was all anticipated. There's no surprises. Jesus is not surprised. You think anything that happens in your life is a surprise to God? None of it. None of it. And nor was this a surprise to God. This was all anticipated in the Scriptures even. And He tells them that not all of them will fall away. Don't all be discouraged. It's just one of you. It's only one of you who will disappoint and betray. But this was ordained from eternity past that one would betray The Lord, the son of destruction, as he's called the one who lifts up his heel against him. And that's why. He was confident that this was coming because the Scripture will be fulfilled, he says. He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. This will happen. This will be fulfilled, he says. The Scripture will be that that's confidence right there. Do you have that same confidence in the Word of God that what it says is true? He's showing us what that confidence looks like. And of course, he references Psalm 41, as we discussed. This is not, every bit of the psalm is not messianic. Of course, Jesus never sinned. And yet when he speaks of the rebellion and the rejection that is coming to him, this of course is messianic. This reflects his heart. It reflects his heart. That his enemies would say, when is he going to die? This is Psalm 41, verse 5. When will He die? When will His name perish? Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me. So there's a cultural element of this that you need to understand. In the ancient Near East, and really even in the East today. If you've ever been to the Middle East, you know this is true. If someone welcomes you into their house, There's a special protection and a special honor that you have. And this was true in the time of Christ as well. We hear this even in David's prayer in Psalm 23. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You see, to sit at table, to sit at meat, to sit at meal with a friend in someone's house is to have the protection. And even if that person is an enemy, He's obligated to protect you and to honor you while you are in His house. And again, this is still the tradition, the cultural tradition today in the Near East. So if you take that as truth and you flip it, Jesus is saying, I've welcomed you into My house. I've welcomed you to this meal. I've even given you a morsel of bread. and You lifted Your heel against me." I mean, we understand this too. It would be like you inviting someone into your home. I've been in many of your homes eating. Would you feel like it was just outrageous if I stood up in your home and I started cursing at your wife and throwing the food out? Like what an outrageous thing. Here I am, Pastor, I've welcomed you into my home. I've attempted to show you great love and hospitality. You repay me by cursing at my wife, throwing her food onto the ground, or something of that nature? Can you imagine spitting in your face? So we taste, if you understand that, you see just a little bit of the great value hospitality was to those in the ancient Near East. And Jesus and David are saying, I've welcomed this person into my home. I've shared bread with him and he lifted his heel against me. This describes how Jesus must be feeling in this moment. And although this betrayal was coming, and although he knew it, he's not thinking of himself. Rather, he's thinking of his sheep. As the words that follow clearly show. He's the one about to be betrayed. He thinks of his sheep. He thinks first of these who are with Him, who are not going to betray Him. And He begins to encourage them. First, He encourages them by telling them that the Scriptures will be fulfilled. There's nothing apart from God's plan. But then in verse 20, He encourages them in a different way. He says, whoever receives the one I send, again, truly, truly, I say to you, amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send, receives me. And whoever receives Me, receives the one who sent Me." So Jesus is thinking of encouragement. You might wonder, well, how is that encouraging? That night, their master would be betrayed. The next day, killed. How does this encourage them? Knowing that whoever receives the one I sent, receives Me. What Jesus is telling them is that your mission has not changed. Your mission has not lost any value, any potency, any power. The word that I have given you, you still will go out and you will accomplish it. And whoever receives you will be receiving me and the Father. Your mission will not fail because one of your number has betrayed. They still have a worth and a dignity in their mission. The word of Christ himself goes with them. And no one man's betrayal is going to change God's redemptive purpose. And this holds true today. I was thinking of all of the people, all of the great Christian leaders in my lifetime who have fallen away and done some despicable harm to the church. Ian Campbell or Robbie Zacharias or more recently Steve Lawson. These men disgraced the church by their conduct. And yet, does that lessen the authority of a minister to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ? Absolutely not. The Holy Spirit will do His work. So Jesus is encouraging them, saying, one will betray you, yes, but I'm still sending you out. And the one who receives your word receives my word. And receives the Father who sent me as well. Don't be discouraged about the future. Likewise, a new believer who receives this message is receiving the Son and the Father. And what a wonderful blessing this was. Satan probably thought that the whole train was going to be derailed. It was going to be thrown off the tracks by this betrayal. And yet it was all part of God's holy and righteous plan. His ambassadors, his missionaries, his apostles would still do their work. But Jesus was still, verse 21, troubled in his spirit. In the Greek, it's more than troubled in spirit. It's like he's torn up inside. So it's not just because Jesus knows everything and he's God that he doesn't feel as a human. He felt it. He's troubled, deeply troubled in his spirit. And he says plainly, truly, truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me. And the disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. They're stunned. They don't know who he's talking about. but Jesus was warning them for a reason. Why so that they would have confidence? That's this first point. Confidence. Verse 19. He says I'm telling you this before it takes place so that when it does take place, you will know that I am he. And surprise surprise, this word he is provided in the English. It's not in the original. The original just says so that you will know that ego Amy I am I am. You will know that I am God. When all of this takes place, you will have confidence and you will know that I am the Almighty God. So that's the confidence they have in this. This betrayal would be a huge blow to the disciples. Nobody suspects Judas at this time. And Jesus knew that this blow would threaten to disintegrate their body, and yet he's pulling them all back and he's saying, no, it's all going to happen the way it was supposed to. And when you remember all this, you'll know that I am. You'll look back and you'll exclaim, He really was God. So He has great confidence. Christ has confidence and He's trying to disseminate this confidence to His apostles who are about to be shaken to their cores as well. But we also see in this passage the great compassion Jesus has for the lost. And I'm speaking of Judas Iscariot. Jesus testified that He was troubled in His spirit in verse 21. And He says, truly I say to you, one of you will betray Me. So, think of maybe a similar situation. I was trying to think back in kind of a boardroom situation where I know that one of the people at the table is absolutely against Me. And in the Air Force, we have a lot of meetings. So we're sitting around this long table, and the commander usually sits in the front. And if you know one of the folks is against you, I mean, in the military, we're pretty direct. You just call them out. And you do it publicly. All right, Captain Johnny, I think that you are against this particular policy. Tell me why. And you just discuss it openly. And everyone knows, yep, it's Johnny who's been causing the problems. That seems the most kind of direct way to handle an issue, doesn't it? Someone's against you. Let's let's talk it out and I'm going to let everyone know you're the one. Jesus doesn't tell anyone. Jesus knows it's Judas Iscariot. And he doesn't tell anyone. And the question is why? Why doesn't he do this? Why doesn't he say this is what I would do? Alright, Judas, you're going to betray me. Now get out and do your do your thing. Why doesn't he say it like that? I know you're going to betray me, just go do it. We don't see that at all. Judas actually leaves and nobody knows who it is. He keeps it a secret. Why? Why would he do this? I believe it shows the great kindness and grace of our Savior. Judas has to be one of the absolute worst sinners in the history of mankind. to be brought into the inner circle of Jesus and His people, and then to betray Him to the cross. If anyone deserved to be treated poorly, it was Judas Iscariot. It's not what Jesus does. He seems to graciously hold out, publicly condemning him. He seems to graciously hold out an olive leaf to Judas Iscariot, leaving the door open for some potential repentance. You see, just because we know that God has ordained all things doesn't change our responsibility. He knew that God had ordained all things related to His death, and yet He knew that Judas had a responsibility to repent. And maybe as man, he thought, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. We don't know what he's thinking, but He does not condemn him publicly. He treats him with kindness. Remember, he's just washed his feet. He knew he was going to betray him. He doesn't call him out publicly. He treats him with kindness. He's troubled to his core that this betrayal is coming, and yet. He treats him with great grace. One of his closest friends in the world was going to lift his heel against him, one who sat right next to him. And he continued to show love to his betrayer, it seems like to the very end. He even allowed Him later to walk up to Him in the garden and kiss Him. He allowed Him to do that. Well, the disciples are uncertain of who it is. They look at one another in verse 22 and they're like, who is it? We know in Matthew's account that they walk around or they talk about it in this way. Lord, is it I? Is it I? Is it I? They've seen Jesus for three and a half years. Imagine that. They've been together for three and a half years. walking with Jesus. They've walked to and fro across Judea. They've seen Him heal the sick. They've seen Him cast out demons. Amazing things. They've seen Him take a few loaves of bread and feed thousands and thousands. They've seen Him turn water into wine. They've seen Him calm a storm with His words. They've seen Him walk on water. They've heard the Father Himself speaking from heaven about Him. They've seen all this together. And Jesus says, one of you is going to betray Me. They had to be stunned. If you've been on a sports team and you've gone all the way through the year, maybe two years together, and you go to state and you have some great victory or defeat at the end, there's a bond that happens. And can you imagine if you got to the end of it and you realized, that the catcher was throwing the game on purpose. He was striking out on purpose. Someone had paid him to throw the game so that you would lose. After seasons of being together, what a betrayal that would be. Or in the military, you go on a long deployment and at the very end of the deployment, you find out that one of your numbers is actually working for the enemy. And he's telling the enemy of your position and people have been hurt and killed because of that. What a betrayal. They've been together for three and a half years. And after all that, Judas is still going to betray them. And they're looking at each other saying, is it is it I? Is it I? Well, we see again, Jesus just showing grace and kindness. To Judas Iscariot. Now again, there is like it's not a problem if you don't if you don't understand it, it could be a problem, but it's not a problem. How did Judas leave and no one not know that it's him? We hear all the conversation. No one knew it was him. How did this happen? Well, it has something to do with how they're sitting and I'm going to take a moment just to explain it once again. There's a low table. Kind of probably a rectangular table about this far off the ground and there's pillows all around it. And they would recline around this table, They're kind of leaning on their left elbow with their legs out behind them. And the person next to them would just kind of lean on his left elbow right next to you. So this is John the Baptist. Sorry, John the Apostle. And he's about this far from Jesus head. So when he's talking, he just kind of leans up and says what he's going to say. And on this side, most theologians I've read agree that this is probably Judas Iscariot. So Jesus takes the bread and gives it to him. And if that is so, At that time, the left side at a meal was the place of honor. So he put Judas Iscariot in the place of honor. They're all reclining around this table. And with that context, look at this. One of the disciples whom Jesus loved was reclining at Jesus' side just next to his bosom. And Peter motions and says, hey, who is it? Who is it? Of course, John and Peter had probably known each other their whole lives. So Peter's telling him, figure this out. The one who Jesus loved just leaned back. And Jesus loved all of His apostles, except for Judas Iscariot. He could not love him with a saving love because he was rebellious and evil. But the other 11, He loved with a dear love. And John seemed to know this. He knew it more than everyone else for some reason. He understood the love of Christ. that he was dearly beloved, and he calls himself the one whom Jesus loved. But he's reclining at Jesus' side and he looks back at Jesus and he says, Lord, who is it? Who is it? It's a secret conversation. Again, the rest of the text shows that no one else knew what was being said. And Jesus replied to John and said, it's the one to whom I'm going to give this morsel of bread. And to give a morsel of bread in this context is actually just a sign of familial love. It's what you would do for a brother or a family member at a table of this nature. So again, another act of kindness. He takes a piece of bread. He dipped it into the wine, and he just leans over and hands it to Judas, who's sitting in the seat of honor. This is a great gesture, an intimate gesture of love. And again, think, Jesus knows this is the guy who's going to cause, from a human perspective, the guy who's going to cause his betrayal and his death. It seems like this is a final olive branch. Repent. Repent, Judas. And Judas is not touched at all by the kindness of our Lord. He puts it in his mouth, and it says immediately Satan goes into him. Immediately Satan went into him. Jesus treated Judas with kindness to the very end, it seems. But besides the great compassion we see in the Lord's actions here, we also see great courage. After Satan went into him, Jesus said to him, what you're going to do, do quickly. What you're going to do, do quickly. And of course, the apostles have no idea what he's talking about because they haven't heard any of the conversation. They don't know what's going on. They still don't know it's Judas Iscariot. What you're going to do, do quickly. So, that made me... I mean, what he's saying is, OK, you're going to do this. Just do it fast. Let's do this. I'm ready. My face has been set like flint for this moment. I came to earth to be a sacrifice to die. Now is the time. What you're going to do, just go do it. Go do it. Do it quickly. It made me think of September 11th, 2001. I think some of you know that a friend of mine is the sister of Todd Beamer, who was on flight 93, one of the flights that was hijacked. Three planes had already been crashed. This particular flight 93 was probably headed to Washington, D.C. And it was the last one that was still airborne. And people had gotten on the phones, on the airplane phones. Yes, kids, we had airplane phones back then. And he made a phone call. He called 911, and they told Todd Beamer and other people as well what had happened. The planes were crashing into various things all over the country, at least on the East Coast. And once they realized that the hijackers were not going to go land somewhere for some ransom, they were actually going to try to crash the jet into something, they made up a plan. The men in the back made up a plan that they were going to take the cockpit by force. That they were going to break into the cockpit and take control of the aircraft. And Todd Beamer, his phone was left there so that the 911 operator was listening to all of it. And his last words were, let's roll. He knew he was probably going to die. And he just said, let's do this. Let's do this. Of course, that's just a tiny bit of the courage that Christ showed, right? Because Christ was about to bear the wrath of the entire world on his shoulders. But it's the same sentiment. Jesus is saying, let's just do this. Do it quickly. He knew what was going on. He knew that this man was going to bring a mob to arrest him and eventually crucify him. And he said, let's do this. What courage. What courage He showed. Let me conclude with this. This confidence and this compassion and this courage is all to God's glory. In verse 31, when He had gone out, He said, Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. All that happens, happens according to God's plan, and it's to God's glory. And even this rejection and this betrayal was to God's glory. And Jesus says that He is glorified in death. He's glorified in this betrayal. The most blasphemous, traitorous, evil event in the history of the world. And God says, I'm glorified in this. How is He glorified in this? Because it was by these events that we have relationship with Almighty God. talks about this in such great detail. It's the concluding scripture. Would you please open your Bibles to Ephesians 1? It's a very familiar passage, but I don't think we can read it enough. Just read 14 verses. Well, 12 verses, verses 3 through 14. Look at the great compassion and confidence and courage that we have in understanding just a little bit about God's sovereign plan. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ. according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him, who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who are the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory. You see, all of these blessings we have are in Christ. It's only by the work of Christ that they are ours. And if God is for us in this way, who can be against us? He didn't spare His own Son, but gave Him for us all. How will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? No, we, of all people, have the most right to confidence because we know God. We know He's good and we know His plan works out perfectly. This gives us confidence as well. It also gives us great compassion for the lost. We don't want to see anyone perish. Even the wicked Judas was shown kindness and compassion by our Lord right before his betrayal. Have you ever been betrayed? Lied about? Gossiped about? What's your response? It should be like Christ. Show kindness. Show compassion. You also have traitorous propensities in your own life, don't you? And you've been shown grace. So show the same grace to others that Christ has shown you. And finally, this knowledge of His sovereignty gives us great courage. Great courage in life, facing trials and tribulations and hardships. Are you facing a difficult thing right now? A difficult trial? a difficult relationship, a hardship in your life. You have two options. You can become bitter and wither away all by your lonesome. Or you can open up your heart to the love of God. Do you feel forgotten and rejected by those whom you love? Christ knows that feeling. Does your future look scary to you right now? As you look forward, you think, this is terrifying. I don't know what to do. Christ knows what fear looks like. And yet, just as Jesus confidently strove forward to do what God had ordained for Him, we can all fix our eyes on Jesus, confidently follow our Captain into battle. All that we experience in our lives is similarly ordained by the Father. and this gives us confidence, this gives us compassion, this gives us great courage. Put your faith in the Son of Man. Trust His Word that it's true. He will one day bring all things in heaven and on earth to unity under Christ. Let us pray. Almighty God, we thank You for the wonder of Your Word. We thank You that You have opened up our eyes, that we might know a little bit of Your goodness and of Your love of Your sovereign plan that we might, like Christ, have courage and confidence and compassion as we face the difficulties in our lives. But most of all, Lord, we thank You for Your Word and what it says about our Savior, that He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. His steadfast love is new every morning and His faithfulness is great. We love our Savior, who calls every person to come to Him. The weak, the weary, those who are heavy laden, to come to Him for rest. Lord, let us not only come to You for rest, but show others that they should also look for answers only in Jesus Christ, because He truly is the way, the truth, and the life. In Jesus name we pray, amen.