Well, church, if you would turn in your Bibles to John chapter 13. And just a quick note as you do that, there's no kids Bible time today, but the gathering place is open and it has a live audio feed. So if parents feel a need to step out, but please feel free to stay in the service with your children as well. Our sermon text is John chapter 13, verses 21 through 30. This is God's word. 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 a table close to Jesus. 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. 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 said this to him. Some thought that because Judas had the money bag, 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. Let's pray together. Our Father, we come before you today in the matchless name of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. He has given himself for us. He has loved us. And he is our standing before you. He is our mediator. And so we rejoice in the hope of glory. We rejoice in the access, the peace that we have before you in his name. Our Father, we know that you are light, in you there is no darkness at all, you are truth, you cannot lie, and your word cannot lie. Your word is truth and many times it confronts us, many times it warns us. And so we ask that as we come to this text, we would be receptive to your word, we would be receptive to the warnings, the confrontations that this text gives us, or even the comforts that it does. Please give us ears to hear and to heed your word and to believe it. We ask this in Christ's name, amen. In the Revolutionary War, there were a lot of soldiers who had the really unfortunate experience of fighting against a general who used to be their own. Benedict Arnold was a traitor in the Revolutionary War. He was initially on the side of the colonies, but then he defected to the British, and he even led armies against the colonies. And out of the tens of thousands of British soldiers who fought in that war, out of the countless leaders and commanders and generals, not many names are infamous. Not many names are known in history. But Benedict Arnold might be the one that you recognize. His name might be the most famous. Because there's something particularly awful about being betrayed. There's something bitter. There's something awful when a friend or a loved one stabs you in the back. Jesus himself knows what that is like. We see that here in this text. Jesus and all of his disciples are reclining. They're eating dinner together. And he's just finished washing their feet, all 12 of them. Jesus has washed their feet in this incredible display of humility, this incredible demonstration that he has washed them clean of their sins. He has cleansed them from the filth and the pollution of their sins. He has cleansed them except for one of them. He says, not all of you are clean. Jesus now resumes his spot at the dinner table, and maybe after a brief pause in the conversation, maybe after some silence, Jesus becomes deeply troubled. He's in anguish in his heart. He says to the disciples, truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me. And when we think of all the things that Christ subjected himself to for your sake and for my sake, betrayal is one of them. When we think of all the things that Jesus went through to save you and me, we often think of his life, right? How he subjected himself to the law of God. He subjected himself to a life of poverty, of misery. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. We think, of course, of the cross, how he bore our sins. He bore the just wrath of God in our place. That's what he went through out of his love for you and me. Betrayal is also on that list. The way that he got to the cross is an ordeal in itself. When Jesus says to them that one of his disciples will betray him, the disciples begin looking at one another because they're confused. Who among us would betray Jesus, is their thought. And we can appreciate the fact that they might be perplexed. This is a group of 12 men who have followed Jesus around for three and a half years. They've been his close friends, his disciples, and it's been at extreme personal cost to themselves. The disciples have sacrificed their jobs. Many of them were fishermen or tax collectors. They have sacrificed their independence. They all live out of the same money bag. They've sacrificed their comfort. to travel around and live on the road, many nights probably without a place to sleep, they've sacrificed their status in the world as well. Imagine all of the insults that would be hurled their way from the Pharisees and Sadducees and everyone else who hates the Son of God would also hate his disciples. And so the disciples are a team. For years, it's been them versus the world. The 12 of them against everyone else. They've restructured their lives. They've given up everything to follow after Jesus. So why would one of them betray him? After some time of confusion, Peter is the one who is most anxious for an answer. We see in verse 23 that John, the author of this book, is reclining next to Jesus at the table. John is referred to as the one whom Jesus loved. It's not that Jesus didn't love the other disciples or his other people, but John seems to have a special or a particular place in the heart of Christ. The way that they would be eating dinner isn't the same as we do. They're not sitting around a table. They're not standing around. They're all lying down on their left arms with their feet probably spread back behind them. The table is in front of them, and John seems to be to the right of Jesus. So with everyone leaning on their left arm, John is to the right of him. He's immediately in front of Jesus. He's closest to his chest, closest to his heart. So after some time of the disciples looking around and being confused at what Jesus said to them, Peter, again, who's most anxious for an answer, he motions to John. He nods at him or motions in some way for him to ask Jesus for an answer, as if to say, can you find out who is it that's going to betray him? Peter maybe was afraid to ask himself, or maybe he didn't have a clear line of sight to where Jesus was, or maybe he just thought that John was the most likely to get a straight answer from Christ. John then asks Jesus, and in order to do that, he has to lean back. He's normally facing away from Jesus. He's to the right of him. So in order to speak to him, he leans back. leaning back against Jesus, right up against him, and he says, Lord, who is it? And then we get the reveal. Jesus says, it is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it. Jesus dips the bread and then gives it to Judas Iscariot. Now we might wonder, what's the significance of this act, right? Why the bread? Why didn't Jesus just name Judas? Why did he bother to dip the bread and then hand it to him? Well, one of the answers is that this was prophesied. We read for our Old Testament reading, Psalm 41, and Jesus quoted from Psalm 41, verse nine, earlier in this chapter, he who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. So one reason for the bread is Scripture must be fulfilled. And this is a point worth making in itself. Scripture will always be fulfilled, every prophecy in it. There are about 1,800 prophecies, give or take a few, in Scripture, and all of them either have been fulfilled or will be fulfilled in time. Of course, this should not surprise us. We serve a God who not only knows the future but has decreed it. He has foreordained the future. He has decided the future in a certain sense. Isaiah 46 verse 9 says that God declares, He has spoken, and He will bring it to pass. He works all things according to the counsel of His will, all of future time He has ordained. And we are reminded of that every time we see a biblical prophecy fulfilled, even a tragic one like what we see here. But there's another answer to the question of why the bread, why this specific act. And it's this, is that this was an act of hospitality. This was an act of kindness. It was an act to show your kindness, your hospitality to a guest, was to dip bread and then give it to them. So with this bread, it's almost like Jesus is saying to Judas, I've only ever been kind to you. I've only ever been good to you." It's like this one last act of displaying his kindness, his hospitality to Judas. We can think of all the way back to Genesis, where Adam and Eve were in the garden, and God had only ever been good to them. He had given them paradise. He had given them marriage. He had given them dominion over the creatures. Most of all, he had given them communion with himself. He had given them a good law, and even the ability to keep it. God had been good to them in every single way. And that's what Satan attacked. He questioned the goodness of God. Did God really say, is God really good to you? Back in this text, at the end of the line here, when Judas is about to betray Jesus, Jesus is showing him one last time he's only ever received good things from Christ. He's only ever been good to him. It would be one thing, of course, to betray somebody who's harmed you in some way. It would be another thing to betray somebody who hasn't done anything to you. It's another thing altogether to betray somebody who's only ever been good to you. Incredibly good. Christ has offered to Judas not just salvation from his sins, but eternal life with God, fellowship with God. Jesus has offered Judas his very self. He's offered him everything. And so we see something of that in this last act of hospitality, this last gesture. Christ has only ever been good to Judas. Judas takes this morsel of bread, and Satan enters him. And right away we ask, what does that mean? Right? Well, we should say first of all that Judas was not an innocent man. He wasn't a harmless victim until Satan came along and deceived him. Judas can't use the excuse that the devil made me do it. We know already in the Gospel of John that Judas is a thief. He's been stealing from the money bag. We know already that Judas doesn't truly believe in Christ. Jesus said that in John chapter 6, that Judas doesn't actually believe. And we know that Judas has already given into the temptation of Satan to betray our Lord. That was back in John 13 verse 2. What we saw there is that Satan, the prince of darkness, the first creature ever to rebel against God, Satan has already tempted Judas to betray Jesus. And Judas has given in to temptation. His desire is already there, back at the beginning of this chapter. But here we see, verse 27, it's in full bloom. Satan now possesses Judas. Up until this point, it's almost like Judas has been walking slowly towards the edge of a cliff, step by step, closer and closer to the edge, going deeper and deeper into sin, giving in to temptation. But here, he jumps off. It's been decided. Sin has taken over. Satan has taken over. His heart is hardened. And there's no going back for Judas. You might be asking yourself, could this happen to me? Could I be possessed like Judas? And if you're a Christian, the answer is no. A Christian cannot be possessed by the devil or anything else. You can only be tempted by him. If you have faith in Christ, that means that God, the Holy Spirit, indwells your heart and he prevents you from being possessed by a demon or the devil himself or anything like that. He keeps you. He preserves you. He prevents any other spirit from taking control of you. But Judas, tragically, is not a Christian. So he's susceptible not just to following the Prince of Darkness, Which, as Ephesians 2 says, all of us used to do. All of us used to follow after Satan. When we were dead in our sins, we followed the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air. All of us used to follow Satan. Judas not only does that, but now he's possessed by him. Those are two different things. What we see here is that Judas is now all in on betraying Christ. He is past the point of no return. Judas takes this piece of bread and Jesus says to him, what you are going to do, do quickly. That's an amazing statement in itself. what you're going to do, do quickly. As we're reading this story, we might be tempted to think, is Jesus afraid of this betrayal? Is he worried? Does Judas have the upper hand? Is Judas in control of the situation? Is Judas going to catch Jesus by surprise? The answer, of course, is not at all. Jesus is in complete control of the situation. The only omniscient person in the room, the only sovereign person in the room, tells Judas, what you are going to do, do quickly. He doesn't just say, go on and betray me. He says, go on and betray me even faster than you were going to. Speed up the process a little bit. Get this over with. Jesus is eager to have Judas out of his sight. He is ready for the cross. And he is not surprised by anything that's about to happen. In verse 28, we see that everyone at the dinner table is confused. The disciples have no clue what's going on. And this itself is something to note, and it's something remarkable in itself, is that Jesus has told his disciples, he said, one of you is going to betray me. All of them ask, who is it? Jesus says, it's the one whom I'm going to dip the bread and then give it to him. Jesus then dips the bread, gives it to Judas Iscariot, says, what you're going to do, go do quickly. And the disciples still don't understand that it's Judas. They're still confused. They think, maybe. He's going to get food for the feast. Or maybe Jesus is telling him to go give money to the poor. Right? It's like, how are they missing this? It's right there in front of them. He's practically told them that it's Judas. Maybe in the back of their minds the disciples are thinking, There's no way it could be him, right? There's no way it could be Judas. Jesus, could you please tell us who the real betrayer would be? The disciples' response here tells us that Judas didn't look like a betrayer. He didn't look like a bad guy. Judas may have been a very nice person, Judas may have been very friendly, very fun to talk to, very nice to be around. Judas may have been handsome. He may have been the guy who explains Jesus's teachings really well. Judas may have been very responsible. We know that they entrusted him with the money bag. Maybe he was one of the most respectable of all the disciples. could cast out demons and work miracles. Jesus gave all of his disciples the power to do that. Judas may have looked like the wisest and smartest and kindest and noblest follower of Christ out of all of the disciples. So no one suspects a thing. even after Jesus has showed them that it's Judas. Verse 28, no one at the table knew, not a single one of the other disciples who had been with Judas for years know that it's him. There's always been a distinction between the visible church and the invisible church. The visible church refers to everyone who professes faith in Christ and their children. So the visible church refers to everyone who says that they're a Christian. The visible church is everyone who professes faith in Christ. The visible church is everyone who claims to be a Christian. But that's different from the invisible church. The invisible church is everyone who is a Christian. The invisible church is everyone who possesses faith in Christ. The invisible church are those who actually are saved. Judas was a part of the visible church, but not the invisible, if you will. You could say that Judas was part of God's covenant people. He was part of those who professed faith in Christ. but he was not one of God's elect people. He was not a true Christian. He would have said that he was a follower of Jesus. Judas thought that he was a follower of Jesus, but he never truly was. And church, this is a solemn warning to all of us. is that someone can be that close to Jesus. Someone can follow Jesus around for that long. Someone can be making eye contact with Jesus on a daily basis, look just like all the other disciples, and not be a true Christian, never have saving faith in Christ. It's possible to know a lot about Jesus and not be a Christian. It's possible to sacrifice a lot of time and energy and money. for Jesus and not be a Christian. It's possible to serve at church and not be a Christian. It's possible to know your Bible very well and not be a Christian. It's possible to preach the gospel and not be a Christian. It's possible to look just like every other Christian, even among the best of Christians, and not actually be a Christian. This truth is, it's not a fun thing to consider. It's nobody's favorite thing to talk about. But it's so important. It's eternally important. To be in church and not to be in Christ is a dreadful thing. It's an awful thing. As one author put it. To be in church but not be in Christ is the saddest road to hell. It's a road that runs under the pulpit, past the Bible, and through the middle of warnings and invitations. It's a tragedy for anyone to die in their sins. It's a tragedy for anyone to die without Christ. But how much more to be so close to him, to be so close to Jesus, to hear the gospel, to be in church, to follow him around in a certain sense, but never truly believe. That's a dreadful thing. That's an awful thing. And it's for that reason that every Christian, as Peter tells us, should be diligent to make your calling and election sure. In other words, make sure that you're a Christian. Paul tells the Corinthians, examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. And no one is exempt from this. No one can say, I don't need to search my heart to make sure I have faith in Christ. No one can say that. If Judas himself was deceived, no one is exempt from that. In church, we should recognize as a body that what was true of the disciples is almost certainly true of us and our family and our friends is that the invisible church is smaller than the visible church. Not everyone who says that they're a Christian actually is a Christian. The book of Hebrews tells us to see to it, to make sure that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. Out of a love for one another, out of a care for one another's souls, we should be willing to gently, to humbly, prayerfully speak the truth in love. If we have biblical reason to confront someone, to ask somebody a question, to confront somebody about eternal things, we ought to. Jude tells us to contend for the faith out of a love for one another, out of a genuine care for souls. In Judas's case, there was smoke before there was fire. There were warning signs. If we look back at John chapter 12, there was a scene, you might remember, where everyone is at dinner with Jesus, and Mary, at this dinner, has anointed Jesus with expensive perfume, expensive ointments, head to toe, and she's even wiping his feet with her hair. It's this extreme act of devotion, of love for Christ. Mary has seen that he's worthy, that Christ is worthy of her whole self, worthy of more than she could ever give him. And as this extreme act of devotion is put before us, we see her lavish love for Christ. Judas was standing there and thinking, What a waste of money. That ointment could have been sold for a lot of money. I could have stolen some of that money. Mary is wasting that on Jesus. Mary's devotion to Christ didn't make sense to Judas. Mary's love for Christ didn't make sense to Judas, and that was the red flag. That is the evidence that Judas never truly believed. Judas may have loved following Jesus around. Judas may have loved working miracles. Judas may have loved fellowship with the other disciples. Judas may have loved everything he could get from Christ, but he didn't love Christ. Judas loved the benefits of Jesus, but he didn't love Jesus. And church, that's the evidence. That's the fruit of saving faith. Do you love Him? Not just what He can give you, not just how He makes you feel, not just even how He saves you, but do you love Him? Do you love Christ? Not perfectly. No one loves Him perfectly, but do you love Him? That's the evidence of faith. That's the proof of saving faith. When Judas takes this bread from Jesus' hand, he leaves right away. John tells us it was night, verse 30. Judas leaves the presence of the light of the world He's received this one last act of kindness, this one last kind gesture from Christ, the light of the world, and Judas plunges himself into the darkness of his sin, never to return. This text ends on a dreadful note. It's a gloomy note. A supposed follower of Jesus has proved himself to be an unbeliever. He's left the fellowship of the saints. He's proved that he never truly had faith in Christ. But the gospel itself does not end there. Friends, if you examine your own heart, and if you If you find that you have never truly believed in Christ, you look at your own heart and you see that there's no evidence of faith, that there's no love for Christ, that there's no other biblical evidence of saving faith, that there is no fruit, you don't have to be like Judas. You don't have to die in your sins. If you come to Christ, he will save you. Jesus saves sinners. He saves those who have been hypocrites. He saves those who have been professors of Christ, but not possessors of faith in him. He saves all kinds of sinners, including hypocrites. He saves sinners. If you come to Christ, He will not judge you for your sins. He will not condemn you for your sins. If you come to Christ in this life, He will wash you clean. He will cleanse you from your sins. He will cleanse you from all the filth and defilements of your sins if you come to Him. He loves to save sinners. And then He will cause you to love Him. He will cause you to cherish him. He will give you what Judas never had, the pearl of great price, to know, to know the majesty and the worth and the peerless, matchless worth of Jesus Christ and to love him and to know most of all, his love for you. Jesus says, whoever comes to me, I will not cast out. Please do that if you search your own heart and see that you've never truly believed in Jesus Christ. Flee to Him, run to Him, and He will save you. Let's pray together.