“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 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 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 moneybag, 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. When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, “Where I am going you cannot come.” A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, where are you going?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.’ Peter said to him, ‘Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.’ Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.’”

1.      Understanding What it Means to Betray God

This week’s passage begins with a sharp shift in tone from where we left off previously, telling us that Jesus is troubled in His spirit. This “troubled” is the same word used when Jesus beholds the people weeping before Lazarus’ tomb in John 11. It indicates a stirring up, a sort of disturbance. Jesus is fully God and fully man, and while perfect and sinless, He displays qualities and characteristics of both His deity and His humanity. He has just finished washing the feet of His disciples, giving an illustration of how they, and we as Christians are to conduct ourselves. The authority we are raised to in Christ, the assurance we are given in promise of eternity is something that raises us above the world, yet does not place us in positions to domineer or lord over others. After saying, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them,” Jesus explains that He is not speaking to all of them – He knows who He has chosen, and He knows that His words are not received by all of the disciples. But even in this, He affirms that Scripture is fulfilled, quoting Psalm 41 in that the one who has eaten His bread will lift his heel against Him. We closed last week’s section with Jesus making one of His “truly, truly” statement, saying, “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 making this declaration, there is a shift, yet here he makes another “truly, truly” statement, this time regarding His betrayal. When we went over John 11 and looked at Jesus’s resurrection of Lazarus, we discussed the ways that Jesus was “troubled” in His spirit. He has compassion on humanity, He has come to sacrifice Himself, to open the pathway for any man to come to God through Him. But as He looks upon this crowd who are weeping over Lazarus’ death – some with sincerity, others it seems, more for appearance’s sake – Jesus sees a clear display that despite the teachings He’s given straight from the Law and prophets, and the miracles He’s worked (all of which validate His position and authority as the Son of God), the people simply don’t get it. Now, as He sits at His final Passover dinner with His disciples, it makes sense for some of the same feelings to be stirred up. Though He has demonstrated who He is again and again, they still don’t quite get it, and in the case of Judas, one has rebelled entirely, pointedly turning against God to covet the worldly offerings of Satan. All this, along with anticipation of the trial that awaits Him on the cross, seems to bring about the shift in what Jesus’s approach to what He is saying, as He directly tells His disciples that one of them is to betray Him.

“One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at 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 will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.’”

If we jump to the end of John’s gospel, to John 21:24, we see that the disciple who Jesus loved is John himself. While we know that John, his brother James, and Peter made up a sort of inner circle among the twelve (these three, bearing witness to the resurrection of Jairus’s daughter as well as the transfiguration), this isn’t to say that Jesus didn’t love all the disciples. It is interesting to consider that John, being older when he penned his account, has spent the majority of his life as an Apostle, serving the bride of Christ. He has worked to share the gospel, to tend to the churches, and in that he’s been persecuted and exiled. We often admire and revere the disciples, Apostles, and founding figures within the church, and while this also isn’t inappropriate, it’s also important to remember that they were men – our brother’s in Christ, whose glory came from God as opposed to their own righteousness. Those who were persecuted in the name of the gospel had serious spiritual bragging rights, and yet what we consistently see is, as Jesus instructed, humility. When Matthew writes his gospel account, he doesn’t boast, but rather makes clear that he was a tax collector. Paul writes of his own weakness and wickedness again and again across the epistles, calling himself foremost among sinners, giving all glory to the redemption found in Christ. John, rather than touting himself as church elder, Apostle of Jesus Christ, or adding some honorific to his name, simply gives the thing that I imagine brings him the most joy, and is ultimately the most important – Jesus loved him. Peter is often seen as the leader among the disciples. He’s listed first when the twelve are named in all three synoptic gospels, he’s often the first of the twelve to speak up (sometimes to his detriment, which we’ll discuss later). However in this case there seems to be some significance though to the fact that it is John who is seated closest to Jesus. If we look at Matthew and Mark, we see the disciples questioning Jesus, each asking if it is they who will betray Him. While Mark’s gospel doesn’t show Jesus give an answer, Matthew’s shows Jesus affirm Judas as the traitor, but we don’t see a response from the group, suggesting there is still general confusion about the matter. Luke’s gospel shows the disciples questioning one another as to who the betrayer could be. It seems perfectly reasonable for them to think that after traveling with Jesus for years, serving in His ministry, and witnessing His authority, they wouldn’t expect any of their number to willingly betray Jesus. John shows in his account that he alone received a clear answer, but in this as well, there’s something off. He doesn’t jump to his feet and point an accusing finger at Judas, we don’t see anything done with the information. Again, while the Bible doesn’t state this, it seems like confusion is the simplest reason for the lack of anyone’s action. Jesus isn’t going to stop Judas, as His betrayal fulfills prophecy. Judas had a choice, and Jesus knew from before He chose him as a disciple – from the beginning of time – what decision he would make.

“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 moneybag, 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.”

This reinforces the idea of the other disciples not understanding what just happened, or that one of their number was going to purposefully betray Jesus. As to Satan entering into Judas, we read in 13:2 that the devil had placed is into his heart to betray Jesus. As I went over in last week’s outline, I don’t believe any of this means that Judas was literally possessed and controlled by Satan, but that he had given himself over to the influence of darkness, he had chosen the world over Jesus. This seems to illustrate an escalation of sin. Jesus teaches during the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:21–22,

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

And in Matthew 5:27–28,

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

When you look at your brother with hate in your heart, you are indulging in murder in the spirit. When you look at a woman with lustful intent, you’ve already committed adultery with her spiritually. This is sin, it is black, and wicked, and death before a Holy God – but it is still not the same as carrying out these acts in the flesh. When Cain brought an unacceptable offering to God, that was sin. When he grew angry and his face fell, and he was tempted to openly rebel against God, that was sin – but when he gave himself over to this temptation and killed his brother, that was something else. Understand, there is no “better” sin, but there is certainly worse sin. When Judas helped himself to what was in the money bag, when he went to the chief priests with his greedy hands out, that was sin – but when he rose from the table to set out and bring the religious authorities to Jesus, when he committed and gave himself over to his plan to betray the Son of God, that was something else. We are going to sin, by our very nature, we will stumble so long as we are bound in flesh and in this world. But understand that there is a difference between stumbling, being convicted by the Spirit, and repenting, and giving ourselves over to sin, delighting in it and pursuing it, while assuming that we can treat the blood of Christ as a safety net to save us from the wickedness we chased.

2.      Understanding What it Means to Love like God

“When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.”

I’ve got a good friend who is Greek Orthodox. He is one of my favorite people to talk with when it comes to religious matters, because while we’re on the same page with a lot, we’re certainly not with everything. In the areas where we overlap (the deity of Christ, the sovereignty of God, the infallibility of the Word of God [though their Bible has some extra books, so there’s not complete agreement there]), it’s gratifying to discuss and dig deeper into principles that are foundational to the faith. In areas where we’re opposed (the position of the saints and Mary within the church, the transubstantiation of the elements in communion, the infallibility of tradition and the ecumenical councils), it’s an opportunity to have a respectful discussion where I can be pressed to actually explain what and why we believe what we do. They are iron sharpening iron conversations, and I always count it a privilege to engage in something that makes me contemplate who God is, what He has done for me, and strive to understand and not take for granted the magnitude of the blessings that have been poured out on me and my brothers and sisters in Christ. I bring this up, because one of our conversations came up after the Southern Baptist Convention elected not to include the Nicene creed in their statement of faith. I agreed with the convention’s decision, if for no other reason than their statement of faith already affirms all the core principles of the creed, and it seemed redundant and unnecessary to add it just for the sake of adding it. There are also some lines in it that seem sticky in modern times without proper clarification (“I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church” being one of them). Knowing that the Catholic church utilizes multiple creeds, and that there’s significant overlap between them and the orthodox churches, I asked my friend about their take on the creed, and found out that they recite it every Sunday. I also learned that the Nicene creed had a lot to do with the schism between the Orthodox and Catholic churches, over something they call the “filioque” (stick with me, I promise I’m going somewhere with all this). The short church history version: There was the council of Nicaea where the creed was first formed. This creed along with other’s in the future was basically a grand statement of faith, usually combat some kind of heresy. For example, you have those teaching that Jesus is not actually God, so you put out a statement affirming what Scripture tells us to make sure everyone’s on the same page. The filioque (which is Latin for “and from the Son”) was added at a later date. The creed originally read, “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father,” and the filioque was added to include that the Spirit proceeds from the Father “and the Son.” This did not go over well with the Orthodox church. One, they don’t agree with the statement, but also (if I understand correctly), there was no council, no meeting, no church consensus, the Pope just added it on and kept rolling. This, along with plenty of other factors, led to the Catholic church and the Orthodox church being two different churches. My discussion with my friend about the creed led me to ask myself some questions – does the Holy Spirit proceed from God the Father and Christ the Son? I don’t care what the Catholic or Orthodox churches say, I don’t care what their creeds say, I want to know what the Bible says. Jesus displays the position of the servant, of the Son, obediently carrying out the will of the Father – and yet we’re told that He is made equal with God, given all authority, that He and the Father are in fact One. Look at what Jesus says in today’s passage, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself…” God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit have separate, distinct qualities, and yet they are singular, unified as One. You cannot curse the Son without cursing the Father, you cannot glorify the Father without glorifying the Son, and the Spirit emanates from the both – but to go a step farther, they both emanate from the Spirit. They are separate, yet inseparable; they are unified and yet unique. What we see is that Jesus, broken on the cross is glorified by God, and that in this, the Son glorifies the Father – and does so at once. John 19:30 says,

“When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

Luke 23:45–46 says,

“… And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’ And having said this he breathed his last.”

There wasn’t a delay in the glory of God, His salvation power, the atonement offered by His death on the cross didn’t take time to take effect. At the moment it was finished, the curtain was torn, the debt was paid, and our relationship with God was forever changed. This reminds us that while our faith is to lead to works, our salvation is not based on them. We cannot work our way to God, the work is finished, the glory is God’s.

“Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’”

“This was a chilling statement when delivered to the Jews, as it spoke to exile from the presence of God. However, if we read on, we’ll see that while the message is the same, the meaning behind it is not. It is not that they can never follow Jesus to where He is going, but that the time has not yet come.”

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Matthew 22:34–40 says,

“But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.’”

The greatest commandment still stands – we are still to love God to the exclusion of all else, but what Jesus gives here is an expansion of the second commandment, and deepening of what it was before, yet still in line with the first. We aren’t just to love one another as we love ourselves, but to love one another as Christ has loved us. He tells them this right after having washed their feet, and right before He goes to die for their sins. 1 John 3:16–18 says,

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

The world speaks of love without knowing Love. Love is not summed up in fondness for another, or in kindness given so that kindness will be received. It’s not about attraction or appeal, but is truly marked by sacrifice – or at the very least, a sincere willingness to sacrifice. What sets us apart from the world is loving in a way that transcends the world – loving with tender hearts, loving as Christ has loved us.

3.      Understanding What it Means to be Restored by God

“Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, where are you going?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.’ Peter said to him, ‘Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.’ Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.’”

Back when I knew my Bible in a more general sense, before I’d spent time hungrily, purposefully reading, the disciples often kind of blended together for me. You have Matthew and John as standouts as two gospel writers. I knew that Peter professed Jesus as the Christ, but also denied Him when He was arrested, that Thomas doubted, and Judas betrayed – my knowledge wasn’t inaccurate, but it also wasn’t particularly deep. There are some disciples that we simply don’t hear much about – there’s not a record of Simon the Zealot saying or doing anything specific for us to grab on to. But for the figures that we’re given more information about, both in the Old and New Testaments, I’ve come to appreciate them for the ways in which they’ve shown their love and devotion to God, and also for the ways God used them in their failures – and Peter is a wonderful example of this. He’s bold in his faith, which is admirable, but sometimes leads to him putting his foot in his mouth. What we can see though is that when He fails, Jesus restores. In Matthew 16 he confesses Jesus as the Son of the Living God, but then in the following passage he rebukes Jesus for foretelling His death and resurrection, prompting Jesus to respond, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” But shortly after this, Peter, along with James and John are taken up to a mountain top with Jesus and allowed to witness the Transfiguration. When Jesus walks on water, Peter asks for Jesus to command him out onto the waves as well, which Jesus does. Matthew 14:30–32 says,

“But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, ‘Lord, save me.’ Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, ‘O you of little faith, why did you doubt?’ And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.”

Delivered to victory, sinking in doubt, Jesus reaches out and takes hold of Peter, returning him to safety. In Acts 2, Peter preaches a sermon at Pentecost that leads to “about three thousand souls” coming to Christ. In Acts 10 he’s privileged to share the gospel with the household of Cornelius, and witness the Holy Spirit descend on gentiles. However we see from Paul that Peter was not perfect in his acceptance and treatment of gentile believers, with Galatians 2:11–14 saying,

“But when Cephas (Peter) came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, ‘If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?’”

In the face of social judgement, Peter ostracized baby Christians, and Paul rebuked him for it. But if we most past this point in the timeline of Acts, we see this matter of gentile conduct brought before a council of early church leaders in Jerusalem. Here, alongside Paul and Barnabas, Peter has a choice between what is socially easy, and what is true according to the gospel. Acts 15:7–11 says,

“And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, ‘Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

Looking at today’s passage, we see Peter confident and bold, but not really knowing what he’s saying. They cannot follow Jesus where He is going, as He is going to the cross, where He will tie alone, into the grave, which He alone can overcome, and ultimately to the Father, where it is not their time be yet. Peter asserts that he will die for Jesus, and Jesus, knowing what is to come, tells Peter exactly how he is going to fall short. Peter does go on to deny any association or even knowledge of Jesus, vehemently rejecting that he has anything to do with his Lord in the tense and fearful aftermath of Jesus’s arrest. Matthew 26:75 says that after the third denial, the rooster crowed,

“And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, ‘Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly.”

After the resurrection we see a conversation between Jesus and Peter in John 21:15–17,

“When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ He said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ He said to him a second time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ He said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep.’”

I spoke before about the difference between stumbling in your sin and genuinely repenting, as opposed to giving yourself over to your sin. Peter denied Jesus three times, and in His mercy and grace, Jesus gave Peter three opportunities to claim Him, to declare his love for his Lord three times. Hebrews 4:15 says,

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

2 Peter 3:9 says,

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

It is not good that we stumble, but in this life, it is a guarantee that we will. We have a God who is righteous and just, who loves us and holds out a hand to redeem us, to cover and sanctify us if we will seek His face and set our eyes on Him and Him alone.

Pastor Chris’s sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ2fJKMDMFA