Matthew Poole: It is a joy to serve you this morning with the Word of Christ. Let's pray for his help as we get into it. Heavenly Father, we Bow now before you We ask for grace this morning, God, to hear your word and Would you quiet our hearts? Quiet our minds. Remove distraction. Remove the busyness. As it's been prayed before, God would you teach us what we do not know? Would you give us what we do not have? And would you make us what we are not? For the glory of your name and our eternal joy, we pray. Amen. One of the things that's gotten popular in our day and time are competitions and baking shows. And one of the ways that that baking show has gotten a twist over time is baking things that are so realistic they are meant to deceive judges. So this show I'm referencing is called Is It Cake. The literal goal of this show for these bakers is to bake a cake that looks so real, it deceives. everyone. So we got some examples up here. Look at these burgers. Can you tell which burger is made of cake? Got a few guesses. One, three, one, five, three. Everybody this is the crowd participation here is great. Praise God. and spoiler alert, I don't know the answer to any any of these. so you will just have to endure your curiosity or go look it up. But but look at this. It's unthinkable. How they do this. Look at this next one, these cups. Right? Can you tell which one it is? How about this next one? Shoes. One of them is cake. And finally these statues. Kind of across the board. It's hard to figure it out by looking at it. That's the point of the show. And that's the competition. And the great reveal is when the host takes this big knife and he slices through. You don't know what it is until the inside of the item is revealed. The baker is a master at deception. And you know who else is a master at deception? Satan. An absolute master in the art of deception. We saw in the very beginning of Genesis, the beginning in the history of humanity, Satan identifies with the serpent who God says he made, the most crafty of all the beasts. Satan identifies with him, exemplifying his nature. He is crafty, masterfully deceptive. And he slithers in to the garden to Adam and Eve, and he does not appear as foe. He appears as friend. And that same Satan is still at work today. Are you aware that you have an enemy this morning? You have a very real enemy this morning who's not out to win a game show. He's out to destroy your soul. Are you aware? And sometimes he comes with obvious evil. And sometimes he comes with the presentation of good and the fullness of evil behind it. He's a master at deception. And let's be honest this morning if We acknowledge this enemy if we are aware we don't have much ability to withstand him. He's powerful. He's deceptive. Our radar is not very good. We're always falling into his little traps. We're just mere mortals and we have fallen flesh, which makes it even harder and more difficult. And the question I want to want us to ask this morning is: well, then what do we do? If we are up against this type of enemy who we can't see, and he and he deceives us in ways that we can't perceive and understand, what is our hope? Is there hope this morning for us against this type of enemy? Open with me to John chapter thirteen. Jesus is in the upper room with his disciples. Just gathered them and he says, verse 21, after saying these things, I'm gonna pause right there. What are these things that Jesus is referring to? He's been in here in this upper room with the disciples, he's just washed their feet, and he's been teaching about what he did when he washed their feet. And we looked at this last week, and part of that was showing his cleansing work that he does for the disciples. But the other part of it is that. He is telling them very clearly that they are to be servants just like he is a servant. He is saying, I am sent from the Father to serve. And in the very same way, you as disciples, if you're going to be my disciple, you too are sent by me to serve. The disciples, Christians, are servants. This governs our life, that governs the character of our life. We live by service by service. But he adds something else in this discussion. He says, But there's one of you that is not clean. One of you is not clean. He says, but the scripture will be fulfilled. Verse 18 He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. He goes on to say, I'm telling you this so that you're not surprised when it happens. So that you will know that I am God. when it happens, so you can remain strong and confident in me. So after saying these things, Jesus He's troubled. He's troubled in his spirit. Back to our text, verse 21. He's troubled in his spirit, and he testified, Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you are going to betray me. When he says troubled here, it means he's literally having the ins his insides ripped apart. Jesus might be the creator God, the sovereign one, the word made flesh, but he is not disconnected to suffering. And his insides are being ripped apart right now as he foreshadows what's about to happen to him, certainly on the cross, but he's speaking here as projection of the relational fracture that's about to happen. Relational pain. Pain of somebody betraying him, somebody close. He knows he's about to betrayed, and we're not talking about the Pharisees, the religious elites, the crowds, some stranger out there. We're talking about one of Talking about a close friend. The scripture that was quoted in verse 18, some Psalm 41, with the greater context of 41, right before the peace that Jesus quotes, says, It's my trusted friend. This is David, likely talking about Ahithophel, his trusted advisor. Somebody close Somebody that I trust, that I should trust. Jesus knows better, but it is a close friend. And we see that Jesus sees the relational pain coming, he feels the relational pain coming, and he continues to move forward. The fundamental thing that John is communicating to us, I believe, here, is that this is not catching Jesus off guard. That's what I want you to see. He sees the impending relational betrayal and of course what that's gonna lead to. And he keeps going. He wouldn't be in this room if he wasn't committed to what's about to happen, right? Verse 22, as we continue. The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. After three years of doing life and ministry with one another, they have no clue who it is. No clue, no signs. Not perceiving it. Jesus said earlier in chapter six, I believe, that one of one of you is a devil. But they have just no concept of it. They they can't put it together. And this is a challenge to us. Church, sin and evil are sneaky and deceptive. It is sneaky and deceptive, and it has absolutely no problem taking on the religious form. Zero problem. Satan doesn't care if he comes to you looking like a demon or if he comes to you looking like an angel of light. He does not care. What he cares about is destroying you. They have no clue. Judas, he is a master at the religious show. An absolute master. At the religious show. He was a treasurer. He very likely could be sitting next to Jesus at this meal, another position of honor. Externally, this guy was crushing it. He's put this guy in leadership. Just because you're wearing the jersey doesn't mean you're playing for the same Judas is not for Jesus. Verse 23, one of his disciples, they're still curious, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus' side. So Simon Peter motioned him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, Lord. Is it? And in this context, they're not sitting in chairs around a table. They're lying on the ground. They would lean, they would lie forward towards this table, and they would lean on their left side. She'd kind of go around this table, but everybody's leaning on their left, and you would eat with your right. And so they're very close. John is the one that's on the right side of Jesus. So he's super close to Jesus. We'll see. He can just lean in to ask Jesus this question. John has this place of honor, and Peter kind of gives him the somehow nonverbally communicates, John. Ask him. Right? So that's what John is going to do. But I want to comment here on the anonymity of John's name. It's not here. It's an anonymity, he's anonymous. We are going to learn later on in the book of John that this is in fact John. How does John describe himself? He is the disciple that Jesus loved. Now, what's going on with this? He's not just being humble, like he's just not wanting to brag. No, what he is doing is he is using a very specific literary technique in his writing, drawing you away from a question of what's the name of this person, towards what's the role that this person is playing. The role that this person is playing is that he's loved by Jesus and he's an eyewitness testimony to Jesus. He can be trusted. He's right there. He enjoys a special relationship. The same language used for John here, being at the side of Jesus, is the same language used in John 1, chapter, or ver John 1, verse 18. No one has ever seen God. God, the only Son who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. Being at the side of Jesus, exact same word and expression that he also uses for Jesus, being at the side of the Father. So he's saying the relationship that G that John has with Jesus is the same that Jesus has with. There's intimacy here and relationship here. And a faithful witness to what that's like. So it's not just that John's loved more than the other disciples, but John is the prototype, the model for all Christians, for all disciples. You are loved by Jesus. You have this special, the special in Jesusness, in like laying back against the chest of Jesus, in Jesus, as Jesus is in the Father. So beautiful. display of it. And so so John leans back. With this special access, he he he leans over who is it? Jesus answers, 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. Meals back then held way more cultural symbolism than they do today. Far more significant. Meals are still significant today. There's some of that left over. When we meet with somebody and have lunch or coffee, it does mean something, but not like it meant here. Nothing close to what it meant here. Craig Bloomberg, professor of New Testament, in his book, Contagious Holiness is. Jesus' meals with sinners, he says this. Eating together in ancient Mediterranean society was a symbol of total acceptance, intimacy, and mutual commitment. To sit at the same table with someone meant you shared in their honor, their status, and their spiritual condition. This is why everybody gets such an uproar about Jesus eating with sinners and tax cuts. It's not that he's stooping down to everyone else's level. It's that he's inviting them up into his, giving them table fellowship at the King of Kings table. Meals are a statement. Meals are an invitation. Meals are about this hospitality. All of that is at play here with Judas and Jesus giving the sop. This bread that's dipped in wine and mixed berries and whatever. Whatever that is, he gives it to them. This is bread. So in doing that, Jesus is identifying his betrayer. He's prophesied about his betrayal, and now he's identifying his betrayer. And he does so by feeding him. What an odd way to identify the one that's going to lead to your murder. The one who betrays you. What an odd way to identify. But what a powerful way to show one's love. What a powerful demonstration and statement of the love of Jesus here. It's like Jesus saying, Judas, I'm offering you one last Covenant. Be at my table for all eternity. Joy everlasting, honor, glory. I'm offering you this. I'm offering you fellowship with the Son of God and with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Come and enjoy this fellowship. It's an offer. Welcome. welcome. But Jesus knows what's going to happen. Judas is not going to receive this. But what I find so striking. Is that Jesus still serves him? He still serves him. Can you imagine how hard it would be to sit down and serve bread in this significant symbol loaded way to the one who's gonna reject you, betray you, and lead you to your death? Can you imagine? I mean we have trouble just meeting with somebody and talking about any level of conf Jesus does this with love and humility. I mean much less what we saw last week. Stooping down and washing Judas's feet, knowing Judas is going to betray him. You know what Jesus is good at doing? Loving his enemies. Loving those that are opposed to him. It's one of the ways Jesus says hallmark of the kingdom is doing this. It's one thing to serve and be rejected. It's quite another to know you're going to be rejected and still serve. Which one of us signs up for that? Verse 27, and after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered. Judas rejects the offer. The snake has slithered into the garden of the twelve disciples. Judas has been tempted and he has given in. He's been deceived and he's won over by Satan. Judas is responsible. Satan is binding. There's a pattern here that's playing out that I think we need to see. Pattern of warning. The more we give ourselves to sin, the more powerful sin becomes. The more we give ourselves to sin, the more powerful sin becomes. It's a bit like the proverb in Galatius six. Galatians six. If you sow to the spirit, you will reap eternal life. But if you sow to the flesh, from the flesh you will reap destruction. When we sin, we are sowing. It's like we're literally feeding a monster. And we're blind to that reality. We think we can just dabble. Hey, I can just go this far and no farther. That's a lie, church or unbeliever, this morning. It's a lie to think you can go this far and no farther. Satan's only going to give us what we know that what we think we can tolerate. He's not stupid. This is a pattern. We must be on guard. Satan is identified here as coming in tempting and now he's just Judas is in the throes of darkness here. Chaos filling his soul. The cosmic prince of darkness is behind it all. We see that, that this is more than just what's happening around a dinner table. Cosmic war going on. And Satan is doing it through one of Jesus' close friends around a meal. Don't think anything is off limits for Satan to try to attack. Nothing is awful. As our text continues, Jesus said to him, As Judas has already given himself over. What you are going to do. Do quickly. You quit. Now no one at the table knew why he had said this to him. Some thought because Judas had the money back, Jesus was telling him Buy what we need for the feast, or that we should give something to the poor. So after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night. What John continues to make clear to us here in this text is the disciples have no clue. They're not perceptive of the darkness. Judas is fooling everyone. Everyone except for Jesus. Jesus has prophesied about his betrayal. He's identified his betrayer. And now he commands his betrayer. Go do it. Let's get this over with this one-way commendators talking. What you're going to do, and you're not stopping, so let's do it. Let's get this over with. And it's the fourth reference here in this little bit of text to the shared bread. Just highlighting the intimacy and the trust that should have been there in this friendship that is broken. Judas heads out, and it was night. That's not a mere statement of time for John. That's a statement on the condition of Judas's soul. He is consumed with darkness here. The light of the world offered the bread to Judas. He offered the light to Judas. Judas refused it. And he's off into the night consumed. What a warning to us. If we saw the slippery slope a couple minutes ago, here's the end game. This is the end game. Destruction away from the light of the world. And I doubt that Judas ever thought that he would end up there. But it happens one choice. One choice after another. We see the slippery slope play itself out. You see, Satan is not going to play the whole tape before our eyes. He's just not. He may, but I think rarely. He's not going to show up to you and say, Hey, click here, look there, and you're going to ruin your marriage. And your family's going to be jacked up. There's going to be decades of pain that your kids are going to be walking through. You think he shows up and says that to you on the doorstep? Of course not. No. Just take one step here. One step here. A little thought here. A little excuse there. Yeah, I kind of need this. I've been working hard, I need a break. Whatever excuses he slithers in there and gets us to think and believe. It's just psychos. Thinking about Instagram and YouTube. You know, no one, I hope no one, gets on Instagram and YouTube and says, you know what I'm gonna do for the for the next five hours of my life? Consume mind-numbing content. No, you click a link, like I just wanted to look, I just wanted to find one video that somebody told me about. The next thing you know, you're down the rabbit hole of YouTube, and every the the algorithmically calculated feed starts coming at you to get you to keep watching. It's the exact same stuff that Satan does. He has algorithms calculated at keeping us moving towards evil away from God. But it starts with a single click, a single look, a single move, a single refusal to listen and acknowledge the conviction of the Holy Spirit. And before you know it, we're a mess of ruins. We are a mess of ruins. We're not too different than Judas here. And if we're gonna have any chance of not being like Judas, we identify with Judas. Apart from the grace of God, there's no chance we have to stand. We first recognize that we are fallen. And every single one of us in our own way, we've taken the bait. We've taken the bait. We have been deceived. And we have wandered off into a path of destruction. That's sin. That is sin against God and to our own ruin. And so this morning, as we face our enemy, but knowing it's not just out there, he's He's in here, and if we don't get that battle straight, we have no chance here. He works through sin. And if if you were righteous through and through, Satan can't touch you. But if you have sin, that's where he's lurking. That's where he's working. And so this morning as we wrestle with guilt, because we have followed after the dark, the dark one, or maybe this morning, like you're literally consumed with darkness. And chaos and destruction. And you're wondering, is there any hope to get out of this mess? You've forgotten what it even could feel like to receive a ray of sunshine. What do we do? Tangled up in the enemy, just a web, a cobweb of the enemy's tactics, or maybe we're we feel like we're just in a labyrinth maze walking around enslaved to all of his temptations with no ability to see. What do we do with a deceptive enemy that is so strong about? We run to him who is just We run to Jesus this morning. We do what John's doing here, as Edward Clink scholar brought out. This text is encouraging us to not have to do all this war and manipulation, trying to fight the devil. We simply lean back on Christ. We find our rest and our repose in Christ. He's where our strength is, church. We run to Him, we run to Him who is the way, the truth, and the life. Our old Adam did fail in the garden, but we run to him, the new Adam, who has succeeded. Who has succeeded where old Adam failed. You see, when Jesus sent Judas into the night, what was he doing? He was triggering salvation for the world. He was sending Judas out into the night so that you and I don't have to experience it. Because he would soon be stepping in. in our place. That's what the light of the world does. Not because he deserves it, but because he doesn't deserve it, and because he loves us. He goes there. Nobody's experienced darkness like Christ has. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Darkness consumes his soul. as a sufficient sacrifice for sinners. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We're not too different than Judas. Jesus hands us the meal himself. He does this in full knowledge, he does this willingly, and he does it out of love. Satan thinks that he's got the sneak attack here. He thinks he's got the upper hand. He has slithered in to Jesus' little crew. Thinks he's one. Don't know what he's doing. He hasn't surprised Jesus. Jesus knows exactly what's going on and exactly what he knows to do, to defeat Satan. Right? It's the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15. A prophecy given to the serpent. There's coming a Messiah through the line of Eve. And you will bruise his heel while he bruises you, crushes you. Satan didn't pick that one up. He's outwitted on the cross. I like how C.S. Lewis speaks a bit of this, or alludes to it, in the line the witch in the wardrobe, drawing on this imagery. He says this though the witch knew the deep magic, there is a magic deeper still, which she could not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time, but if she could have looked a little further back into the stillness of And the darkness before time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the table would crack, and death itself would start working back. Satan's scheme is rerouted for the glory of God and the salvation of everyone who would put their faith in Christ Jesus. Light wins. Light wins. The crafty one is outwitted. The crafty one is overcome. Not through more deception, not through hatred, but through truth and through love and through sacrifice. Church, Satan may be a deceptive foe, but he's a defeated foe. And you stand this morning in the blood of Christ, victorious, in the resurrection power of our Lord Jesus, victorious. His schemes cannot touch you. We do find our rest in the finished work of Christ for us. Our King of kings and our Lord of Lords. He knows exactly what he's doing in all of our lives. Maybe this morning he said, Well, But I'm still wrecked with guilt or shame or darkness or I'm paralyzed in fear, and it just feels all too much. At the risk of another quote, I want to give you another quote. This struck me. Commentator Leon Morris, in his comment in his commentary on John, he says this in handing all over to him, that means we're giving everything to Jesus. We need not exclude the darkness in our past. Or that which threatens us in the present and future. He is still the Lord of the night who can make darkness the vehicle of his praise. Church, I want to encourage you. Every attack on your life from Satan, every sin you've ever committed is rerouted for the glory of God. Every darkness that haunts you now. And every dark darkness that threatens your future will be rerouted for the glory of God and your eternal joy. Hold on, church. Hold on. Our foe is defeated. One day we will step into the glory of his new kingdom. A kingdom of truth, where truth will reign. And there will be no more crooked perversity in the cracks of our existence. All will be made new, all will be righteous. Peace. And joy will be ours forever and ever. Church, let's trust this Jesus. Our battle is dangerous, but our King has won. He's perceptive of it all. And he goes before us to ensure our victory. It will not be stopped. He wins. Let's trust him and let's cling to him. Let's find a rest in him. Let's worship him and let's make much of him. We do not need a tuck tail in this life. And eke our existence out in some cave, afraid of what the enemy can do. We march forward as those that are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. Absolutely nothing. So we march, we go forward in confident victory. The way, the truth, the life, Jesus Christ, He wins. We win. Falsehood will not prevail. Truth wins, the truth of love. And grace given to us in the Son of God. We will enjoy fellowship with our God forever and ever. What hope? What hope? Be encouraged this morning. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. God, we thank you for Jesus to do for us what we cannot do ourselves. We are so helpless, God, but you are so strong. You are so faithful. God, we just are aware this morning of battles, battles of personal sin, evil within, evil without. There's just battles everywhere, God. We bring those to you now, Lord. In faith, God, give us even faith now to give those things to you, to release them to you, to let you be the one to take care of us. Forgive us for trying in our own strength to manipulate life, trying in our own strength to fight the evil one. Forgive us from all that, God. Forgive us for the crazy frenetic anxiety that so often rules our lives because we simply don't stop to trust you. Help us to give it all to you, God, in glad repentance that we can come back to a God who is faithful. Lord Jesus, you are faithful. We return to you. We return to you this morning. You tell us in Ephesians to not be unaware the schemes of the enemy. There's no greater scheme than him trying to get our eyes off of Jesus. Help us now to fix our eyes on Jesus. And as you say, even in the Paul's words there in the end of Ephesians 6, to be strong, where? In the strength of his mind. Lord, we thank you for the armor that protects us this morning, the armor of Christ and the finished work of Christ. May we not be afraid, Lord. Help us to put all our confidence in you, the sovereign. Who entered into our darkness so that we might have the light of eternal fellowship forever and ever. It's in your name we pray. Amen.