Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Wednesday,
December 18, 2019
And so when He had washed their feet [He taught the disciples how to rebound with this is corresponding to His saving work on the cross], and taken His garments [coinciding with His resurrection], and reclined again [analogous to His session or being seated at the right hand of God the Father], He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you?
Trogon - the traitor is crunching his food, it means to crunch food, or to munch on food, to gnaw, or to bite and devour.
"has lifted up his heel against me" is an idiom meaning to try and over-throw or discredit one's authority, to seek one's destruction, or to reject their authority.
Judas has pretended to love the Lord but his desire for approbation and recognition is about to be brought to the surface.
Our Lord is telling them that there is a traitor in their midst and that he is about to betray Him.
First Principle: Judas became a traitor because the verb that is mentioned is known as the Aorist-middle-indicative of the Greek verb ginomai which means to become something that one was not before.
As LUK 6:16 Judas {the son} of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
When our Lord was around adult believers, or Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes, and all of them were astonished by His knowledge and spiritual strength; Luk 2:40-52.
This is not to say our Lord was not strong physically, because it took a lot of human strength to endure the beatings, the punches whip, the forced crown upon His head.
It doesn't really matter if you love our Lord, because if you love the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there is divine blessing waiting just for you.
Perhaps Judas just wanted to shake things up a little and force our Lord to change His views by coming against Him with the vigilante mob.
Perhaps Judas thought that TLJC would just be stopped and jailed for a time, or publicly humiliated somehow - until He (Lord) could get His act together.
A lot of people never think of things through, until it’s too late!
What we "DO" know is that something snapped inside of Judas.
"We don't care, that's your problem!” comes their reply to Judas, the Traitor.
In Act 1:15-20, The physical body of Judas would end up dangling from a hangman's noose off a tree and then it falls in a potter's field.
Acts 1, describes some of the details of the messy end to the tragic life of Judas Iscariot.
What went so wrong, Judas?
Why did it have to end like this, Judas?
Remember what TLJC had said months before Judas?
Judas, You were there when the Lord said in MAT 11:28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy‑laden, and I will give you rest."
Such as to the woman caught in adultery in JOH 8:11 "Neither do I condemn you; go your way.
Don't you remember, when TLJC said in MAR 2:5..."My son, your sins are forgiven."
“You can sit in Bible class for years and end up like a Judas, not necessarily an unbeliever in the eternal lake of fire, but a loser believer in time and in the eternal state; 1Co 3:11-15.
Instead of singing with songs of peace and joy. Judas experienced regret and sorrow.
Judas was wringing his; and tied a knot, when he hung himself in his suicide.
We read of drinking deeply from the well of living water.
During the next 24 hours in the passage we are noting, that there will be Two Trees outside of Jerusalem, a Tree of life and a Tree of death.
On the tree of life is the Lord Jesus Christ hanging on the wooden cross or the wooden beam as He hung upon to pay the price of eternal salvation for the sins of the world.
Punishment is passed off.
Forgiveness is found.
Real, new hope, is given.
On the other tree dangles the body of a man who carried his heavy load himself, and found no rest = Judas Iscariot.
He found himself in a spiritual desert or spiritual wilderness with no forgiveness. "We don't care. We don’t want your money, it’s filthy and that is your problem"...... and believed it.
Judas could see no way out of the swamp and pit he dug for himself created by his own shallow, foolish pride.
In his sin, he realized his wrong.
He also admitted it openly.
He tried to put it behind him.
He tried to sort it all out himself.
Judas accepted the condemnation which the religious leaders offered him and rejected the grace which the Lord offered him.
The chains of guilt dragged him to his grave.
That is a tragedy far worse than betraying your master.
For that betrayal was sin.
Did you ever hear someone say, "If I could just see a miracle I'd believe," or "I have to see it to believe it?"
If I can touch it, see it, taste it, smell it...then it's real.
That's what human logic tells us.
Think about some things we can learn from this betrayal – for example, Judas saw every miracle Jesus performed.
He saw Lazarus rise from the dead.
Judas saw Jesus heal lepers, blind men, and yet he still did not believe.
Judas wants to give the money to the poor.
We also saw Peter saying things that sounded really good like what Peter said in JOH 13:8 "Never shall You wash my feet!"
Be careful how you interpret what others are saying because they seem to be caring, loving, and humble.
Judas, like the rest of the Jewish population, thought that the Messiah would be a political hero and that maybe he could ride on the coat tails of Jesus all the way to the top. Here is a man who has been with TLJC nearly all of his ministry.
But his greed would not let him see the spiritual messages that our Lord desired for all of His disciples.
Human logic may tell us that seeing is believing...but it is in fact the other way around, once we begin to believe in God's power, surely we will see it.
1CO 10:11 These things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
Rev 3:11 "hold fast what you have, in order that no one take your crown.
Rev 2:25 "Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come."
2Jo 1:8 Watch yourselves, that you might not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.
Again, and Again in the Bible we see those who are lucky enough to have seen miracles from God, fall into disbelief.
The Israelites, after seeing the Red Sea parted, escaping Pharaoh, end up falling into idolatry.
What do you worship?
Look at what Judas becomes...lifeless, dead...a death with no honor.
"Seeing is not believing, believing is seeing."
Judas Iscariot, meaning he was the sharpest of the twelve and that's why he held the purse or he was the treasurer.
What you want to pay attention to is character, attitude not intellectual ability only.
Our Lord does not grade according to SAT's, He looks at the heart.
As terrible as "traitor" is, that title fades into insignificance compared to what Judas was called in Joh 17:12, the son of perdition.
It's important because if Judas was a believer, and he perished than our Lord did not fulfill the Father's will."I lost only one, and I didn't really lose him, because he was of the devil from the beginning."
To be the "son of perdition" denotes that Judas is a man identified with eternal destruction and whose destiny is the Lake of Fire.
2Th 2:3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for {it will not come} unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction [perdition],
Rev 17:8 "The beast that you saw was and is not, and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go to destruction.
Rev 17:11 "And the beast which was and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is {one} of the seven, and he goes to destruction.
Act 1:25 says something very interesting about Judas which is that he went "to his own place" the place of his own choosing, Judas turned aside to go to his own place."
The verb translated "became troubled," is an aor-pass-ind, the verb is et-ar-ach-the which means to become disturbed, to become agitated, or deeply troubled.
The aorist tense speaks of the point of time of this event referring to the upper room discourse or the last supper.
The passive voice, our Lord received the action of becoming disturbed, agitated and deeply troubled because of the presence of a traitor in the room which was the ultimate in hypocrisy.
And the indicative mood is the reality of the fact.
Our Lord was "troubled in spirit" which simply means that you can become disturbed, agitated and deeply troubled at something and still be filled with the Spirit.
The fut-act-ind, para-do-sei means to hand over, to deliver up, to betray, to deceive and to forsake.
So that the head of the table always sat higher than the rest.