Beware the Darkness (John 13:18-30)
Notes
Christianity is about getting saved. What are we saved from?
One danger is the wrath of God. Jesus saves by taking the wrath of God upon Himself. If we don’t receive Jesus, we are guilty before God and there is nothing we can do to save ourselves from His righteous wrath against sin.
Another danger to be saved from is the domination of Satan. He has the whole world lying in his grasp. Jesus said now is the ruler of this world cast out. But what if we don’t receive Jesus to save us? Then the Lord is not my shepherd, Satan is my shepherd.
Somebody might say, I don’t believe that. I’m my own boss, I’m in charge. There’s no one wearing a red suit with a pitchfork running my life.
This is the danger: Satan doesn’t let you figure out that you are his slave, that you are his sheep. We know this is true because one of Jesus’ own disciples was entered by Satan and did not know it.
Jesus warned him, Scripture warned him, and even so he did not listen because he thought he was in control of his life. And he didn’t know that Satan was in control.
We get a warning today by Jesus and by Scripture that we need to be saved from Satan’s control. If we don’t listen we are going to go the same way as Jesus’ disciple, Judas Iscariot.
I’m reading in John 13 from verse 18 (to 30).
1. Judas doesn’t believe that Jesus is God.
A. Imagine you are Judas, and you are going to betray Jesus. You have spoken with the chief priests about this, you have taken their money. You are doing this in secret. Nobody knows what you are doing. The disciples are unaware.
B. Then you hear Jesus say, “I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen.” What do you think when you hear that? Does He really know? Does He suspect? Does He know everything? Does He know me?
C. God knows everything. That’s what the Scriptures say.
1. For example, Psalm 139:1-12
O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O LORD, You know it all.
You have enclosed me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,”
Even the darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.
2. Jesus is God, and He demonstrated that He had that knowledge. John 2:23-25 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.
D. Judas thinks he can hide what he’s doing from Jesus. He doesn’t believe that Jesus is God.
2. Judas doesn’t listen to Jesus warning with the Scriptures.
A. Jesus says the word of God must be fulfilled. He who has eaten My bread has lifted up his heel against Me. This was written by David in Psalm 41:9. God can write down the future before it happens. A thousand-year old Scripture knows what Judas is thinking right now.
John 13:18-30 4
B. We’ve seen that Jesus has the highest regard for the word of God. Scripture cannot be broken. So what if it was written a thousand years before? That doesn’t invalidate it. Everything that God has caused to be written must be fulfilled.
C. What does Judas think when he hears this? “Wow, that’s amazing! That can’t be a coincidence! God knows what I’m going to do!” Does it stop him?
D. Judas doesn’t listen to the Scriptures.
3. Judas doesn’t listen to Jesus’ warnings.
A. Jesus says, “Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am He.”
B. He is warning Judas, I know you, Scripture is warning you, I’m telling you before it happens.
C. And then Jesus says something He has often said: he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” It sounds so non sequitur here. Why should Jesus say that, here, of all things? It also means: whoever rejects Me also rejects Him who sent Me.
D. And you notice that Jesus becomes visibly upset.
1. When have you ever seen Jesus troubled? Jesus is never upset. He is always confident, in control. He has no dependence on anything unstable that could give way suddenly. He trusts in the Father.
2. Why is He upset? Not for Himself, but for the one betraying Him.
3. In Mark 14:21, at just this time, Jesus says, “The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had never been born.”
4. What’s worse than never having been born? Having never existed?
5. Jesus knows. Eternal punishment is worse than never existing. It is the worst thing that can ever happen to you. To be crushed under the wrath and indignation of God forever is unendurable, and you will have to endure it. Pain, hunger, weariness, despair, with no relief, no hope, no way out. Heaven will be like one eternal hello! Hell is only goodbye, forever.
6. God can do no evil. People say, it’s unfair of God to force people to choose. But people are twisted. In effect people are saying, I want all the good stuff, I just don’t want God. I want food, clothing, a happy life, but I don’t want God. How can you want what is good but not that source from which everything good comes? That’s like saying, I want daylight, but I don’t want the sun. That doesn’t make sense. God holds our life’s breath in His hand, but we dishonour Him. So if a person rejects all the infinite good that God is, they deserve eternal punishment.
E. Somebody could say, “Well, if it’s that bad, why doesn’t Jesus stop Judas? Why doesn’t God stop everyone who is going to hell?”
1. Do you want God to rule your life? Do you want Him telling you how to live in order to please Him? Do you want Him to tell you when you’re wrong, when you need to apologise and acknowledge that you have done badly? When God says to you, “No, I want you to do this instead of that thing you want,” are you okay with that?
2. You say, “No, I want to be free!”
3. If you want to be free of God, then you are choosing that place where there is no God. Because there is no God there, there is no good there, either. And God will honour your choice! Because you don’t want Him interfering in your life! Jesus is honouring Judas’ choice. He’s warning him, but it’s Judas’ choice and Jesus is not taking Judas’ choice away.
F. Judas gets to choose wrong if he wants to do that. You get to choose wrong if you want to do that.
4. Scripture is fulfilled, Judas goes into total darkness.
A. When Jesus says, One of you will betray Me, the disciples are confused. Peter finally gets John to ask Jesus which one is it. Jesus says it’s the one whom I literally give My bread to. And He gives it to Judas.
B. After that bread, Satan enters Judas. That is not the first time Satan entered Judas.
1. The first time we know of is Luke 22:3. Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them. And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. So he promised and sought opportunity to betray Him to them in the absence of the multitude.
2. Did Judas know that Satan entered him? Was he aware of what was going on? Would you feel scared if you found out Satan had been in you?
3. But Judas doesn’t give any indication that he knew.
C. Look at what Judas is doing:
1. Judas doesn’t believe that Jesus is God.
2. Judas doesn’t listen to the Scripture.
3. Judas doesn’t listen to Jesus’ warnings.
4. Judas has already had Satan in him.
D. Although Judas has been with Jesus for three years, he has seen miracles, performed miracles himself, listened to Jesus teach, he has more in common with Satan than with Jesus. He is going in the same direction as Satan. Judas goes out into the darkness, and the darkness is in him as well.
E. That means it is possible to be physically close to Jesus but still be in total darkness. You can log on to an online church service and still be completely unsaved. The darkness is so complete that you are not aware that you have more in common with Satan than Jesus.
5. Beware, lest the light in you be darkness.
A. We talk of being saved by Jesus, and someone might ask, saved from what? Saved from Satan. Saved from doing my own thing, and rejecting Jesus. Saved from darkness. If you don’t have the light of Jesus in you, you’re in the dark, and the dark is in you. You have eyes to see, ears to hear, a mind to understand, yet none of that helps you when you’re in the dark. Everything is darkened, you don’t understanding what’s really going on. What use is all your advantages when you don’t know what’s really happening and you think everything is okay? And instead of doing your own thing, you are doing Satan’s thing. You wouldn’t be aware any more than Judas was aware.
B. Just compare yourself to Judas:
1. Do you believe that Jesus is God?
2. Do you listen to the Scriptures warning you that God is going to judge the world in righteousness? That you should flee from the wrath of God to come? Turn to God and believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose from the dead. Receive Jesus as your Lord and Saviour! Are you listening?
3. Do you listen to Jesus’ warning? He said if you are not for Me, you are against Me. Are you for Jesus? Or are you against Him? You can turn and be for Him.
C. Do you realize that you can’t escape darkness on your own? Judas went it alone, without Jesus. Don’t do that. You don’t know what you are doing in the dark. All you can to is look to Jesus to help you. Ask Jesus to help you to turn, to believe. He can help you. You can look to Jesus and depend on Him to help you. He will do that.
D. When you receive Jesus He will change your location. Colossians 1:13-14 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
E. Then you can know what it means when it says,
1. Psalm 27:1 The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?
2. Psalm 18: The Lord my God illumines my darkness. We get to live in His light, we get to have His light in us, dispelling the darkness. Darkness cannot stand before the light.
3. John1:5: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it.
4. 1 Peter 2:9: But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light;
5. Ephesians 5:8-14: for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says,
“Awake, sleeper,
And arise from the dead,
And Christ will shine on you.”
F. In these dark days, and it’s getting darker, more than ever, we need to trust in the light of Jesus, live in His light, let the Holy Spirit dwell richly in us, that we might be filled with His marvelous light.
Let’s pray.