Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20000112.htm

JOHN: TRIUMPHING IN LIFE'S MOST CRITICAL ISSUE
Part IV: Presentation Of The Messenger Of Salvation
D. Christ's Credentials Revealed In His Preparations For The Cross
2. Christ's Credibility Seen In His INSIGHT And SOLUTION To Painfully Deceptive Relationships
(John 13:21-35)
  1. Introduction
    1. Jesus' deity is revealed in His great insight into the depths of unjust, painful deception even as the event of deception was in progress, John 13:21.
    2. Not only does this insight reveal the credibility of Jesus as God, but how He responded to it in teaching us how to deal with it reveals His deity as the Shepherd of the Church today (as follows):
  2. Christ's Credibility Seen In His INSIGHT And SOLUTION To Painfully Deceptive Events.
    1. Jesus' deity was revealed in His full awareness of Judas' betrayal in the total ignorance of His disciples:
      1. Just following His announcement that one of the disciples would fulfill Psalm 41:9's prediction that one who ate with Him would oppose Him (John 13:18), Jesus became very trou bled, repeating the announcement of the betrayal in no uncertain terms, John 13:21.
      2. What is unusual about Jesus' being humanly bothered by the event is that Satan had not yet entered Judas to make him carry out his plan: that event came after Jesus later gave the sop to Judas, Jn. 13:26f
      3. Thus, Jesus was sensitive to the angelic conflict before any regular human awareness discerned the Evil One's movements. He revealed thus His supernatural sensitivity as God!
    2. On the other hand, Christ's humanity felt the pain of being rejected by Judas, and identified with what He knew His disciples would face in such rejection hatred as His followers, Jn. 13:21 with 15:18-22.
      1. In His divine nature becoming aware of the betrayal to come, Jesus became "troubled in spirit," KJV, 21
      2. This word, "troubled" is used of Jesus in John 11:33 to describe grief at the weeping over Lazarus' death by His friends, and in John 14:1, 27 where Jesus urged His disciples not to be troubled over Peter's coming denial and their bein g hated by the world respectively. (Bib. Know. Com., N.T., p. 321)
      3. Thus, Jesus felt the very human pain of being rejected by a close associate in Judas, something we as believers may at times feel in painfully deceptive relationships!
    3. Thus, as God He offered God's great balm for the pain of such deceptive relational rejection as follows:
      1. First, Christ taught His disciples to dwell on the priceless value even negative events of being rejected have in the plan of God (Jn. 13:31-32 in light of Mtt. 5:10-12, 13-16; 2 Cor. 4:8-10, 17-18)
        1. After revealing He would be betrayed, and had experienced Judas' painful departure, Jesus claimed He and the Father would be glorified in this awful event, John 13:22-30, 31-32.
        2. This positive end result of what was a painful event for Jesus mirrors His word about our need to rejoice under similar persecutions in Matthew 5:10-12, 13-16 and 2 Corinthians 4:8-10, 17-18.
      2. Second, and as an added balm, Jesus called for the truly godly in fellowship to love one another as an offset of the pain of rejection by the ungodly rejecters and betrayers such as Judas, cf. Jn. 13:33-35.
    4. Since these suggested balms are so helpful to us today, Jesus is revealed as the divine Shepherd of the flock of the Church, also causing us to believe in His identity as God. (cf. Hebrews 13:20)
Lesson: (1) Jesus' SUPERHUMAN AWARENESS of Judas' betrayal revealed He was GOD, where His (2) being troubled over the event to come exposed His HUMAN vulnerability to relationship pain, and the empathy He has with believers who experience similar rejection. (3) Yet, Christ's DEITY as the Great Shepherd is revealed in His caring guidance of us to find BALM for such pain.

Application: (1) Jesus is to be BELIEVED as GOD come in the FLESH by how He anticipated and reacted to Judas' betrayal, (2) and is to be heeded as our Great Shepherd in HOW to find BALM for similar events in our lives: (a) we find such a balm by recalling the great eternal GLORY that will come out of what God is doing to mature us IN the trial, and (b) take up the slack of the human sense of a rejection vacuum through intensifying our fellowship with other godly believers in Christ.