Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20060402.htm

JOHN: TRUSTING JESUS AS MESSIAH AND GOD
Part XXXVIII: God's Use Of Abusive Evil To Further Christ's Glory
(John 13:18-32)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

One of the hardest trials to face is that of realizing there may be no justice available for being painfully wronged when one is wronged:

(1) WCBS 880 am reported last Friday that the taped calls to 911 dispatchers made by victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center would be released that day! Only the voices of the dispatchers would be heard unless permission had been given by the victims' families to hear the voices of the callers!

When heard of this, I thought, "How can those families find solace in the release of the tapes when some terrorists are still free?!"

(2) Dave Hunt's April, 2004 issue of his newsletter, The Berean Call printed the following letter he received from a troubled believer: "I have been disturbed for some time by the praise and worship' music in my church -- even to the point of looking elsewhere. But I seem to find the same thing everywhere I go. So much of it seems shallow and repetitive. I long for the old hymns that had doctrinal content and really bowed me before the Lord in worship and filled my heart with praise to Him. Am I just old-fashioned? Help me."

Dave responded, writing, "We are hearing this anguished cry from increasing numbers of people . . ," and then went on to urge any "praise and worship' leaders or pastors" who might read his column to give some thought and prayer to the damage they were doing to godly believers by forcing music forms upon them that oppress them! (Ibid.)

My own aged Mother is very bothered by the loud drums and guitar music played in her Church to the tunes of theologically shallow choruses, so I can identify with the unjust pain of it all!

(3) Over the years here at Nepaug Church, I have heard people in our Church express pain over being mistreated or over knowledge of mistreatment to others for which no justice seems to be available!



If a party has been PAINFULLY WRONGED, and JUSTICE seems to be unattainable, we may wonder, "Why did GOD allow it to happen, and how is the afflicted to find PEACE?"



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )



Need: "A party I know has been painfully wronged and there seems to be no room for justice! Why, and how can he handle his pain?!"
  1. Jesus predicted one of His disciples would mistreat Him, Jn. 13:18:
    1. Having told the disciples they would be blessed by meeting each other's needs in John 13:14-17, Jesus reported that He did not speak of all of the disciples who were present, John 13:18a.
    2. Jesus refused to promise this blessing on one man, for He had chosen him knowing he was a deceiver who would "lift up his heel" against Him in fulfillment of Bible prophecy, John 6:70 with John 13:18b.
    3. The John 13:18b phrase, "lift up his heel" recalls Psalm 41:9 where David had written: " . . . mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread hath lifted up his heel against me", cf. Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978 ed., ftn. to John 13:18.
    4. Thus, David's word on being mistreated by one in whom he trusted had foretold of Christ's betrayal by Judas Iscariot, John 13:21, 26.
  2. This mistreatment was TROUBLESOME to Jesus: referring to it, He became "troubled" (KJV), that is, "stirred or agitated,'" the same word being used of Jesus' being upset at Lazarus' death by the grief of the Jews, John 13:21; Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 321.
  3. Yet, WHILE BEING MISTREATED, Jesus explained it FIT God's ULTIMATE PLAN by which GOD would be GLORIFIED:
    1. Just before the Judas' evil mistreatment of Him occurred, Jesus said that God was going to allow it to come to pass in part to give Jesus an opportunity to prove His credentials as God's Messenger, Jn. 13:19:
      1. Explaining that He was making the prediction so the disciples would later realize Jesus had accurately predicted it, Christ predicted He would be mistreated by one of them, John 13:18-19.
      2. God purposed in this to prove the cross was not an accident, but a part of God's plan, and show Jesus was God's true prophet, 13:19.
    2. Then, AS Judas was in the process of betraying Him, Christ explained this evil would be used by God to further His GLORY, 13:21b-32:
      1. Judas' betrayal was begun at the Last Supper as follows:
        1. Jesus stated that one of His men would betray Him, Jn. 13:21b.
        2. This prediction stunned the innocent parties present, so Peter signaled to John to ask Jesus who the guilty man was, 13:22-25.
        3. Jesus said it was the one to whom He would give a sop, 13:26a.
        4. Upon saying this, Jesus gave His sop to Judas, John 13:26!
        5. The instant Judas received Jesus' sop, Satan entered him, so Jesus told Judas to do quickly what he had planned, John 13:27.
        6. This event occurred with the other eleven disciples being totally unaware of the evil in progress: they thought Jesus was telling Judas to run an errand as the treasurer, 13:28-29. Thus, they thought nothing of Judas' departure from the room, John 13:30!
      2. Then, WHILE Judas had gone to betray Him, Jesus amazingly declared: "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him," John 13:31b-32 KJV.
      3. All these allusions to "glory" show the ways God would gain glory in His ALLOWING Judas to BETRAY Jesus (as follows):
        1. By God's ALLOWING Judas to betray Jesus to the religious authorities, they would crucify Jesus, cf. John 18:1-3.
        2. When He was crucified, Christ would suffer as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world, cf. John 1:29.
        3. As such, God would be glorified in being seen as righteous and loving for giving His Son to provide us salvation, cf. John 3:16.
        4. By God's then raising Jesus from the dead, Jesus would be honored through thus being shown to be the upright and true Prophet, Priest, King and Son of God as He had claimed by way of His miracles and words, thus glorifying Jesus, John 20:1-18.
        5. Hence, Judas' horrid mistreatment of Jesus was explained by Jesus AS the MISTREATMENT was in PROGRESS, as part of God's permissive will to bring GLORY to Himself!
Application: (1) Though Jesus was crucified due to events that were set in motion by Judas' abusive betrayal of Him, Jesus had correctly predicted this would occur, showing Himself to be God's true Prophet, so we must trust on His words as God's true Messenger to be saved from sin, John 3:16. (2) If we realize God lets unchecked mistreatment occur to us to glorify Himself, may we like Jesus face its PAIN by FOCUSING on the FACT that the occurrence of the evil FITS God's FINAL and very GOOD plan!

Lesson: (1) God gained GREAT GLORY in LETTING Judas betray Jesus, for this evil act set in motion the work of redemption on the cross, revealing God USED even Judas' MISTREATMENT of Jesus to bring great GLORY to Himself! (2) In focusing on this, Jesus faced the cross, exampling that we should handle evil, painful mistreatment for which we can gain no justice by trusting God's permissive will in the process!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 God has illustrated this sermon in the crises we as a Church have faced the 24 years that I have been your pastor! In each crisis, our Church leadership has taken action in accord with the information it knew at the time and in accord with conscience and Scripture. Such action has at times been questioned or criticized, and this has left the leadership tempted to be either frustrated in not being free to explain itself due to confidences or burdened by self-doubt over its own action!

However, upon reviewing all the past crises, I have just recently realized that, in each case, shortly after the respective crisis had passed, information has always come our way revealing God had not only let the respective crisis arise, but had indeed led us to take the very action that we had taken so that much WORSE crises and/or evils could be AVOIDED in the Church's future! All these years, God has led us in ways we often did not fully understand so that His END plan might be fulfilled for our good as a body!

Realizing this fact supplies great consolation about the past and gives great confidence for the future! Providing we continue to rely upon Him, the God Who has loved and protected us these last 24 years that we have trusted in Him will KEEP shielding us from all that counters His FINAL and GOOD plan no matter WHAT crises and evils He lets us face in the near-term! As Paul put it in 2 Timothy 4:18, we can then claim: " . . . the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."



May we (1) trust in Jesus Christ, God's true Son, for salvation from sin (John 3:16). (2) May we then trust in the all-sufficiency of His oversight, one that will ALLOW us to face SOME evil and crises just as we have in the past, but ONLY as doing so BEST promotes GOD'S OVERALL GOOD plan FOR us!