Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: The whole story thus where he's been saying, my hour is not yet come. But now is the time. The hour is come of glorifying of Christ. What does it mean when Christ said, I'm going to be glorified?

Guest (Male): Pastor Brad Metter notes Jesus declared the cross not ultimate humiliation, but divine glorification.

Brett Meador: He paid it all. All to him I owe. He was the propitiation is the fancy doctrinal word that he satisfied your payment, paid your debt in full. That's so good. We were redeemed by his blood. That's the glorifying of Christ.

Guest (Male): In John chapter 13 verses 18 through 38, Jesus identifies Judas as the disloyal one before bidding him leave to carry out his betrayal. On today's word, Pastor Brad Metter discusses how and why Judas was chosen for this role and what the other disciples thought of the situation and how this unfaithfulness would eventually lead to the most significant event in history.

Brett Meador: Back to John 13. This is where, you know, we're now getting to this most important part of where Jesus would die on the cross. Look at verse 21. When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit and testified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. It's like he's sealing the deal now. He was talking sort of figuratively thus far and the disciples are probably scratching their heads going, what's he talking about? And now he says it very plainly in verse 21. One of you will betray me.

Man, this is where the depression probably starts with the disciples. I think they're going to get really bummed at the end of this chapter and there's a reason why chapter 14 starts with, let not your heart be troubled. Because chapter 13 is really troubling. And the first troubling news they hear is one of you is betraying me. Now, the reason we already are talking about Judas is we know it is and we've already figured it out. We've read the story. But this is where the disciples are like, what? One of us is going to betray them.

They're they're going to start to get it now. And verse 22, then the disciples looked one on another doubting of whom he spake. Not doubting like, I don't believe him, but doubting like like, is it me or is it you? Like which one of us? This is where I I think that you know, a lot of you like if you're at work and somebody says one of you is betraying the company, like most of you like, it's Fred over there in cubicle number three or whatever. He's the betrayer. Most of us would would at least have a guess.

But I find it interesting the disciples really don't have a clue. They're like, which one of us is is it? That's kind of interesting. And they don't really know that it's Judas. I wonder if they would have thought it was the last guy that would be Judas because he, like I said, wasn't from Galilee. The name Iscariot is linked to a location, by the way. That name actually links him to a place or Kerioth, which is a town located south of Jerusalem in Judea, which is a much more hoity-toity town. In fact, it'd be like, you know, if you're from some little swamp town in southern Louisiana, you know, the guys talking like Judom Cooter, you know, to the alligator killer hunter people and stuff versus like being raised at Berkeley.

That's the difference. If you're from Galilee, remember when they said, he speaks like a Galilean. When they spoke of Peter, that would have given him away as a hick. They they thought Galileans were a bunch of uneducated ignorant men. Remember Acts says there are unlearned and ignorant men. So there's Peter tell you what, darn heaten Burton here, like saying stuff like that, you know. They had a play. It'd be Romeo, Romeo, where y'all at? You know, that kind of like that's that the language of the disciples. But Judas would have sounded impressive and he probably looked impressive.

That's my guess. That's why the disciples are like, yeah, we don't know who it is. Now, would you say that Judas is a sinister character in the Bible? I think so. I think it is. He's sinister. Now, why do I bring that up? I I want you to note something. The word sinister um today, what does sinister mean? If you look up the modern definition, you might say evil or, you know, something who's about to do something very sinister, somebody who's going to do something harmful or evil. But does anybody know you linguistic people, where does the word sinister come from, anybody?

To the left. That's right. So all of you left-handed people are sinister. That's 10% of you. No, sorry. Um now now wait wait wait. What are you saying, Brad? No, that's the word sinister. It it really is come from the Latin for left or on the left side of something. Keep that in mind as we read here in verse 23. Now, there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. Does anybody know who that is? John. Who wrote this? This is John like the one that Jesus loved, yours truly. Like this is John.

This cracks me up. Um John is kind of funny in some of these things. Also Moses, you know, here's Moses writing the Old Testament and it says in in the you know, the first five books, the Pentateuch, Moses says and Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth. Like he wrote that that under the inspiration of the spirit. So John saying the one that was leaning against Jesus is the one that Jesus loved. John and Jesus were in fact the closest of friends. Verse 24, Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.

You know, the betrayer. He then lying on Jesus' breast said unto him, Lord, who is it? So so Peter coerces, I'm not going to ask him. John, you ask him. You're closest to him. You're you're the friend, you know, leaning against Jesus. Why don't you do that? Now, in biblical days, the table was probably about 12 in high. Maybe you've seen paintings of the Last Supper and you're like, why are they all sitting on the ground? Some of them have chairs, but that's inaccurate. In fact, when we go to Israel, it's kind of fun because we go to this old place to eat where we eat biblical food and like and they did in the biblical time.

And one of the funniest parts is we all sit on the ground. But the older group of us, we don't like sitting on the ground. Like Indian style doesn't happen anymore, if you know what I mean. It's like and you're trying to find something to lean against, you know. But leaning against each other is a little weird, but for us as Americans, but that's what they did. Like literally they'd sit around the table and they'd kind of lean against each other like, you know, back to back and stuff, just kind of, you know, make like a backrest for them as they sat at the table.

But at these tables, there were places of honor. And there there's a reason why John would be seated at the right hand of Jesus because that was the most honorable situation. And that that's kind of it was tradition. The right hand side and then it would go all the way around. And even in in Bible times, at the left it was also an honorable situation. Right up until this story happened. Because if you follow the narrative, you you can start to conclude if you put all the Gospels together, who is seated at Jesus' left? It was Judas Iscariot.

Now, this is interesting because that's what changed the meaning of of left. It was because of this story that suddenly throughout history things on the left were not as good as things that were on the right. And that 's where that word sinister actually comes from, which is kind of interesting. This story changed the meaning of that and left. By the way, have you seen some of the ancient speaking of ancient art, how there's art where Satan has two left hands? Have you seen that? You'll notice that like Michelangelo when he paints the picture of God reaching out to man, it's two right hands, you know, which is kind of important, you know, to this tradition.

But we're going to see Jesus hand something off to Judas directly at the the left of his table. So right and left in history, you know, the Sistine Chapel, of course, Adam and God using their right hands. And so this is where it came from. So if you're a lefty and you're like, people I don't people like that, it actually goes from the Bible. And in the Bible it even later would talk about how Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father versus the left hand, which is kind of curious, kind of interesting.

Now, if if you're a lefty you're like, wow, Brad, I'm cursed. No, they're not. That's not right. So Peter says, hey, John, find out who it is. So trying to find out who would betray Jesus was the same table. We know from the other Gospels that they were also arguing about which one of them was the greatest. See we we forget about, you know, the way these Gospels, we forget all the stuff that happened at dinner that night, but it was a busy night. The Last Supper, you know, Jesus washed the disciples' feet. But before that Luke tells us they were arguing about which one of them is the greatest.

Now they're debating, am I the one that's going to betray God? You know, trying to find out who would betray. What a huge wavering back and forth. Have you ever noticed human tendency like this is to where you are wondering, I'm pretty awesome. Right up until you know you 're not. And then when you realize you 're not, you're like, am I the one that's going to betray Jesus like the the worst dude that ever lived on the earth? They were arguing about who is the greatest. Now they're going to find out who's the son of perdition and they don't know which one's which.

Maybe you've had that in your life where you were kind of feeling your Cheerios, you know, I'm pretty cool and people like me and I got a promotion at work and I'm the smartest guy and then you do something stupid and you're like, oh, I'm such an idiot. Man, I don't even deserve to live. Like there's people that swing back and forth. Both of those swings are unhealthy. The Bible talks about having a sober view of oneself. I think John the Baptist was the guy who best gets that award because people thought, oh, he's awesome.

But he'd say, no, I'm just a voice crying in the wilderness. Who are you, Jesus? Nope. Are you the Messiah? Nope. I 'm just the voice. You know, and then he'd say stuff like, I must decrease that he increase. John the Baptist didn't have an identity crisis. He knew his failures and flaws, but he also knew his calling and his election. And that's the kind of the balanced view. I hope you have a balanced view of yourself. It's always awkward when movie stars and celebrities and athletes have that over exalting of themselves kind of view.

And it gets pretty ugly. But at the same time a person that's got that, you know, beating themselves up kind of view and wondering, you know, they deserve to exist. That's equally horrifying. So having a healthy view of oneself, that's important. Remember these disciples when they get to the book of Acts, they're going to have that healthy view, that right perspectives coming when they're filled with the spirit. That's going to be the secret. We'll see that as we keep going. Verse 25, he then lying on Jesus' breast said to him, Lord, who is it? And Jesus answered, he it is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it.

And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop, Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus to him, that thou doest, do quickly. You know, what you're going to do, go do. Now pause there just for a second. Even though it was Satan that had entered into Judas, did you notice that he still seems to need permission? Did you notice this? She's like, okay, that what you are going to do, now go do it. When else did Satan need permission to do something? Book of Job.

Remember Job? Beginning of Job, he had to get permission. Now this causes people trouble. Why does God give Satan permission? Why wouldn't he say, don't do that? We have to realize that God raised Judas up for this purpose. Again, we can't argue against that, but that's why he existed to betray Jesus. That was his calling. And now God's giving permission. Now some people have a problem this. Why doesn't God crush Satan right now like and get rid of evil in the world? Don't know all the answers on that one, but here's a big one. To have free will, you have to have a choice.

For us to have a choice, you need to have good and evil. And and that's the question. Are you going to choose good or evil? And without Satan, suddenly goodness, righteousness becomes enforced. It's the only other option. And I believe God will allow Satan to do his thing, be the prince of this world, the angel of light, all the stuff Satan's been doing his little dastardly deeds. God's going to allow that until the time comes where God says, that's it. There will be a time where God intervenes, but it's not yet. So we have to trust that the Lord is the one we want to follow, but Satan still has to get sort of permission, it seems here.

So it has to do with our free will and free choice. It's up to us to be able to choose who you're going to follow. I hope you're always following Christ and not Satan. People amazingly are following Satan today. Um the stuff that the choices they're doing, the choices they're making, we're seeing that pretty rampant today. Well, verse 28, now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this to him. Like they're like, what's going on? They're confused. Why did he say, go do your thing and do it quickly? They think Jesus just told him to go shopping for some groceries.

Brad, you just made that up. Nope. Verse 29, for some of them thought because Judas had the bag, the money, that Jesus had said to him, buy those things that we have need of against the feast or that he should give something to the poor. He then, having received the sop, went immediately out and it was night. So the disciples are like, oh, Jesus just dismissed Judas. Wonder why that happened. Uh they're still a little clueless, but notice it was night, it says here. And sadly I think it's more than just the time of day.

Maybe that too, but it was eternal night for Judas from this point on, darkness. It was the devil's day in Judas' life and the devil's day is always like the darkness like when they left Egypt in darkness. This man walks out of eternal light into eternal darkness. It's really a sad part of the Bible. So there's a spiritual darkness, I think, happening here, but it is nighttime. So now the dinner is well underway. Nighttime has come upon us in Jerusalem and that's where we find verse 31. It says, therefore when he was gone out, Jesus said, 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. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You shall seek me and as I said unto the Jews, whither I go, you cannot come. So now I say unto you, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one to another. Of course, verse 34 and 35, loving one another, that was the theme.

But Jesus is saying here, I'm going where you guys can't follow. Why? Number one, he's going to the cross, but number two, he 's going to be glorified. Versus 31 through 32 says that over and over again. Verse 31, the son of man be glorified and God is glorified in him. Verse 32, if God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself and then shall straightway glorify him. Why is it saying glorify glorify glorify over and over and again? The disciples will later piece all this together. But right now the disciples are confused about what's happening.

I can't blame them. We know really what that means for Christ to be glorified. Can I go over a little bit about what that is if you if you kind of pull the pieces together? What does it mean when Christ said, I'm going to be glorified? My time has come. The whole story thus far he's been saying, my hour is not yet come. But now is the time. The hour is come of glorifying of Christ. The first thing that this means, the glorifying of Christ, we need to acknowledge that this is the greatest event in the universe when Jesus is glorified on the cross and in his resurrection and his ascension to heaven.

Let's acknowledge that right out of the gate. When Jesus said, I'm about to be glorified, this is the biggest thing in the universe. Pretty big deal. The second part of this is he reversed the conduct of the first man. Do you remember Paul talked about this? Adam was the first man and Adam bombed out. Adam bomb, is what I like to call that. When he sinned in the garden, Adam is blamed as the the guy who brought sin into the world. But then Jesus is called the last Adam. He's going to reconcile humanity to God as being a man.

God became a man, reconciled humanity. So this is a big deal. The first Adam bringing us in bondage to sin. Jesus, the last Adam, brings us out of bondage from sin. So that's kind of an important thing. Number three, he's going to be glorified, the glorifying of Christ to destroy the power of death and hell. Um I'm not making these up. There's scriptures. Like for example, Hebrews two verses 14 and 15, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had power over death or power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

This is where Jesus you know, his glorifying on the cross would really destroy the power of death and hell. So that's that's important part of this. Number four on our list of glorifying of Christ, what it means, to purchase for himself the entire elect of God. That is he paid our price. He paid it all. All to him I owe. He was the propitiation is the is the fancy doctrinal word that he satisfied your payment, paid your debt in full. That's so good. We're redeemed by his blood. That's the glorifying of Christ. And then fifthly, glorified man at God 's right hand.

Now you say, huh, what? In Christ glorifying, there's a glorifying of man. This sounds like something a little weird and maybe off until you realize this is what the Bible teaches. There's two scriptures. You might want to jot these down. John 17 22 says, and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one. So this is where the glory that Christ has is going to be given to them, the church is if you look at the context of John 17. Philippians two 9 through 11 has the same kind of thing.

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. That is Jesus. Verse 10, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and things of heaven, things in earth, things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So Jesus is glorified before God the Father when he died on the cross. So so this is the glorifying of Christ and why it's so important. Well, verse 36, Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou?

Jesus answered him, whither I go, thou canst not follow me now. But thou shalt follow me afterward. But little did Peter know how literal this would be. Because remember where can't Jesus be followed in the context of this? Two things. One, the cross. Two, heaven, the Father be glorified and brought into heaven. That's where they can't follow. Peter is going to eventually follow Jesus. He'll be crucified on a cross just like Jesus only upside down. And then Peter would eventually make it to heaven. So Jesus, not right now, but you will. Little did Peter know what this meant.

Verse 37, Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. And Jesus answered him, wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice or three times. Poor Peter, this Gospel gives us sort of a quick version of this, but it's even more intense if you read it in the other Gospel accounts here. You know, Peter more emphatically, I will defend you, Lord. Not so, you know. John gives it kind of a quick reference here.

But can you imagine how discouraging this would be for the disciples right at this point? They left all their nets, they left their occupations and they followed Jesus for three years they've been following Jesus. And now Jesus says, man, I'm I'm leaving you guys and where I'm going you can't go with me. And by the way, one of us is a traitor. And then he says, the one who's dipping sop and then I give him the It's like when you go to a Italian restaurant and you have the bread and you dip it in the oil and the balsamic vinegar.

That's kind of the same thing. So Jesus dips it and then hands it to Judas and then says, go do what you have to do. And Judas runs out and the disciples thinking he's going shopping, but they're like, wait a minute. What's the whole thing about the sop and what? Judas is what? Like they're confused and troubled. And Peter's like, not so, Lord. I'm going to go wherever you go. I've I've given up everything. I'm going to I'm willing to die for you. And Jesus says, nope, can't go with me. Not not yet. So the reason I I kind of harp on this point is because this is troubling.

This is a troubling evening so far. It's supposed to be a celebratory Passover dinner. But not so. They're bummed out and that's why the chapter goes on. Chapter 14 is an unfortunate break because chapters weren't there before. Uh this is added centuries later, but that's where, you know, Peter says, what? I'm going to deny you three times and the rooster's going to crow. This is very depressing and that's why Jesus says verse one, let not your heart be troubled. And then he gives them the reason why they should not let their hearts be troubled.

Guest (Male): Pastor Brad Metter has been offering important insight for understanding the glorification that happened as a result of the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, accomplishing his divine plan of salvation. And you're listening to Today's Word. I hope you'll stick around as Pastor Brad will be back to close our time with a brief word of prayer in just a moment. But first, Today's Word is the radio ministry of Athey Creek Church just south of Portland, Oregon where Pastor Brad Metter is the senior pastor. Our vision is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus, their Savior, through careful study of the Bible.

We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you've missed any portion of this message, you'll find all of Pastor Brad's messages online at todayswordradio.com. Also I want to mention if you'd like to share how Pastor Brad's studies have impacted you, we have a toll-free number we invite you to call and share your story. Here's the number, 1-877-772-1113. That's 877-772-1113. Or you can share your story online at todayswordradio.com. And now with our final moments, Pastor Brad Metter invites you to join him in a closing prayer.

Brett Meador: Lord, we are thankful for your word. This chapter is heavy, but knowing the end of the story and knowing what your plan and purpose was, um we already feel our hearts rejoicing knowing that you are willing to go to the cross, sending your only begotten son to die on the cross for the sins of the world, reconciling humanity back to yourself. Not only just where we're in okay standing, but you call us your children and that we have an inheritance and and a glorious time in in heaven for all eternity to look forward to. All because of the cross.

Lord, I pray that none of us as we study through this would become sort of so familiar with the cross that we don't see the weightiness of the cross, that we don't feel the gravity of what's happening even in this story. Um all these prophecies being fulfilled, all the pieces falling perfectly into place, bringing it to the biggest event that ever happened in human history where God becomes a man and that man dies on the cross and then raises from the dead. Lord, we're so thankful for the Gospel message. I pray that we'd be all about that, that we'd go out and spread and preach the Gospel to those who haven't heard, the the for those that don't know the glorious cross that they too might go through the door um and know whether they're chosen and elected.

So Lord, I pray that you'd help us to be bold in these things. We thank you, Lord, for this chance to study your word. And now may it bring forth good fruit in our lives. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brad Metter on Today's Word. Well, that's all the time we have. Next time Pastor Brad will look at the meaning of the phrase of Jesus, let not your heart be troubled. Today's word with Pastor Brad Metter is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.