John 17.end
MILK
March 8th 2015
Welcome to CAMPUS.
It’s March 8th 2015. This is Milk. We are in John chapter 17.
Let’s pray, listen/sing the word of God set to music and sit in silence.
When we come back we will pick Jesus intercessory prayer back up at verse 12.
Prayer
Okay, last week we covered up through verse 11.
Much of the content had to do with Jesus being one with the Father and the apostles being one with Him.
Let’s read our text for today beginning at verse 12.
Now, in my estimation there are points we have already covered that Jesus reiterates through until the end of the prayer so if we come to them I won’t give these points as much attention.
Okay, verse 12, Jesus says:
12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
“While I was with them in the world,” Jesus says, “While I was engaged with them among other men, while we were surrounded by the people and the temptations of the world,” Jesus says, “I kept them in thy name.”
We talked last week how this phrase, “in thy name,” means He kept them instructed in the things and identity of God, He kept them from apostasy.
Then He reiterates, “Those that thou gavest me,” speaking of the men God gave Him in the role as apostles I have kept, and none of them is lost EXCEPT . .
(OR BUT) the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
You may recall that back in John 6:70 Jesus said:
“Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” Because Jesus also says that He does nothing of himself but only what the Father tells Him to do, we can say in the face of all of this that “The Father is the one who gave Judas to Jesus, and Jesus here says that He has kept all that the Father has given Him except the Son of Perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled.
Now, I think I want to take the time to talk about Judas here.
I want to warn you all within the sound of my voice that topics like Judas have the tendency to divide people up.
In fact I guarantee that right here within the sound of my voice there are those who believe that Judas will never, ever be forgiven and there are others who suggest that God will or has forgiven him already.
What I am going to try and do is present what scripture says about Judas and leave it at that.
Let’s begin by pointing out that the Jews would use the term Son to describe someone who embodies the characteristics of whatever follows that assigned term.
Therefore the biblical term, “sons of Belial” would be people who possessed the character of Belial.
Children of Wisdom, Sons of Thunder, Son of God – all relating to a person who embodied Wisdom, Thunder and God.
So when Judas is called a “son” of perdition we have to ask, “what does perdition mean in Greek.
In the King James New Testament the term – apolea – is translated
Waste
Destruction
Perdition
Perish
Die
Damnable
Pernicious Ways
Therefore the Son of perdition would be seen as the Son of Waste, Destruction, Death, Damnation, Pernicious Ways and Perdition.
His character was that of a destroyer, a thief, a traitor, a murderer.
Here in verse 12 Jesus says that He has kept all that were given him EXCEPT Judas – and the reason He gives?
“that the scripture might be fulfilled.”
In Psalm 109:8 there is a description given by David regarding the wicked. In it David says:
Psalm 109:1-9 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;
2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
3 They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.
4 For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.
5 And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.
7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
That line, “let his (the wicked man’s days be few) and let another take his office is believed to speak prophetically of Judas with the fulfillment occurring in Acts 1:20 where Peter, seeking to replace Judas place among the twelve quotes this passage.
In the upper room when Judas was still with them Jesus, quoting scripture, said:
Joh 13:18 “I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, “He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.”
That last line, again, comes from David speaking about his own day and circumstances, said:
Psalm 41:5-9 Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish?
6 And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he telleth it.
7 All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt.
8 An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more.
9 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.
So again, that last verse Jesus assigns to Judas and his betrayal.
The questions that surround Judas tend to orbit around things like:
Was he predestined to do what He did?
If you’re Martin Scorsese, was he commanded to do what he did (by Jesus)?
What drove him to do what he did?
Was he sorry for doing what he did?
Was he or will he be forgiven for doing what He did? And
Why the conflicting reports of his death?
Let’s sort of hit on these one by one so when we come to Judas again in John’s narrative we will be armed with the info and can move on past it – because John moves on past it.
Okay –
Was Judas predestined to do what He did?
This is really a loaded question. The reason its loaded is because before Judas existed God knew Judas and knew his character.
Some might say God created Judas’s character by virtue of creating him at all. To some extent this is true. But at the same time I would suggest that because God knew the character of Judas does not mean God forced Judas to be (and do) what he was and did.
He simply knew the course Judas would take.
There is a deeper element to this discussion which we rarely touch on because it is TOO deep for typical comprehension.
The thought is this – Judas – while we place the onus on him for his willingness to betray Jesus – was to some extent, also the product of his genetics, chemical make-up, and the environment in which he was raised and exposed as a newborn, infant, child, teen and even adult.
I would suggest that God, knowing all factors that would play into his choices, knew what Judas would do and hand picked the man from before the foundation of the world to “play his part.”
Forced to act – pre-programmed and without options? Yes and no. Yes from God’s mind. No from the options Judas had throughout his life.
And this is why Jesus was able to say in relation to Judas in Matthew 26:24:
“The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.”
The word for good in that verse can be translated better (as in better if he had never been born).
These are some very, very strong words against Judas. So before we try and take the position that he was a guy who just made a mistake we might want to take all of this into account.
Was Judas commanded (by Jesus ) to do what he did?
This is sometime suggested by imaginative thinkers, that Jesus told Judas that He would betray Him.
In light of prophetic passages that tend to suggest the betrayal of a friend, I’m not so sure.
For those who think otherwise believe that Judas actually had the most difficult role to play of all the twelve, one he did NOT want to do, and one that would leave him wishing that he had never been born, but I don’t think so.
What drove Judas to do what he did?
From the rest of the Bible it seems Judas loved money.
1st Timothy 6:10 admits: “For the love of money is the root of all evil.”
And one thing we know from scripture is
Judi-baby loved coin.
In John 12:1-6 we read:
Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.
2 There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.
3 Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
4 Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him,
5 Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?
6 This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.
We also note that Judas sold the Lord for 30 pieces of silver so the motive at least included money.
It may have also been a critical heart for Jesus by this time, but if it was solely out of distain he may have betrayed him for free.
The payment plays into the fact that Judas was a friend of filthy lucre.
One of the ironies in scripture is the fact that Judas, of all the twelve, was put in charge of the bag where the Lord and apostles held their money.
Finally, to the question:
What led Judas to do what he did? We have to note that when he was in the upper room with the twelve and the others wanted to know who it was who would betray the Lord, John wrote:
(John 13:26) 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.
27 And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.
Some suggest that Judas had been walking the line up until this point and it was here that God pulled back his protective shield over the man and once He did, Satan entered and it was “bye bye fathead.”
Was he sorry for doing what he did?
This is an intriguing discussion in my opinion and from it we can see firsthand what repentance is . . . and what it’s not.
Let me put it to you this way:
When I think of the apostles I can think of two who felt badly for the things they had done to the Lord – Peter and Judas.
Quite frankly both were remorseful for betraying Him (to some extent or another).
We will be reading about Peter’s betrayal in the coming weeks. Matthew wraps Peter betrayal up this way (Matthew 26:75)
“And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.”
Of course we read account of Judas’ end in Matthew 27:
3 Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
4 Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.
5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
What was the difference between Peter
and Judas in terms of their reaction to their respective betrayals?
I mean, at least when it comes to Judas the narrative says that He repented.
Both men used their respective betrayals to serve themselves – Judas to line his pockets financially, Peter to save his own skin.
Peter told Jesus over and over again that He was truly devoted to Him and Judas actually used a kiss to point the Lord out.
What was the difference?
Their sin was equal (in my estimation).
The first difference was where each man went to obtain a solution and the second difference is what they did in response to their failure.
Where they went and how they responded to what they did.
Both men sinned.
Both men felt sorry.
But Peter waited in faith on the Lord. And to his surprise He was told the Lord had returned three days later – and He RAN to the tomb.
He continued to pursue Christ inspite of HIS failure, His Sin, His weakness. You see, for Peter, it was not all about him. His was a faith that was all about the LORD.
And in faith Peter knew the Lord would forgive Him.
Was it painful. Very. Three times the Lord will ask Peter if He loves Him. Three times Peter, very sadly, will say yes.
And as a result Jesus would use Peter mightily to bring the Good News to the House of Israel and the pagan world.
But what of Judas?
First, where did He turn for solace and comfort and peace? The religion of his day and the men who ran it!
He went to them! (Saying) “I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood.”
And listen to what they say:
“What is that to us? see thou to that (or fix it yourself!)
Judas COULD have gone to the Lord. He could have burst through the crowd and tossed the coins at the poor and fallen at Jesus bloody feet and begged forgiveness and it would have come – immediately.
But He didn’t. Probably because He never really knew the Lord.
And so these religious men, this religious institution, these LEGALISTS did what ALL INSTITUTIONS DO TO STRUGGLING, SUFFERING souls –
They told Judas, “We don’t care.” And then they added what all legalist religions add:
“Take care of it yourself.”
And guess what? That is exactly what Judas did. He took care of his guilt and sin and shame by himself – and received the wages we all receive when we seek to save ourselves – death.
Was he or will he be forgiven for doing what He did?
Because Jesus calls Judas a Son of Perdition there are those who believe that He will roast forever in the Lake of Fire.
The title is only used twice in scripture. Once here in John 17 and once in
2nd Thessalonians 2:1-4. There, Paul is speaking to believers at Thessalonica who are under the impression that the end of the age was upon them.
Paul says:
1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,
2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
From this we can see that the Son of Perdition Paul speaks of is also called, “the man of Sin” (KJV) or “Man of Lawlessness” (NIV) and obviously this is not Judas but the anti-Christ who I happen to believe was Caesar Nero and others are still looking for.
Other time, eh?
So, will Judas ever be forgiven?
That topic too, for another time.
What we can say is Judas did not have a heart for the Lord and is in His merciful and just hands.
Why the conflicting reports of his death?
To wrap this up you may or may not be aware that the Gospel accounts give two descriptions on how Judas’ life ended.
Matthews account says Judas went and hanged himself. But Luke, the author of Acts says differently through the mouth of Peter whom he quotes.
Remember the prophecy where David said in Psalm 109:8
“Let his days be few; and let another take his office.”
Well Peter, in Acts chapter one, according to Luke, said the following:
1:15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)
16 Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.
17 For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.
18 Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.
So which was it, he hung himself or he fell headlong, burst asunder in the midst and all his bowels gushed out?
You know the answer – He hung himself, the branch broke, he fell, struck something midair, and all his bowels gushed out when he landed. (WHO SAID THE BIBLE”S BORING?)
Before we continue forward in verse 13 of the Lord’s prayer, did any of you catch another discrepancy in Acts 1?
Verse 18 says, speaking of Judas:
“Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.”
But turning to Matthew 27:5-8 we read:
5 And he (Judas) cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
6 And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.
7 And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.
8 Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.
For the Q and A period – how would YOU explain this?
Okay, Jesus continues at verse 13 and say:
13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
(something He has said before) verse 14:
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
(15)
15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
There are a few ways we can read this first line but because Jesus is about to leave this world (something He has reiterated a number of times to let them know he was going to die and go to the Father I believe that the context tells us He was asking that God not have them leave the world through dead but that while they were here He would protect them from evil.
Jesus repeats the curious line (which could only be speaking of their spirits)
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
And then the great request with which we are going to wrap today up – John 17:17:
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Now, first of all, let’s look at the words choice here.
Jesus does not say save them through thy truth thy word is truth – He says, sanctify them.
The Greek word for save is “sode-zo.” The word for justify or justification is dikayosis – it means acquittal.
So, Jesus here is NOT asking the Father to forgive them of sin, or to grant them acquittal or justification. This is a foregone conclusion.
They are His. Jesus has made this plain.
But here he does request that the father will “SANCTIFY them . . .”
This word is HAGIAZO – it means to make holy. Cleanse, purify, sanctify.
Now, we are about to wrap our time up. And I am about to do the equivalent of a college professor telling the class that everything he is about to say in the last five minutes of class will be on a quiz tomorrow.
So I think I am going to touch on the general principles presented here and then start next week off with some review because this stuff is so darn important.
Okay. So today try and just listen to what I am saying.
Before coming to faith and receiving what God is offering all human beings remain in their sin and unholy before God.
Another way to say this is we stand before Him guilty (of sin) and lacking righteousness (goodness).
The reason we lack righteousness is because we are delivering up good works through a filthy system of things.
Put it this way: We are all required by God in life to present good fruits for God to eat.
Prior to Jesus, we are all taking otherwise good fruits and placing them on filthy oily conveyor belts.
While the fruit in and of themselves are pretty good and sound and nice because they are delivered on a soiled and filthy and marred conveyor they arrive to God in that same condition.
Upon accepting Jesus the conveyor (our hearts) are cleansed of sin – in fact we are given entirely new hearts and identities by faith.
So the conveyor belt is now made or sterilized, self-contained stainless steal which is the perfect surface to convey good fruit.
And so now when we go to deliver good fruit to God they will not be tainted by our sin.
The cleansing of the conveyor, the replacement of the belt is Jesus justifying us before God of our filthy sin.
What Jesus is asking God to do on behalf of these men, who he has just asked that they will remain in the world, is for God to enable them, now that they have been justified, to help them to start putting better fruits of greater quantity on that conveyor – fruits that will ultimately come from their holy (sanctified) hearts and minds.
And how does Jesus say this happens? He says:
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
Last week we talked about the mystery where The Word of God became flesh and dwelled among us. Remember that.
It is NOT by any mistake that Jesus referred to Himself as “the way, the TRUTH, and the Life.”
Having ascended on high the world has been gifted with The Word made flesh (and made known) by the Spirit AND ALSO the Word made print – which has been around since Moses.
When Jesus asks the Father to sanctify them through His truth He then clarifies what this means, in what form this truth comes – BY HIS WORD.
Put on your snorkels for a second – where going down, down, down.
When God sanctifies He does it through something pure.
Of course His spirit is pure and so we know that His Spirit (the Spirit of Truth) can sanctify.
When God sanctifies people through physical means, that physical thing must be pure.
So when we look at the Word made flesh (Jesus the Man) Jesus the Man – that real physical being REMAINED pure because He never succumbed to impurities, defilements, or corruption.
So the physical Son God sent was capable of saving and cleansing us because He was and remained pure.
God that?
What else has remained pure when accompanied by the Holy Spirit (or the Spirit of Truth).
His written word, right?
So with Jesus ascending to the father we are not left wordless – which is the Truth which sanctifies according to Jesus – we have the written word.
And one of the greatest miracles of the Christian faith is the clarity and purity in which His Word (the Truth) has reached us – even to this day.
So it is by and through the Spirit of Christ revealing Him (the Word made flesh) and the Spirit of God revealing the Word made print that people are made holy.
That the fruits on our clean conveyors are made acceptable and coming in greater quantity to God.
Paul said in Ephesians 5 and of the Christ’s church
Ephesians 5:26 “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”
Back in John 15 Jesus said to the eleven:
“Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”
Adding the import of Spirit and Truth in cleansing believers Peter said
1st Peter 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
The word Hagias also means to consecrate and to set apart which is another dimension of life-long Christian sanctification . . . and which we will talk more about . . . next week.
I want to point out one more thing that supports my stance on subjective Christianity being the way and not brick and mortar church.
(See notes or ad lib)
Okay . . . Questions / answers
