First, we see that Jesus is the light of the world sent by God. The command given by the Father is that those who believe in Jesus will have eternal life, which also shows that He obeyed God throughout His life. Second, we see that Jesus, one of the Trinity, is love. He sets an example for his disciples by washing their feet. He tells Christians to submit to one another. We also see that Christians must have acts of faith and not be as hard-hearted as Judas. Third, let’s talk about receiving Jesus, and also explain that Judas voluntarily betrayed the Lord. We also cited an experience in which “…He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.”(John 13:18) We mentioned that there is foreknowledge here, so “…you may believe that I am He.”(John 13:19) We also discuss the related questions raised by who was sent.
1. Jesus is the light of the world sent by God
“And Jesus cried out (G2896) and said, “He who lieves in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me. I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word (G3056) I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.””(John 12:44-50)
First of all, we should pay attention to whether He speaks loudly. When He speaks loudly, we must pay special attention. For example, another time for this verse, “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried (G2896) out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’””(John 7:37-38) Who sent Jesus? Paul made it very clear, “…God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh.”(Romans 8:3) And the Son of God is obviously Jesus, “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.””(Mark 1:9-11) He who believes in Him believes in God. Of course, this is true, for “I and the Father are one.”(John 10:30)
What does this word (G3056) refer to? It refers to Jesus Himself. This is clearly stated at the beginning of the Book of John, “In the beginning was the Word (G3056), and the Word (G3056) was with God, and the Word (G3056) was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”(John 1:1-3) So He is saying in another way, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”(John 3:16-17) His first coming was not to judge the world, but to complete salvation. The judgment of the great white throne mentioned in the Book of Revelation will not come until the end of time (see Revelation 20:11-15)
He said clearly again, “While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.”(John 9:5) You must walk while it is daylight so that you will not stumble, and “While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light….”(John 12:36) The Father’s command to Him is that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. This verse shows that He obeyed God throughout his life, “…I do exactly as the Father commanded Me. …”(John 14:31) This does not mean that God is a God who commands and acts one everything. If God did not give Him a command, He would still stand on God’s side. This happened when Jesus left Jericho. When he saw that there were two blind men, “Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.”(Matthew 20:34) It is obvious that Jesus Himself was moved by compassion. God did not give Him a command, and He was indeed on God’s side. This was true at that time, and it is true for us today. Even when there is no inspiration from the Holy Spirit, we must stand on God’s side.
Please note, “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”(John 3:18) How can we not believe it! The last point we want to emphasize is that the Bible is inspired by God, so we can see everywhere that “what God tells us through the Bible is consistent.” When we do not discount the words of the Bible, we can see that God sometimes (but not many times) inspired obvious contradictions in words. It is not that the Bible is wrong, but that we have not understood it. It is to understand why God inspired such obvious contradictions to us and what kind of messages He wants to pass on to us. We have discussed this in detail in “1111 The True Meaning of Biblical Inerrancy.” Please go to the website “https://a-christian-voice.com/” and click “Understanding of Spiritual Life” to this article. Thanks.
2. Jesus, one of the Trinity, is love
“Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, do You wash my feet?” Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head.” Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, “Not all of you are clean.” So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”(John 13:1-17)
He knew very clearly when His time would come. On the Mount of Transfiguration, “And behold, two men were talking with Him; and they were Moses and Elijah, who, appearing in glory, were speaking of His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”(Luke 9:30-31)
We know that “…God is love.”(1 John 4:8) He loves His own to the end, washing their feet, saying, “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.”(John 13:14) Doesn’t this mean? “…be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”(Ephesians 5:21) Didn’t He give us an example? We must know, “…One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers.”(Matthew 23:8) First obey God, then obey one another and wash each other’s feet. It is like, “But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent.”(1 Corinthians 14:30) Doesn’t this mean that God has given revelations to this later one, and those who spoke first should obey the revelation and stop talking! Let’s look at it again, “Jesus answered and said to him, “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.””(John 13:7) Don’t we understand it now?
Finally, he said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.”(John 13:16-17) You must be able to do it. “But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?”(James 2:20) In the Book of Revelation, “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.”(Revelation 20:11-12) People who are not written in the book of life only live temporarily, “And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”(Revelation 20:15)
The final judgment is based on deeds. Christians must have acts of faith. Such acts have to be what the Lord wants them to do. The scripture says, ““Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”(Matthew 7:21-23) Didn’t the Lord clearly say that they were not doing what He asked them to do? If they obeyed the Lord and did His things, how could the Lord say that He did not know them? Let’s take another example from the church in Laodicea in the Book of Revelation (see Revelation 3:14-22). The scripture says, “Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”(Revelation 3:17) Do you think they were doing what God wanted them to do? You see Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”(Revelation 3:20) He will for sure not ask them to shut Him out of their hearts.
How hard-hearted some people are like Judas, the traitor! Jesus also washed the feet of Judas out of love, but still could not restore him. Although “During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him.”(John 13: 2) But he couldn’t use it as an excuse, “…because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it.”(John 12:6) If he hadn’t had such a breach, how could he have allowed Satan to enter his heart? We will also see in the next passage that he should have known that Jesus knew in advance that he would betray Him, but he still hardened his heart and did it with practical actions!
3. Receive the Lord Jesus and kick me
“I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’ From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.” When Jesus had said this, He became troubled in spirit, and testified and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray Me.” The disciples began looking at one another, at a loss to know of which one He was speaking. There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. So Simon Peter gestured to him, and said to him, “Tell us who it is of whom He is speaking.” He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ bosom, said to Him, “Lord, who is it?” Jesus then answered, “That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.” So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, “What you do, do quickly.” Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose He had said this to him. For some were supposing, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, “Buy the things we have need of for the feast”; or else, that he should give something to the poor. So after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night.”(John 13:18-30)
Let’s first look at the fact that Jesus became troubled in spirit. This shows that He is a complete human being. If He used His divinity, He would not have such way at all. We also see this in the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, “And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.” And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.””
(Matthew 26:37-39) He was a complete man and would grieve and pray to the Father to let this cup pass away. However, when He became flesh, He chose to obey God throughout His life, so in the end He chose to obey God and do anything according to God’s will.
The disciple whom Jesus loved refers to John, and He prophesied very clearly, “I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.’”(John 13:18) We have seen that He really knew in advance that Judas would betray Him. No one else knew who it was ex.cept Judas who would betray Him. Didn’t we see? “…He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.”(John 13:26) Regarding this verse, a similar verse is quoted from the Psalms, “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me.”(Psalm 41:9) Jesus did eat with Judas, the traitor, but it was obvious that he was not His close friend. If you remember when Jesus was choosing his twelve disciples, “…He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God.”(Luke 6:12) He wanted to make sure that God wanted Him to choose the man Judas who betrayed Him. How could he not be a portrayal of kicking the Lord when he betrayed the Lord? Nowadays, you can also experience that “…He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.”(John 13:18) Not only that, you can also experience that “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, …Has lifted up his heel against me.”(Psalm 41:9) Here, I can share such an experience with you. Once, a man invited us, my wife and me, with his whole family to dinner out of nowhere. From what I learned afterwards, he probably felt that God wanted him to experience John 13:18, so he invited us. For the same thing, I later realized that what God wanted me to experience was Psalm 41:9, because I thought he was a close friend, but in the end he really kicked me.
I remember that it started from an email sent to him, which both of us felt that it was okay. The response was to tell me in the name of God, comparing me to a pig or a dog, by saying, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”(Matthew 7:6) He also said that there were more severe words, but he didn’t say them out, so I don’t know those words. This happened a long time ago, and I don’t know if he remembers those words now. Since then, we have basically not communicated with each other for more than ten years! In the eyes of the world, he is a very spiritual person. Otherwise, he would not have spoken to me like this in the name of God. Of course, I later found out that his words were wrong, and so is his person. Otherwise, God would not have allowed me to experience objective facts, which are something we have discussed before in “1123 God reveals His existence through objective facts that are visible to others.” Please go to the website “https://a-christian-voice.com/“. Click “Understanding of Spiritual Life” to find this article.
Some people may ask, why “…you may believe that I am He.”(John 13:19) Because there are things that are foreseen here that Satan cannot do. Regarding this, there are some places that talk about this matter. We can understand it now by looking at one of them. If Satan could have foreseen it, he would not have intervened in Jesus’ crucifixion to help complete the plan of salvation. The scripture do clearly say, “Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching. …And Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot, belonging to the number of the twelve. …began seeking a good opportunity to betray Him to them apart from the crowd.”(Luke 22:1-6) Of course, in the end, Judas couldn’t do it apart from the crowd, because the incident happened in front of everyone. As the scripture says, “While He was still speaking, behold, a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was preceding them; and he approached Jesus to kiss Him. But Jesus said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?””(Luke 22:47-48) He kissed Him in front of everyone. The kiss was originally an act of intimacy, but Judas used it as a sign. Come as a secret code!
Some people say, “After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. …”(John 13:27) So what can he do? Yes, he can do something for sure. The Bible does clearly say, “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”(James 4:7) To Judas, he was a thief who could not resist the temptation of money, so he sold Jesus for only thirty pieces of silver. “Then that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the one whose price had been set by the sons of Israel.””(Matthew 27:9) So he willingly accepted Satan’s temptation.
We see, “So after receiving the morsel he went out immediately; and it was night.”(John 13:30) Some people said that it was all the fault of the morsel. Wouldn’t it be fine as long as Jesus didn’t dip the morsel for him to eat? No, as we discussed earlier, Jesus was simply telling him that I knew it beforehand, but his heart was hardened and he would not listen. This all happened during dinner, but the verse also pointed out that it was night time, so it was very late, but he still wanted to go out and sell Jesus wholeheartedly.
Jesus was sent by the Father. He sent the Twelve Apostles as the verse says, “And He summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.”(Mark 6:7) At that time, Judas, the betrayer, was one of the twelve, so he not only saw miracles, but he also had the authority to perform miracles to subdue unclean spirits. But he still sold Jesus, how hard was his heart? “Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.”(Luke 10:1) And he said to his disciples,
“The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me.”(Luke 10:16) Isn’t this what Jesus said? “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.”(John 13:20) Please note that they all went out two by two. This is very important. For example, the Old Testament says, “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12) The New Testament also says, “Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses.”(1 Timothy 5:19)
After the resurrection, Jesus said,
“but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”(Acts 1:8) In the prayer of separation, He said, ““I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”(John 17:20-21) The Great Commission says very clearly, “…All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”(Matthew 28:18-20) This is the translation problem, and quite a few pastors do this, but according to the Bible it should be, “…be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ…”(Acts 2:38) To the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (another translation in Union Version).” We have seen that many people only think that the Great Commission is to get people baptized, but they forget to teach people to obey and practice it. If you want people to obey it willingly and practice it, you must set an example. Otherwise, others will say that you don’t obey it yourself. Why should we obey it? We have talked about this before so I won’t say more. Therefore, Christians are all sent with the Great Commission. Once again, we see that what God tells us through the Bible is consistent
(Verses refer to those in NASB95 unless otherwise specified.)
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