Synoptic Gospels John 13:18-20

Well, my recollection is that we had already gotten into, we certainly went through Jesus saying to, this is

John chapter 13. Simon Peter said to him,

Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, he was bathed and he is only to wash his feet if it is completely clean.

And you are clean, but not all of you, for he knew who was betraying him, because I mentioned thinking about, talking about Judas.

And then, and then

I think we had gotten into at least 14, 15, somewhere around there, because we started talking about the applications.

That's where I'm going to start, and if we get farther on, and I go, oh, yeah,

I remember talking about that. 18?

Yeah. Okay, that's what I thought. That's, by the way,

Ralph is upset that last Sunday morning has not been uploaded yet. Okay, I'll blame,

I'll tell Ralph to blame your employers. Gotcha.

Gotcha, verse 18. All right. We have been working through the

Synoptic Gospels, but we want that pretty much to last till the end of my life. So, we are throwing

John in for the fun of it, just so we can say we've gone through the entirety of the Gospels, I guess.

And so, we're in John chapter 13, and working through verse by verse, or section by section,

I guess. It all depends on how you look at it. And so, we're in John 13, beginning at verse, well, verse 16,

I guess. 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. 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, 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. He who receives me receives him who sent me.

And so, you hopefully recall that Jesus has washed the feet of the disciples.

There is a conversation going on here, and a couple of times we have reference made to Judas.

And this comes out in a number of different ways.

But when he makes the statement about blessedness, if you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

He says, 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. That you have an

Old Testament citation from Psalm 41. And this, of course, again, has to do with the betrayer.

Now, it is interesting. Some of us have this natural tendency upon seeing the word chosen to assume certain things.

And then others have the natural tendency to assume the opposite of those things. But I think it is fairly clear in this context that the choosing that Jesus is talking about here is the choosing of the 12 disciples.

And the fact that Judas' role is not a random thing.

It is not that Jesus chose him to be something other than he was.

Again, it is interesting to listen to people as they attempt to fit

Judas into whatever paradigm it is they bring to the text. In the 17th chapter,

Jesus is specifically going to, in the High Priestly Prayer, talk about choosing the disciples out of the world.

This could be a strong distinction between the disciples and the world. And then a distinction between those who will believe on him because of the disciples' words and the world.

And I think very clearly you have in John 17 just as strong an emphasis on election to salvation as you have in John 6, 8, and 10.

But here I don't think that we need to be thinking so much on the issue of salvation as it is the role that Judas plays in bringing about the crucifixion.

And he does play an important role. He betrays Jesus into the hands of the

Jewish leaders at night. He gives them the location where the disciples are retiring to, etc.,

etc. And very clearly this role is laid out for him and is a part of God's sovereignty.

There's nowhere anywhere in all of the text an expression of shock or amazement or, or, man,

I never saw this coming. It's always fulfillment of Scripture.

Fulfillment of Scripture. And you have that right here. But it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled.

He who eats my bread is set up to seal against me. I mean, I don't know how much clearer you can make it.

And it's not that just John says this. This is Matthew, Mark, and Luke. I mean, the earliest understandings of the role of Judas in the

New Testament are very plainly focused upon the fact that this man did what he did.

As a part of the fulfillment of Scriptural prophecy and hence under the providence of God. Yet at the same time there's no idea of excusing him because of that.

And again, this takes us back to those texts. I suppose we could add this almost as a fourth text.

The three texts we very frequently refer to when we deal with this, what some people call mystery.

I don't know that it's a mystery in the proper New Testament sense. The proper meaning of mystery in the

New Testament is something that was hidden from ages past, but now has been revealed in the Gospel and in the

New Covenant. But it seems fairly clear that we can go to texts like Genesis 50 -20.

You have Joseph and his brothers, and Joseph understands that what they did was evil. He does not excuse their actions.

But he also says that while their intentions were evil, God's intentions in the very same action were pure and holy, with the result of saving many people alive today.

So you have the sovereignty of God. It is, as we say, compatible with the actions of creatures and holding the creatures accountable for their actions based upon acting upon the desires of their heart.

Men are not judged based upon knowledge of a decree that they don't know about.

They're not judged based upon some divine decree that is known only to God and not known to men.

They are judged based upon what God has made known of His will, His law, and acting upon the desires of their hearts.

And many people don't think that's going far enough. There are many today who absolutely insist upon man's will has to be autonomous.

There cannot be a divine decree. I just don't know how they handle the vast majority of texts of Scripture that deal with prophecy, or that deal with Genesis 50 -20,

Isaiah chapter 10, the clear. And again, there's nothing in Isaiah 10.

In Genesis 50 -21, we don't read, And everyone was blown away.

Maybe that's in your translation, but it's not in the original language. And the same thing in Isaiah 10, when the prophet talks about bringing

Assyria against Israel and punishing Israel, and he's the rod in my hand, all the rest of that stuff. And then he turns around and says,

And then I'm going to punish the prideful heart of the Assyrians, because they do this out of pride, and it's not their intention to do what's holy.

It's their intention to do what's unholy. And so you have God saying, I'm bringing the Assyrians against you. This is what they're going to do. I'm the one doing this.

And I'm going to turn around and punish them for doing that. Why? Because they had the wrong intentions. They had the wrong motivations. They were doing this out of fulfillment of the lust of their hearts, so on and so forth.

And again, Isaiah 11 is not a long section about, wow, we never even thought about this before.

It's a given. And the same way, when the early church preaches,

I'm sorry, prays in Acts chapter 4, they've been told to stop praying in the name of Jesus.

The beatings have started. The persecution has started. And when they pray, their prayer clearly makes it known that, you know, many people have said prayer really reveals your theology better than your systematic theology does.

You will pray in accordance with what you really believe, even if you say things differently when you preach or teach or anything else.

And so the early church prays and talks about Herod and Pontius Pilate, the

Jewish leaders, the Romans, all gathered together against your holy servant Jesus to do what your hand and your will had predestined to take lives.

And they're talking about the crucifixion. And so you have this, well, what could arguably be stated to be the greatest evil act in all of history, the murder of the sinless

Son of God. There had never been an innocent person killed before this. Have you ever thought about that?

There had never been an innocent person killed before the cross. Everybody else was fallen.

Everybody else was already under the wrath of God. And this was the first time that an innocent person had ever been killed, truly.

And it's a great evil. And, of course, I know we use the term innocent in a different way. But we're talking here about God's standards, not just man's standards.

And yet the early church, again, there's no evidence that after this prayer was offered, the

Armenians in the church said, wait a minute, you offended us there. What are you talking about? There's just no discussion.

There is a clear recognition of this compatibilism between the sovereignty of God and the will of man and the judgment of man.

And no indication whatsoever of shock and dismay.

And, wow, we never thought about anything like this before. It's just there. In the same way, this discussion of Judas, there's no indication on the part of the authors that, now listen very carefully to what

I'm about to tell you here, because you may have never thought of this before, but this Judas guy, we know he was pilfering from the bag, and we know he betrayed

Jesus, but guess what? There's also scriptural prophecy about what he was going to do.

And it wasn't just because God was looking down the corners of the times and said, oh, I see what's going to happen. And so he had to do things the way that he saw they were all going to fill out, because, well,

God's just limited by time, which he actually created. But anyway, it's nowhere to be found.

And so you have these statements, and this choosing.

Some would say, well, the ones I have chosen, that's only the disciples, but it is that the scripture may be fulfilled.

But still, you still have the issue that the choosing either positively includes

Judas' role, or positively excludes him from being amongst those that Jesus says,

I will lose none of those. One way or the other, I mean, I know there are people who want to go, well,

I don't believe in double predestination. I only believe in single predestination. Well, you know, that's like saying

I only believe in the single -handed backhand. I don't believe in the double -handed backhand. It's still a backhand. And the ball's still going over the net, okay?

One way or the other. And you can try, if you want, to say that in the one positive choice of salvation, there is merely a passing over of those that are not chosen.

But the fact is, there's still a purpose in both actions. And unless you're going to say, and he has no purpose over here, or unless you're going to at least be consistent and say, the people who are not chosen for eternal life at least still have the opportunity.

They could, and some of you may recall, that is the view of some people.

That was the view that was expressed by Jerry Matitick of the Northwest Community Church back in January, no,

January? Yeah, January of 91, I think it was. Or was that December of 91? December of 91.

December of 90, that's right. December of 1990, Northwest Community Church. Remember he was talking about, yes,

God positively saves some people, but there are other people who can be saved who aren't elect, but they won't persevere.

So you can be truly saved and truly regenerate, but you won't persevere because you weren't elect.

And that was the position that he presented in that particular debate. And there are only, actually there are people sitting here who are too young to have been in existence when that debate took place, let alone remember the specifics of that, but I know

Brick was there. Huh, Brick? Yes. But anyway, so there are those perspectives out there.

So it seems very, very clear, but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, he who eats my bread is lifted up his heel against me.

And it is in the context of the fulfillment of this Scripture that we then have verse 19.

Now, let me tell you about when I first sort of realized what was going on in verse 19 of John chapter 13.

Because, I mean, when you've read the Gospel of John, I mean, it's probably the most single -published of all the books of the

New Testament. Of the New Testament, John is the one most often published by itself, obviously.

And probably in the Bible, the Psalter maybe historically more often than John.

But, you know, there's just lots of Gospels of John floating around out there. And, you know,

I suppose if you want to have something, you know, if you want to have a real solid tract with you, the

Gospel of John is a good way to do it, I suppose. Anyway, I was, we used to live over on Pasadena Avenue, around 3rd

Avenue, Pasadena, just north of Camelback. And we had an apartment over there, and I was in,

I was at Grand Canyon at the time, I think I was, I don't know, a junior, senior, somewhere around in there. And I was working on a paper,

I was a double major in Bible and biology, a minor in Greek. And I was working on a paper that ended up being a small book, that ended up being sort of incorporated into the

Forgotten Trinity over the years, but on the subject of the

I Am sayings of Jesus. And I had the first computer that we owned, actually the ministry owned.

And it was, if I recall correctly, you know, we had to take out a loan for it.

It was a $3 ,000 computer, pretty expensive. It was portable too, which meant it was the size of a

Singer sewing machine. It was a compact, portable, it literally was the size of a sewing machine.

You would lay it on its side, and then you'd unhook this thing and you'd pull the keyboard down, and you could actually move the keyboard around, it was on a cable.

And so you're looking at the bottom of this thing, and it had about a six -inch green screen and two five -and -a -quarter -inch floppy drives.

Two floppy drives. It did not have a hard drive. Remember, this is $3 ,000, okay?

And no hard drive. And if I recall correctly, we had to actually upgrade it to a whopping 640K of RAM, but as Bill Gates himself said, who could ever need more than 640K of RAM anyway?

And some of you are still going, what is he talking about? Some of you have not been using computers for nearly as long as I have.

But anyway, and I had this awesome program called WordStar.

I love doing that because you can automatically identify the old geeks in the class by saying,

I had WordStar. And all the old folks go, oh, dot commands, yes,

I missed those. Okay. And so I'm working on this paper.

And even you younger folks that have, yeah, Summer's just laughing at me over there, that have, you know,

Word and all these things that automatically do footnotes for you and end notes. Now, this is an

IBM Selectric, but without the ball going back and forth. That's all it really was.

You still had to figure out where you were on the page to put your footnotes and all the rest of the stuff.

It was not merely automatic yet. This was early, early on, you know,

WordStar 2 or something like that. I think I eventually did see WordStar 10 or something like that.

But anyhow, so I still think I have some vision problems due to staring at that little green screen for hours at night.

And I had this flickering little desk lamp.

You know, they didn't have LEDs yet or things like that. It was the old bulb that would sort of get loose in there, and it would flicker a little bit.

And I was in the other, the second bedroom, and I think Kelly was already asleep.

And I'm, you know, working on this paper. That's what it's like when you're in Bible college and seminary is you just, you write lots of things and read lots of things, and that's just how it works.

And I don't remember exactly what the order was any longer. I may have this in a book someplace, actually, and may have to go back and refresh my own memory from something

I've written. But I was looking at either the

Greek Septuagint of Exodus 3 or, much more likely,

I was looking at the Greek of John 13, 19. And in John 13, 19,

Jesus says, From now on, I am telling you, before it comes to pass, in order that you may believe that, that when it does occur, you may believe that I am

He. And in the original language, it says,

Now, egoimi is, of course, the phrase,

I am, that you encounter in John 8, 58, which is one of the primary texts where the debate on the deity of Christ takes place.

Before Abraham was, I am. And the Jews pick up stones to stone him. And then in John 18, 5 -6, when the soldiers come to arrest

Jesus, it says, Who are you seeking? We're seeking Jesus of Nazareth. And then John belabors the point to say,

Now, Judas is standing with them. And when Jesus said,

I am, they fell back upon the ground. The soldiers fell back upon the ground.

And this, again, a key text in regards to the rather clear, obvious fact that John is attempting to tell us something.

In fact, it's so clear that one of the arguments that the Muslims have developed recently is that you can't trust

John because the other Gospels don't tell us this. So, in other words, they're not arguing that John is not teaching the deity of Christ.

They recognize, they're forced to recognize, yeah. He is. But since the other

Gospels don't repeat it, then clearly he's making it up. Which is, you know, there's always a way around it.

You can either say, I didn't mean that. You know, people who don't want to say that will say that in the garden, the soldiers were just so shocked at Jesus' moral purity that they fell back upon the ground.

Which, as I've said, happens every day. I mean, it's one of the things they train for when we send our troops over to Afghanistan.

Now, when you run into a particularly morally upright person, be prepared to fall. They even put special padding in the suits so the soldiers fall back upon the ground.

They're not hurt. Anyway, a little early in the morning for a couple of you,

I've been writing that down. Oh, I didn't know that. I need to start

Googling things a little more often. No, this is amazing. No, it's meant to be somewhat of a joke there.

But anyway, I just remember when

I read this last phrase, hinah p'tzuseh t 'hatan genetai hati egolamia.

Man, I've seen this someplace before. And, you know, back then you didn't have, you couldn't pop online and ask some of your friends about it or whip out your smartphone and text somebody or anything like that.

I mean, it was, this was, life was rough back then. You know,

I mean, we're talking, there were dinosaurs going by the window and it was rough.

And so I'm like, where have I seen this before? I've seen this somewhere before.

And I made the connection that night. And I started, I said,

I've seen this phrase. And this is why it might have been, now that I think about it, I might have actually been looking at the

Greek, the Greek septuagint of Isaiah 43 .10. It's one of the two.

I was looking at, I was either looking at John 13 .19 and it reminded me of Isaiah 43 .10 or I was looking at Isaiah 43 .10

and it reminded me of John 13 .19. I don't remember after all these years now which direction that went. But I made the connection in my mind that night that you have the very same phraseology being used here.

Now, if you look at Isaiah 43 .10, why don't you turn with me there, unless you have clear recollection of my having talked about this sometime over the past 20 years.

Isaiah 43 .10, the reason I would be looking at it is this is a text that, if you ever went out with us to Salt Lake City or out to Mesa, to any of the

Mormon outreaches, if you ever looked at the 100 verse memorization system that I have on our website that we've had for ages and ages and ages, you know that this is one of the primary verses that we suggest that you memorize for encounters with the

Mormon missionaries at your door or with the possible future president of the United States. It would also be a good one.

Hello, Mr. President, ever read Isaiah 43 .10? Yeah, okay. And the primary reason is the last two phrases.

Because this is poetic, so it's the last two portions of the poem. Before me there is no

God formed and there will be none after me. And pretty much anybody who's gone up to Salt Lake City and gone out to Mesa and talked to the

Mormons for almost any amount of time at all has at least got those two lines down. That's not a long one to memorize.

Before me there is no God formed, there should be none after me. That pretty much messes up both Mormon theology and all of the original

Battlestar Galactica in one shot. And some of you are going, how many of you have not seen the original

Battlestar Galactica? Oh, man. What? I almost got it memorized.

Oh, just about. The original Battlestar Galactica was 1978,

I think. Yeah, right after Star Wars. And I loved watching

Battlestar Galactica, but at the time I had no earthly idea that, and I have them all,

I actually have most of the original Battlestar Galactica episodes on my little iPod, my old iPod.

I've been watching it on the screen, it's that big, it's great. Also, I can't see past the end of my nose anymore. And I was watching some on the flight.

I mean, a flight from London to Houston is long enough that you can end up watching almost anything. And I was, again, taken aback by just this one episode.

They get captured by these glowing beings, and these glowing beings say to Apollo and Starbuck, as you are, we once were, and as we are, you may become.

And they have the Council of the Twelve, and they had a wedding ceremony, Apollo's wedding ceremony, and they're sealed for time and eternity.

And it was no shock to me at all to discover that all the original screenwriters for the original

Battlestar Galactica returned Mormon missionaries. I mean, it's just pure Mormonism.

That's why I made that comment, and some of you are going, really? And I was saying, yeah, but some of you, like Brother Ed up here, are going, well, that's the 14th time

I've heard that particular story in this class. 14th time, maybe 15th, I lost track, somewhere around there.

So, if you ever caught the original Battlestar Galactica, it was like having two more missionaries in your front room, and you didn't even realize that they were right there.

But the last section of Isaiah 43, 10 is a great text for taking that apart, because in Mormon theology, there is a

God before God, and there will be a God after God, and God is just one God amongst many gods, and they have to go, well, it just means for this planet.

Yeah, right, that's right. But that's only the last two stanzas of the verse.

The verse says, You are my witnesses, declares Yahweh. Now, off the top of your head, why is that significant?

Anybody know why that's significant, that first phrase? Because I have told this story before as well, so now you're going to find out if you're really complaining about how often

I've told it, or if you've just forgotten what I've said before. Any guesses?

Huh? Yeah, that first phrase of Isaiah 43, 10, You are my witnesses, declares

Yahweh. What's significant about that? Anybody know? That's where Jehovah's Witnesses get their name.

Jehovah's Witnesses, Yahweh. They mispronounce it as Jehovah, but You are my witnesses, declares Yahweh.

That's where the entire name came from, Isaiah 43, 10, the first verse, the first stanza of Isaiah 43, 10.

That's where the name comes from, if you were always wondering. But notice it says, You are my witnesses, declares

Yahweh, and my servant whom I have chosen. Chosen. Hmm, isn't there something in John 13 about chosen?

Yeah, okay. So that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Now, when you look at the

Greek Septuagint there, there are some differences between this and John 13, 19 because of the fact that Jesus is talking to a plural group, and this text is talking to the people of Israel.

But you take those slight audience differences out, and the language is the same.

The language is the same. In both instances here, in the instance of demonstrating that God is

God through fulfilled prophecy, that knowledge of future events becomes one of the evidences of the fact that Yahweh alone is

God. Before him there was no God formed, and there will be none after him. I, even I, am Yahweh, and there is no

Savior besides me. Isaiah 43, 11. And so then, would

Jesus have known what Isaiah 43, 10 said? Well, of course he would have. So how in the world could he then take that language and apply it to himself in the same context?

He's talking about choosing servants. He's talking about choosing people. It's immediately after a scriptural citation about fulfillment.

Same thing in Isaiah 43. And then he takes and applies the words of Yahweh to himself saying,

I'm going to tell you before it happens, so when it does happen you may know that, ego,

I am. It's so purposeful and so obvious that it's amazing that we normally just go flying right past it.

Because we're following it, we're not seeing, we're following sort of a different line of thought, in essence.

The betrayal and Judas and stuff like that. And we're not catching everything else. But John 13, 19 is,

I think, one of the clearest uses of ego, I am, as evidence of the deity of Christ, because of its

Old Testament background, Isaiah 43. And isn't it irony in its ultimate extent that the very verse that those poor, well -dressed, book -bag -carrying people who come and wake us up on Saturday mornings, that their very name comes from a verse that actually teaches the deity of Christ and they don't know it.

I mean, what is the level of irony that your religious group, known primarily for its denial of the trinity and the deity of Christ, it got its name from a verse that, when you look at it, actually teaches the deity of Christ.

And yet the vast majority of those folks have no idea of it. I mean, you want to get a conversation going at the front door?

If you know this verse well enough, and you know its fulfillment in John 13, 19, talk about getting their attention.

I mean, they want to talk to you about Armageddon. That's all they ever want to talk about. Do they ever get bored talking about it?

I would get bored talking about Armageddon every single day. But, evidently, they don't. And most of them have come to your door, and sadly, their view of Christianity and Christians is of a very ignorant lot that only have one or two verses that they quote.

Well, Jesus said, I am the Father, one. And then they normally don't even know where to find it or what the context was or, you know, et cetera, et cetera.

Or, doesn't it say Jesus is God and John... That's pretty much all they think Christians have.

And so, what a wake -up call. If you can go, Jehovah's Witnesses.

Don't you get your name from Isaiah 43, 10? You are my witnesses, declares Jehovah. Well, yeah.

Well, could I ask you a question about that verse? Could we look at that in your New World Translation? And then you go through it, and you talk about how there's no other

God. Jehovah's the only God there is. And most of them are absolutely blown away when you even know the name

Jehovah. And if you happen to mention, oh, yeah, we use the name Jehovah in our hymns at church all the time, they're going to go...

Because most of them, honestly, believe they're the only people who use the name

Jehovah. And, you know, especially, you know, Brother Callahan can go,

I've been singing that name since I first remember. My mom would bring us up and we'd sing a hymn thing and we'd go, before Jehovah's awesome throne, or awful throne, depending on which of the two versions we were singing.

And they're like, really? Now you've got their attention. Now you are speaking their language.

And this encounter has become completely different than what they expected it to be when they walked in, when they walked up to your door.

I can assure you of that. But then, when you go, have you noticed? You know, in the context, my servant whom

I have chosen, as you may know, believe me, and understand that I am he. Have you ever noticed that's the same language

Jesus used of himself in John 13, verse 19? You can turn over to that.

You can look at it. Look, it's the very same. In fact, do you have your Kingdom Interlinear translation? We used to call it the purple people -eater, because it used to be purple.

Now it's blue, so we haven't really come up with anything overly exciting for the blue version.

But, do you have your Kingdom Interlinear? Could you look at that? See, there's that phrase,

I am. That's the same one you have in John 8, 15. And Jesus uses of himself in the context of fulfilled prophecy in the same way that Yahweh did.

Isn't that interesting? And then, hopefully, you're ready to follow up with Hebrews chapter 1 and John chapter 12.

And there is no more effective means of getting the attention of one of Jehovah's Witnesses than to demonstrate out of their own

Scriptures, the New Testament identifies Jesus as Jehovah. There isn't. I mean, that is a weapon of mass instruction for Jehovah's Witnesses.

It really is. In fact, you might have to be licensed to use this argumentation at the door.

So be careful, because in California, definitely, it would be illegal.

But this is a very, very important text. And, again, most folks just go flying past it, because they're following something other than the actual context of what's being said.

So, Jesus says to the disciples from now on, I'm telling you before it comes to pass.

So, specifically, in Isaiah, primarily Cyrus and the fulfillment of the prophecies about the destruction of Jerusalem and then the restoration of the people and all the rest of that stuff.

Here, you've just had a Scripture quoted. He who eats my bread lift up his heel against me.

And Jesus is talking about, not talking about all of you. I know who I have chosen. I know who my servant

I have chosen. But I know there's this one named Judas. And so, from now on,

I'm telling you before it comes to pass, that when it does occur, you may believe that I am.

It's right there. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives me, and he who receives me,

I'm sorry, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. Very interesting text that I think has been oftentimes misused and abused, because those who claim apostolic authority will quote this text and say, ah, if you don't accept what

I'm saying and I've been sent by someone who has this authority, i .e.,

the Pope, then you are rejecting Jesus' authority. So, Jesus' authority goes, someone sends him, he sends someone.

If you receive them, then you're receiving him. And that's a true statement, but how do you determine who has been sent by Christ?

How do you determine, and again, the connection that's found here is between the

Father and the Son. We could expand upon that in regards to what, you know, is

Jesus merely claiming to be a mere prophet here, or is there something more to that? But the misapplication of this text by Roman Catholics is that they miss that the means by which you identify the one who has been sent by Christ is that they bear his message.

Not that they can go, well, you trace here to here to here and then this guy, and then we sort of skip past the avenue of papacy, and then we skip over the pornography, and we skip over all these problems in the early church, but we have a line that we can trace back.

That's not how you determine who's been sent by Christ. You determine who's been sent by Christ by the consistency of the message that they deliver to that which was

God breathed and found in Scripture. That's how you determine the connection. That's what real apostolic succession is.

It's an apostolic succession of truth not an apostolic succession of wishful thinking in history, which unfortunately is all that Rome has to offer to us at that particular point in time.

So, whenever I'm here again, brother, which is not next week, because I'm in Delaware next week, but whenever I am here again, we will pick up with John 13, 21, and the prediction of the betrayal of Jesus.

All right? Okay, let's close our time with a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for this opportunity to once again look into your word, and we would ask that we would take what we've learned this morning, and we'd be prepared to share it with those who need to know who

Jesus truly is, and that we would be found to be good students of your word, and she would cause us to remember these things when we have opportunity, that we might be used as a light in the lives of others.