Synoptic Gospels John 13:20-27

Keeper of the note to see if you can you can find our locations. I happen to know where it is this time.

I Know where we are cuz I remember, huh? I just wanted to make sure that we were you know

By the mouth of two witnesses or something like that, you know, I don't remember saying much about 20 yet But we're within a verse of each other there.

So that's pretty good Okay, I remember saying much about 20 though, who am

I supposed to who am I supposed to believe now That's true, that's true, that's true.

All right. We're in the somewhere in the 13th chapter of John The reason

I remember a little bit better than normal where we were is because we talked about 13 19 and I remember going through the

Eggo I me statements the I am statements and Making the all the connections for you to John 8 24 8 58 13 19 18 5 through 6

Etc, etc, etc. So that's Why I remember that but I don't have much of a recollection of talking about verse 20

Truly truly I say to you he who receives whomever I send receives me and he who receives me receives him who sent me

I Would think I would remember that somewhat in light of the fact that this is a text that is frequently cited by those who promote the concept of apostolic authority

Or I guess I should rephrase that apostolic succession

Now apostolic succession is a concept that developed fairly early in church history especially in the late 2nd into the 3rd century when you had

Various groups, especially Gnostic groups that were coming along and The Gnostics you

I've told you about the many times before but we rotate people through over time.

I could have George or brick come up and give you an entire thing on Gnosticism because they've heard this and I'm sure there might even be some old notes in Codex Ricotonius on this particular subject but It is obviously a subject

I've addressed many times in the past but We keep addressing it because it remains relevant not so much

It's it's fashionable for some people say oh you're such a Gnostic I've heard I've heard people say that to me as as a reformed person

They'll say you you're so focused on doctrine. You must be a Gnostic well, the the

Gnostics were I'm discovering that that even You know

Gnosticism was a wide wide movement with not in the sense of lots of people but lots of different perspectives and Right now

I'm preparing to teach a class over in California But fly over New Year's Day in fact to teach it for Cornerstone Seminary and I'm finally gonna have to actually lecture on Hinduism and Buddhism.

And so I'm stretching my mind and it's a whole different world. It truly is even

Islam is for me much easier to Wrap my mind around than the massively wide

Mess that is Hinduism. In fact the the guy I'm listening to a graduate level course on the subject just to try to Get a handle on it and the guy who's teaching it said

It is probably a true statement That anything that you can say that is true about Hinduism in India is

Also false about Hinduism in India So That gives you an idea.

I mean, it's such a It's more of a culture than it is even a religion. But anyway,

I'm wondering Away on you there Gnosticism likewise had a very very very very very wide

Range of expression though. I don't think it was ever a very large movement I Don't think it ever had

It only appeals to a certain kind of person It's it's a little bit like the New Age movement up in Sedona.

Okay, it's pretty weird seeing the 1960s hippies walking around doing their own thing, but Numbers wise they're not that big so Gnosticism in general was a dualistic system, which means that which is spirit is good that which is

Physical is is evil which is made of matter is evil. And so for them

Salvation involved escaping this physical realm hence escaping this body. The Greeks were dualist as well

That's why they mocked Paul on Mars Hill when he started talking about the resurrection because they figured that's exact opposite of what salvation was but the the

Gnostics the they taught that the The the means by which you gain

Salvation is through gnosis knowledge But this knowledge was it was not like they had an entire table full of thick volumes of Metaphysics for you to study.

No, the the knowledge was gained through secret ceremonies and practices

They basically had the what might be called forms of sacraments and You would advance in your knowledge and you'd get certain things again, very similar to what you do have in I'm sorry

Scientology Hinduism the You know studying under the very various Brahmins until you get your your own mantra

Which is you know This super secret phrase that you're supposed to say in your prayers and all that kind of stuff

I mean men's religions are filled with this stuff because it's the means by which people who have control keep control over people below them

You're you're dependent upon me. That's what sacramentalism is. That's what all this stuff is and the Gnostics had these various Ceremonies and and But so the knowledge you were gaining was not

Knowledge as in study Contemplation stuff like that. It was Very similar to Scientologists and finally you get to the final high end after you've spent all your money and you discover it's a science fiction story and In essence the

Gnostic idea is very similar to it. It definitely came from the East Where Hinduism is already well -established has clearly has

Hindu roots in the sense that you It had some sort of a form of monism in it.

If you're not familiar the monism is Monism is the idea that all is one The the idea that there is only one reality and everything else is is

Doesn't really exist in the with the capital R So I think

I think the phrase was taught Thomas C is the idea in the Upanishads that You'd have a guru leading around a student and they discuss a tree and he would say thought

Thomas C You are that thing they would discuss a cow you are that thing discuss a brook

You are that thing the idea being the oneness of everything and that Distinction is actually an error which comes over in various forms into Buddhism Buddhism being a

Reform but a protest movement developing out of Hinduism Which then became so successful it had huge impact on Hinduism and it's a it's a mess.

It's it really is an amazing amazing thing to try to get a handle on what goes on in in India and that part of the world where there are so many billions of People but anyways the

Gnosticism had the same had the same type of Foundation to it and it's thoroughly opposed to Christianity and and Paul warns against the early forms of it coming in John does as well because it ends up presenting a

Jesus who didn't really have a physical body It only seemed to be there all of all of this kind of stuff, so that's all to get us back to the fact that the

Gnostics were one of the early groups that Christians had to struggle with and had to fight against and they had their own

Apostles and they had their own leaders and teachers and they would say that well You know We have the true insight into what

Jesus taught and there were Gnostics in the second century for example who claimed direct descent from Peter And you know

Peter only taught you lesser people the stuff that's in the Bible there Peter did teach that but but We have something more

We have we've got this the the really valuable stuff that he only taught to the enlightened folks and you read a lot of their material and You will discover that there's there's

Just rancid attacks upon what we would consider to be Christian orthodoxy for being unspiritual for being tied to the letter

That is the scriptures themselves That kind of thing very very very very common.

And so at that time, you know, how does how do you respond to that? Especially since You're still primarily using the

Old Testament scriptures. The New Testament is still coming together Remember you're living in a day where you don't have cell phones and fax machines and newspapers and things like that and so Things don't happen at the speed they happen with today.

I am convinced that It is it is the speed at which we come to know things today

We just we're not good at handling that and we end up making really bad on -the -spot decisions rather than having time to think about stuff and the world moves it's at a pace today that generations before ours could not even begun to conceive of as far as that is concerned, but back then

I mean It would take a great deal of time for a book to travel

Or even if it did travel with someone on the ship or something like that, you know It still has to be read it has to be copied

For a message or something to get out. It would almost always have to be done in a preaching form and written materials much

Muslim more slowly, so What happens is in those early years the idea of apostolic succession develops and it's the idea that well you've got these people over here and these people over here and these people over here and the reason we're right is because here's our pedigree going back to the

Apostles and You know, I was ordained by this person who was ordained by that person who was ordained by this

Apostle and That makes me right. Well, of course the other side claimed the same thing

Like I said, there were Gnostics in Egypt who claimed well Our leader got it straight from Peter.

So It didn't really accomplish anything, but it became enshrined in the writings of many and I don't have anything

Against the concept of apostolic succession. I just say the only meaningful apostolic succession we could even begin to discuss

Is an apostolic succession of truth in other words Do you teach and preach what the

Apostles taught or do you not and the irony is the people who emphasize?

Apostolic succession the most normally do so to substantiate teaching things, but there's no evidence the

Apostles ever even dreamed of I Mean, we all know Rome's big on apostolic succession

But one of the things that Rome what sets Rome apart What are the what are the things that that are are peculiar to Rome and well she might share some of these things with Eastern Orthodoxy, but You think of the doctrines that she teaches that actually define

Roman Catholicism. You have the concept of Transubstantiation based upon Aristotelian categories of accidents and Substance and so on and so forth

You've got the concept of a sacramental priesthood Nowhere found in the

New Testament. There's there's no I mean the Hoops you have to jump through to try to insert this stuff into the

New Testament is absolutely amazing. You've got purgatory You've got indulgences And then of course the things that Rome has defined infallibly

Such as papal infallibility the bodily assumption of Mary the Immaculate conception all these things utterly unknown to the

Apostles in the early church as well. So if the people who emphasize Apostolic succession the most do so to substantiate the very things that the

Apostles were taught So if you want to talk about a meaningful Apostolic succession, it's not going to be by creating some sort of historically untenable and naive list

That says well our leaders do here's here's the line there are so Many holes in that line for the

Roman succession as far as the Bishop of Rome is concerned. I'm funny you have to trace it through such amazing scoundrels and political periods and and everything else that it's it just Carries no meaningful way

That's why I've always argued if you want to talk about that fine I I think the way to stand in the line of the

Apostles is to actually teach what the Apostles taught and when you claim to stand that line and then

De -emphasize what they emphasized and emphasize stuff. They never even talked about don't talk to me about apostolic succession all of that after 15 minutes to say that verse 20 and verses similar thereto in the synoptic

Gospels are is one of the texts that People would refer to truly truly.

I say to you he who receives whomever I send receives me he receives me receives him who sent me in other words, there is a

Authority line here that is seen in for example the sending out of the 12 the sending out of the 70 and the synoptic

Gospels The authority that they go in is not their own authority.

It is a derived authority and in This particular situation as Jesus is talking about his coming

His betrayal is going to be become the essence of the next section. I suppose possibly part of the reason this appears here is

If one of the inner circle One of the men who is seen with with Jesus we're going to see

In the next few verses that even when Jesus announces his betrayal

The Apostles are like one of us So in other words, it wasn't one of those situations where In The apostolic band there was suspicion to where they're going

And I've been keeping an eye on Judas there, you know, you know, it's the new Rolex Okay.

All right Wonder where he got that at, you know It doesn't seem to have been

Judas was good. Shall we say at hiding? His nature which again we keep coming back to Judas because he's in this section, of course

But again, it it certainly makes us Wonder a little bit at the the character of this man and How it is you can have someone who is clearly unregenerate in the presence of such truth

And I witness to the vast majority of Jesus's miracles a person who heard so many words of grace and yet Turns out the way he turns out

It just seems to me that that Judas is a tremendous warning to the religiously hypocritical to those who would

Play games of the grace of God truly sobering but evidently

Possibly anyways, the reason this is found here is that the idea would be man if someone that close could go wrong then

What ground do we have to be confident that in following Apostolic teaching of one of the other

Apostles that that we're not to be misled and so in the midst of this section you have he who receives whomever

I send receives me and he receives me receives him who sent me so there is a a Reaffirmation of the fact that just because you can have

False teachers who make false claims does not mean you don't have true teachers who are making true claims and that unfortunately

In our day and age is one of the big problems that people have they go well, how can we know and if you if you have a

A Secular worldview if you have a worldview that does not have

God at its center and Does not recognize your own creativeness You basically have to be omniscient to have certainty about anything.

You basically have to There someone can always say well, how do you know that it could be this it could be that I mean radical skepticism is radical

Skepticism you can you can be skeptical about anything and all you have to do find out that there are people who are like that is to go to YouTube and you will find videos about you know the moon landings didn't happen and every type of conspiracy theory on the planet but what about this and maybe and the idea is basically if you

If you start with yourself you'll never have any certain knowledge because the only way you can have certain knowledge is if you're

Infallibly certain of all things and you're never going to be and those who try to be end up being well very difficult to live with but Aside of being rather self -deceived as well so That kind of skepticism, yeah, that's that's definitely that's definitely out there but many people say well look if You know, how do

I know any? one thing because for example Hey, if Joseph Smith could deceive millions of people if Muhammad could deceive billions of people not during their lifetime, but over the course of the centuries to follow

Then how can I know anything? The idea being is if there's been a false teacher here.

There's been a false teacher there. Therefore there are no true teachers And that kind of skepticism is a very very common thing to encounter today it it doesn't follow but the reasons it doesn't follow need to be something that we're able to address and able to Demonstrate so I think that's probably why verse verse 20 is here.

There is an authority Behind the proclamation of God's truth when

The content of that proclamation truly does come from the

Father and the Son There is an authority and Again, one of the things we're constantly running into today.

So that's just your opinion to where any Religious proclamation is reduced down to the mere opinion of men

That's all there is and that that's that's given as an absolute Axiom in the thinking of most people today

That because there are human opinions there cannot be any divine revelation or we cannot possibly know or it's

Best taken as a you know majority guess or something along those lines.

These are things we run into all The time in our conversations with others and they are they're unspoken presuppositions that we have to challenge

Otherwise, they're gonna hear our gospel proclamation may sit there for a long time and go it's very interesting.

It's very interesting You say you feel like you're getting somewhere you get to the end They're like, well, thank you for telling me all that and it's just like this filed away amongst all the other plethora of religious opinions that are out there and Unfortunately, a lot of the ways that the

Gospels presented today fits right into that Since you don't have an authoritative

Lord since you since Jesus isn't the creator of all things and hence one who speaks with with full authority then

Very often the Christian proclamation is hey, you know, you know try Jesus remember that I don't know how long ago was murder bumper stickers.

Try Jesus. Oh, it's like try try Pepsi, you know is this uh, it's just it's disgusting but The idea that you know,

Jesus is just something you can try out for a while I'll have to admit. There was a there was a group in in England and I've not spoken on this, but I I suppose

I probably should at some point but they did the atheist prayer experiment and What they did they challenged atheists

If you don't believe in God Try praying every day for I think 40 days and see what happens

And I'm just sort of like what motivates that kind of thinking well, it's

British first of all, that's that's part of it But well seriously,

I mean when you're a small when you're even smaller minority than we are You're happy to get anybody to do anything.

It looks even semi religious But isn't you know, am I missing something or doesn't the

Bible say something along the lines of those who? Approach God must believe that he exists

Is there such a thing as as unbelieving prayer I mean prayer is an act of worship and In fact,

I would argue you are You are actually if you encourage someone to engage in worship without calling them to repentance first You're heaping coals of fire on their head

Remember I mean again if we take prayer seriously and recognize that it is an act of worship

Then remember what happened to Aaron's sons when they offered strange fire upon the altar and they were struck down and You you have

The issue of the man who reaches out to steady the ark thought he was doing something good struck him dead God takes his worship very seriously.

And you just you just have to go. What's the mindset here? I mean Evident I would say it's a mindset that really goes back to a fundamental

Distrust and the power of the gospel to continue to change people's lives and I understand where that's coming from when you're when you have

Been surrounded by secularism your entire life and your fellowship is this teeny tiny little thing in this seething mass of people are becoming more

And more secular and more and more hardened the gospel. It's easy to start reaching out for other stuff But what's the false assumption?

underneath that That God is always going to bless a nation with a growing thriving

Church And what if you're in a nation where God's judgment is coming? I mean remember the Old Testament.

I mean Paul tells us it's there for our exhortation for example for us and how many times was it that the majority of people?

Didn't actually worship God and the true followers of Yahweh were a small cadre

They weren't they weren't the majority and what were they called to do? Be faithful even in the midst of that Is there some some really?

Very challengeable assumptions under that underlie a lot of this stuff But we're seeing in our own land.

We see it especially in other lands as well. It's a It's an odd thing. How in the world did I get on that? I don't know

But we will press on because if we only do one verse then We may never actually finish the

Gospels in my lifetime, so that would not be a good thing Jesus Predicts his betrayal

When Jesus said this he became trouble in the 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 it 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 said this to him for some were supposing because Judas had the money box that Jesus was saying to him by 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.

I Remember a pastor that I had a number of years ago obviously I remember one entire sermon that he gave on that phrase and it was night and It was it was a good sermon as far as sermons go

I'm not sure if it was that overly exegetically sound but it was It was a it was a it was a barn burner.

No stories about it well, here is the here is the the story of Jesus's prediction of his betrayal now, of course,

I know I probably don't have to repeat this but I Will anyway, all of us have seen

The picture of the Last Supper With Jesus and the twelve and we all know they're very secret

Illuminati messages all through it Or whatever group you're making a movie about, you know

And that actually the disciple nearest Jesus is actually Mary Magdalene, it's not John, you know all this the number of wild conspiracy theories that have been hatched on the basis of that picture are almost innumerable, but What needs to be recognized is that's not how they did things in that day most of your

Artistic representations to be honest with you. I think about it has

I have not personally ever seen an Artistic representation of the

Last Supper that would even be semi historically accurate Because as you know, they didn't sit in chairs

They didn't have elevated tables They were reclining on cushions on the ground

On one side that don't ask me how anyone digested food that way. I don't I don't get it, but It would have one there would be one advantage and that is the feet would be far away from the table

And everyone walked around wearing sandals in Dusty roads that animals went up and down on Regularly and so you could imagine it even with the washing of the feet that it would still be good to keep them on the other side of where the food was so Obviously if you if you grew up Eating that way, then you'd be accustomed to that one of the things

I was listening to was this about Hinduism was this he's talking about how how people in India can plop down and you know how they cross their cross their legs and basically it's almost time in a knot and They can sit that way for hours on a hard floor

If I did that I would be spasming in about 92 seconds

Okay, you know, but they've just been doing it their entire lives and so they're used to it So by the way, by the way

Did you know that many of your childhood stories actually come from Hinduism Did you know that How many of you now the younger kids?

Who only know how to play video games aren't going to get this but those of us in the preceding generations

Do you remember I could I have all these? monkeys in a barrel Where you'd have the the monkeys and they had a tail and the hand and you'd try to create the longest

Okay, a bunch you're going in straight out of the Bhagavad Gita And many of them it may have been one of the

Upanishads I'd have to double -check which which exactly are the Raghavadas that I mean, there's so many

Hindu books, but it's one of the stories of Hinduism where I think it was

Krishna Had monkeys and the monkey one monkey would grab the other monkeys tail and they create a bridge out to Sri Lanka Which is how this the hero gets out there to save the damsel in distress makes long story short

But it was that's where the that's where the monkey story came from one grabbing the other and creating this bridge allows them to get out to this island and that's

It's where the story came from thugs comes from from comes from Hinduism as well the very term thugs someone who beat somebody else up It's only be somebody else off for the sake of a god kill somebody for the sake of a god in India That's where the the term came from came through the

British and into our language that way It's been very very interesting to discover some of these these things that I was totally unaware of and I Absolutely north the idea what any of that has to do what we're talking about.

But once again, it's okay How did I get to that I forgot what that was but Huh?

What'd I say? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and we were reclining on the on the ground and Again, the the idea was

I'm sorry. Oh I sure did I sure did Yeah, I'm fighting the cold.

So it's easy for me to wander off because I'm having to talk more slowly To keep my voice going for the next seven minutes

And that gives my mind more time to wander off into oh by the way Yes, Warren, did you have a

You are not asking any questions at all I see I Warned him that after all these years.

He might just have a few too many to To get to so anyway, did you have any

Hindu stories you were there? No, okay Just say no, don't don't go there.

Okay. So anyways the point being that I was trying to illustrate was something that this idea of this

One of his disciples whom Jesus loved John we assume There wouldn't be any reason not to name the disciple

It's just that you know Probably on the left side because most people be right -handed

Which would be a real bummer people are left -handed. Yeah, I don't want mom I don't want even my right hand you have to Otherwise you have to face your brother and you'll be throwing food at each other all the time

Can you see see these Jewish arguments around the round the table? it'd be you can see how that happened all the time, but So he would be on this side of Jesus And so it to talk to him you have to lean back to say something but you can also lean back fairly easily and only those people can hear so and we know it wasn't

Peter because Peter is able to gesture at This disciple and communicate to him.

Hey ask who he's talking about I'm not sure. What was the sign for that?

You know like Yeah, I mean what what what sign would you use for ask the master who is betraying him you know,

I'm not sure if it was you know, some I Think about these things and people wonder, you know what you spend your time doing.

But anyway, yeah. Well, yeah Trying to get your heart rate back down.

But anyways so after Jesus talks about the authority that is going to be the

Apostles in preaching his truth, then he says He becomes troubled in the spirit and testified that's the actual term

Martyr. Oh from which from what we get term martyr. Obviously a martyr is not just somebody who dies it includes that but anyone who testifies as a is a martyr in that sense and Said truly truly.

I say to you that one of you will betray me and the term betray parodidamy is a

Word that has a wide range of meanings. This is very same term that is used

When it is said in Romans chapter 1 that God gives people up in their sin to Basically become enslaved by their sin

So the the giving up of Jesus the betraying of Jesus the giving up of people under their sins all going back to the same term

The disciples began looking at one another at a loss to know which one he was speaking So as I said before doesn't seem

The Judas it seems the Judas even though we are told elsewhere He had been skimming

There are people who skim you never know they're skimming And wouldn't even Wouldn't even think about the idea that they were so so Simon Peter gestures to as we said we think

John and Says to him tell us who it is of whom he is speaking so John leans back and He asks the

Lord who is it? now Evidently Jesus his answer is as private as John's question

But even then it seems rather clear to us in hindsight anyways It is the one for whom

I shall dip the morsel and give it to him So when he dipped the morsel he took and gave it to Judas Judas the son of Simon Iscariot so if it seems to me

I mean again, we don't have a videotape of this but as I'm Reading the text it looks like Jesus takes the morsel he dips it.

It's a little bit like I guess this would be similar to some of the Restaurants will go to them.

They'll bring us to that wonderful warm bread and then they'll have the olive oil with you know

Pepper in it or something like that and you you dip it at all. It's Yummy, it's not overly healthy, but it's it's yummy This is actually normally a

Something it was done for a esteemed guest or something like that It seems to me

That it's not just you know again We have the picture of sitting at the table and you can reach over something How far can you reach when you're laying on your side?

You know? That ain't very far So it would seem to me that Jesus has to get up and because it says and So when he had dipped the morsel he took and gave it to Jesus to Judas so seems like that's what happens and That would normally be a sign of respect

You we saw we saw the Old Testament citation up above remember he who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me and so when

Jesus takes the bread the morsel of bread dips it and Gives it to Judas.

This is a sign of kindness and When Judas accepts it

Without repentance in his heart because he knows what he's already intending to do It's almost like this is the point of no return this is the point of of absolute, you know,

Satan entered into him He has totally given up So maybe there are play on words here.

One of you will give me up and then Satan then Judas is given up as well at this very point in time.

I don't know but That's what happens unfortunately, we are out of time and so we will pick up with 27 verse 27, which means we got seven seven through seven verses

I Might get this done before I leave this planet. We're not we're not sure.

But anyway, let's let's close the time the word of her Again father. We are thankful for your word and for its accounting for us the words and ministry of our

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ May we be thankful for this word? May we learn from it and Lord be pleased to be with us lift up our hearts and minds as we go in to worship