Service and Betrayal

Service and Betrayal
John 13:18-20

18 I speak [lego] not [ou] of [peri] you [humon] all [pas] : I [ego] know [eido] whom [hos] I have chosen [eklegomai] : but [alla] that [hina] the scripture [graphe] may be fulfilled [pleroo] , He that eateth [trogo] bread [artos] with [meta] me [emou] hath lifted up [epairo] his [autos] heel [pterna] against [epi] me [eme] .
19 Now [apo] [arti] I tell [lego] you [humin] before [pro] it come [ginomai] , that [hina] , when [hotan] it is come to pass [ginomai] , ye may believe [pisteuo] that [hoti] I [ego] am [eimi] he.
20 Verily [amen] , verily [amen] , I say [lego] unto you [humin] , He that receiveth [lambano] whomsoever [ean] [tis] I send [pempo] receiveth [lambano] me [eme] ; and [de] he that receiveth [lambano] me [eme] receiveth [lambano] him that sent [pempo] me [me] . KJV-Interlinear

18 '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.' 19 '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. 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.' NASB

Psa. 41:9 prophesied the betrayal of Christ, and is here quoted by Jesus. Judas is the one who will betray Him, but you will note that He (Jesus) still washed the feet of Judas as He washed the feet of all the apostles to teach His lessons in humility, and without prejudice.

Jesus gives us all an opportunity to believe in Him. He gives us all an opportunity to grow up spiritually. He withholds no opportunity from any of us. And we, none of us, can presume any form of special treatment because of who and what we are, for we are nothing as Isaiah states in Isa. 64. Which is a very good chapter by the way. You should take a little time to review it.

Our lives can be compartmentalized into several phases if you will. The first part of your life exists from your birth until you become aware of God. You are an unbeliever by the way during this first phase. At that time you have an opportunity to investigate further regarding who and what God is, or you can go negative and not care anything about God.

The second phase of your life is the time between your awareness of God began and when you believe in Christ. If you never believe in Christ and subsequently die in this phase, then you die as an unbeliever. Your destiny in the third phase of your life will be in the Lake of Fire.

Assuming that you believe in Christ, then you as a believer have an opportunity to move on to your third phase in life, and that is the time beginning with your belief in Christ until you begin to grow up spiritually. This is an infant stage in your spiritual life. This is a tough time because you don't know much Bible doctrine and you question everything with uncertainty.

The next phase is your growth stage (assuming that you choose to learn and pursue your spiritual life). This is again a tough stage because you have preconceived ideas about life. You have certain compromises in your thoughts, and old habits are hard to change. Your biggest challenge is to prevent yourself from being superficial toward the teaching of Bible doctrine, and to refrain from over reacting to teaching that you initially do not agree with, and bailing out of your chosen study. If you run away to pursue only those things that your agree with, you will never grow up.

The next phase in your spiritual life is the advanced stage of your spiritual life. Here you are confronted with patience and faith. Your spiritual life is not a drive through service which God provides. You will be faced with many tests. You really face tests of many sorts in all the phases in your life, most of which are to keep you on track with your Bible study, but in your latter stages of spiritual growth you will face some tests which really test your metal as a believer in Christ. These tests are not really designed to keep you studying because by then you have an ingrained habit of daily study. These tests are designed to reinforce your faith in God and to reinforce your reliance in Him in your daily life. This accelerates your maturity to even greater heights in your spiritual life.

Now in all of these, Gods grace is at work. He is not prejudiced against you for any reason. We all have had our time of difficulties, and we all will have some prosperous times no doubt, but the bottom line for our life regardless of our circumstances, is our spiritual growth.

In eternity past God knew what you would do in life and He made provision for every aspect of your life. He does not coerce you into any situation or decision. You do that very well on your own.

Most folks think this passage has the information regarding Judas, and of course that is correct, but there is more to this passage as we have already studied, above. God is fair. God gives us all (even those who will eventually betray Him) an equal opportunity to free ourselves from the clutches of this world, and to advance in our spiritual lives.

Judas is one form of betrayal but as we studied the other day, there are many forms of betrayal of God. Simply not studying ones Bible daily is a form of betrayal, which of course leads to others forms due to the lack of a spiritual life.

So Jesus gives us an important lesson in the last verse of this passage. If you receive any who teach His Word (anyone who teaches legitimate doctrine ) then you receive Him into your soul. You learn Bible doctrine and you grow up spiritually. If you commit yourself to learning and sticking with it on a daily basis, then your spiritual growth to spiritual maturity will be guaranteed. Repeat guaranteed. God does all of the work in your spiritual life as we have studied in detail, and God cannot ever fail, so your growth will be a success. You are the only enemy to your own growth if you choose to ignore God and His Word.

Likewise if you have the Son, then You have the Father, our ultimate target relationship with the perfection of deity. This only comes through the Son Jesus Christ and through no other source.

God sent Jesus and only Jesus He did not send anyone else. Not Mohammed. Not some guru. Not some fish or idol of stone or wood or anything else. There is no other path to God except through Jesus Christ.

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