2019.06.07 Hopewell @Home ▫ John 13:18-30

Read John 13:18-30

Questions for Littles: Has Jesus been saying that all His disciples were clean (John 13:18)? What does He say that He knows—how had they come to be clean? What does Jesus say must be fulfilled from Psalm 41:9? When is He telling them about His betrayal (John 13:19)? Why did He tell them this—what will it accomplish, when it comes about? Whom does Jesus say someone receives, if he receives one of His apostles (John 13:20)? Whom else do they receive? What does Jesus say more plainly in John 13:21? What do the disciples do to one another in John 13:22? About what are they perplexed? What was one of the disciples doing in John 13:23? Who tells that disciple to ask (John 13:24)? In what posture is John, when he asks (John 13:25)? Whom does Jesus say the betrayer is in John 13:26a? To whom does He give the bread (verse 26b)? Who enters Judas at that point (John 13:27a)? What does Jesus say to him (verse 27b)? What did the disciples (amazingly) still not know in John 13:28? What did some of them think Jesus was telling Judas to do (John 13:29)? What did Judas do (John 13:30)? When? With what comment does verse 30 end?

It’s a good thing that the Lord Jesus is in total control, because the disciples are pretty clueless, and none of us has good reason to think that we would have fared better.

Jesus is in control of whom He makes clean. He knows whom He has chosen (John 13:18).

Jesus is in control of who betrays him. He literally gives the bread in John 13:26 to fulfill the quotation of Psalm 41:9 in verse 18.

Jesus is even sovereign over Satan, who apparently has to wait for the cue in John 13:27.

Jesus is in control of the timing, as He shows by the command of verse 27.

He had said earlier that “the night comes when no one can work” (John 9:4). But Jesus is doing some of His best work, “and it was night” (John 13:30).

The disciples? They’re perplexed (John 13:22). Even the one literally laying his head on Jesus’s chest doesn’t seem to get it. At least Peter realized that he’d filled his “speaking out of turn” quota for the moment (cf. John 13:6, John 13:8, and John 13:9). But, he would certainly pick it up soon. Then, when Jesus had just told them that He was identifying Judas as the betrayer, they thought that maybe he was leaving on some important diaconal mission.

For our part, we can be thankful that Jesus is in control. No one takes His life from Him. He lays it down of His own accord. He has authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. And, He knows exactly for whom He lays it down: His sheep.

How does it help you to know that Jesus is in control of your spiritual life?
What other situations in life right now are you most glad that He is in control?

Suggested songs: ARP2 “Why Do Gentile Nations Rage?” or TPH280 “Wondrous King, All Glorious”