The Savior Who Sees: God’s Love in Spiritual Warfare

In John 13, we witness a table full of disciples—some confident, some comfortable, and one quietly unraveling under the weight of hidden sin. While no one else sees it, Jesus is compassionately aware of the spiritual battles unfolding in the hearts around Him. This teaching calls us to follow His lead: to open our eyes, love one another deeply, and courageously step into the mess with grace and truth.

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 verse 21, after he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified very truly, I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.

His disciples stared at one another at a loss to know which of them he meant. One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved was reclining next to him. Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, ask him which one he means leaning back against Jesus. He asked him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.

Then dipping the piece of bread. He gave it to Judas, the son of Simon scar it. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus told him, what you are about to do, do quickly. But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to them. To him, since Judas had changed the money, some of them thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival or to give something to the poor.

As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out and it was night when he was gone, Jesus said, now the son of man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself and will glorify him. At once my children, I will be with you. Only a little longer you will look for me and just as I told the Jews.

So I tell you now where I am going, you cannot come. A new commandment I give to you, love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Simon Peter asked him, Lord, where are you going? Jesus replied, where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow Later, Peter asked, Lord, why can’t I follow you now?

I will lay down my life for you. Then Jesus answered, will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell you before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times. Father, we come to you and Lord, we, uh, sit Lord in a room surrounded by believers in a community of people who are following you, just like the disciples were.

God, I pray that today you would help us, give us your eyes so that we can see what is actually happening, the spiritual realities that are moving in, the people closest to us, Lord, so that we can live in the way that you do. We thank you for Jesus. That’s in His name we pray. Amen. Alright guys, y’all can sit down now.

We’ll allow it. Uh, when it comes to the, the spiritual realities of this world to the reality of, of spiritual warfare like I just prayed about, like I think we see in this passage, uh, I, I think it’s important that you know the part that you play in this story. And I, I think that this pa, this passage of scripture gives us a framework to analyze what is our part in the story.

And I think about, uh, again, following Caleb’s motif last week as we’re going through this passage of scripture known as the Upper room discourse. I, I think of a painting, and it’s the painting of the Last Supper, which is what we’re witnessing in this moment. And it’s really amazing because, uh, this is one of the most iconic, well-known, famous paintings that, that the world has.

And when you look at this, you, you’re gonna think of Leonardo da Vinci, but I, I hope that what you would also think of and realize is this is Leonardo da Vinci’s picture, his interpretation of the passage of scripture that we just read. Like when I’ve looked at this in the past, there have been times that I look at it as just a picture of these guys having dinner, but this is actually a picture of the exact moment when Jesus told them that one of you is going to betray me.

And you can see this when you look at the characters more closely. I mean just, you know, to Jesus’s right? Just on the left there you can see, uh, Peter, who is leaning over with his hand on John pointing at Jesus as if he is saying to John, John, go ask him what he means. And you can see on, on the right side, uh, I mean on the left side of Jesus, the right side of the picture there, James, the, the brother of Jesus who’s stepping back, shocked.

That somebody in this room would ever betray Jesus. And my favorite is over on the left side. There’s one guy, it’s Andrew who’s got both his hands up. And if you can look real closely, you’ll see his hands are up because he’s like, Peter, watch out swinging that knife around, bro, you’re gonna take somebody’s ear off.

And so that’s what you see this moment that is fully charged with emotion, shock, and surprise. And that’s what Leonardo da Vinci was capturing in this painting. And I think that this passage of scripture real, it it, it really demonstrates a reality that we face every time that we gather in this room.

We’re all here gathered because of our love for Jesus. We’re all here, not all of us. Some of you, you may be investigating Jesus, but a lot of us are here because we are following Jesus. We believe what we talk about at Passion Creek. We want to be formed by Jesus. And so much like what they’re experiencing though in this passage of scripture, there’s spiritual warfare that is happening in our midst right now.

And what you can’t capture in a painting is that real life doesn’t happen in in just, it doesn’t ever get stopped and frozen so that it can become iconic and beautiful. We are forced to live in the midst of this spiritual warfare, trying to figure out how is it that the Lord would call us to behave in this moment?

And so I want to lead us through this passage of scripture. And today I want us to just look at the different characters that are present in this story. And I want us to begin to ask where do we see ourselves in this story? And, and so we are gonna be looking at, uh, four different characters. The characters of Jesus, the character of Judas, John and Peter.

And so I’ll encourage you, have your, your Bible open in front of you. Always tell people whenever somebody’s, uh, standing up and, and claiming to preach from the Bible. Have it open in front of you, um, because I could be lying. And so you, you know, you need to have this in front of you. And so, uh, I encourage you Google the verses if you need to.

But let’s go through and we’re gonna look at these characters and we are going to begin with Jesus. Because what I want, how I want you to understand Jesus in this, is that Jesus is compassionately aware of all the spiritual realities that are present around him. And I, I understand, like if we’re asking you who should you be in this story, everybody’s like, okay, if you get the choice, who should you be?

You should be Jesus, right? That’s an easy one. Uh, easy to say, not easy to do. And so what we’re gonna do though is I, I want us to look at this because I, when we see the way that he is behaving in this passage, we learn what is the model for ourselves. And so I’ll, I’ll look at this. I’m gonna read a couple of verses again.

Uh, just 21 and 22. When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in his spirit, and he testified, I assure you one of you will betray me. The disciples started looking at one another, one another uncertain which one he was speaking about. And so it begins with Jesus being deeply troubled. He’s carrying the burden of betrayal.

And not just betrayal, you know, like if you go back to the beginning of, of the, the book of John, in John chapter one, there’s this, it’s my, one of my favorite passages of scripture where John is introducing us, preparing us to see Jesus for who he is. And one thing that he says is that all things were made by Jesus and that he created these people.

And then Jesus came into his own people, but his own people did not receive him. And so Jesus came into this world knowing he would be betrayed. And I think every single one of us, we walked through life knowing that we’re gonna walk through difficulties. Everybody tells us that life is hard. Everybody tells us that life is full of disappointment and pain, and we need to grow and get stronger and overcome those things.

And so Jesus came into this knowing that he would be rejected by his own people. But it’s a lot different when it gets personal and he’s no longer being rejected by a people or humanity. He’s being rejected by his friend. And then the same way we’ve experienced how much more personal it feels when the pain that you know is coming comes into your own body in the form of sickness.

We know the pain of this world, and it becomes even more personal when it becomes a pain in a relationship between us and other people. And so Jesus, he is troubled because Jesus is like us. I think that’s the most amazing thing about the Christian story. It’s the only story of a God who chooses not to stay far away and distant from the people that he created.

Instead, he becomes like us, so that he can deliver us, so he can save us. And so Jesus, because of this experience, he chose to take on flesh and experience the pain of this world. He is compassionate with other people in this world, so much so that we talked about even last week. When Jesus chose to serve his disciples and humble himself washing their feet, he washed the feet of the one who would betray him knowing exactly what was going to happen over the next 12 hours.

As he was crucified and died, his compassion extended to those who were going to betray him. And so he is troubled, and yet, even though he is troubled because of his compassion aware. Of the struggle that Judas is walking through. And I want us to look at Judas because this is another character that we should pay attention to because Judas at this moment is caught in a hidden battle that nobody else in the room knows is going on.

I mean, when, when we go through the, the, the, the book, uh, that John left for us, which I love, the, the Book of John, it’s written by John, um, and John is an amazing author. Uh, he’s probably my favorite biblical author because he like injects a lot of personality. There’s a lot of John when you’re reading the Book of John and, uh, you get to feel the way that John feels about the other people who are around him.

Uh, he does not like Judas. That is very, very clear, and that makes sense because of Judas role in being the one who betrays Jesus. But you can go back to the very beginning, and uh, in John chapter six, he tells a story about Judas. And like he begins with, Judas was a thief and stealing from us. And then, you know, another point, he paints Judas in a terrible light as, uh, a, a woman comes and breaks expensive oil over the feet of Jesus so that she can worship him.

It’s a, it’s a beautiful act of worship and it’s a holy moment that Jesus recognizes the beauty of. And Judas is the one that speaks up and says, Hey, hey, hey, stop that. We could have taken that oil and sold it so that we could give money to the poor. Sounds like a great thing. But again, John tells us, really, he was just a thief and he wanted to take the money.

And so Judas is painted all through the, the, the Book of John in a pretty bad light. And again, that’s because John, he has a lot of personality. And so, uh, I, I want us to look here though at Judas when Jesus, in verses in verses 26 through, uh, 30, he tells John, Hey, I, I’m going to give a morsel of bread to the one that’s going to betray me.

And then he gave it to Judas. And that’s how John in this moment found out that Judas is in the midst of a spiritual battle. Nobody else knew, but Jesus knew where Judas was in this moment. And so sitting at this table, Judas appeared externally loyal, but internally he was drifting farther and farther from Christ.

And if we think about what struggle Judas was in the midst of. It, it’s not this grand scheme of killing the, the God of this world. It wasn’t this murderous intent that he was bent on destruction. The battle that he was in was greed. From the very beginning, his focus has always been on money. Even at this moment, he’s thinking about the, the offer that was made to him to sell out his friend for money.

And I hope that when you see that in scripture, that you begin to realize that Judas is actually not that different from us. I mean, if I ask you, who do you see yourself as in this story? Most of us, or you’ve been in church long enough, you know you’re not supposed to say Jesus, right? Like, you know, we’re all trying to be like him, but we’re too humble.

We’re not like Jesus. Uh, but I doubt anybody is going to pick Judas. I’m like, Judas. I can’t imagine that happening, but I, I hope that in seeing what is the struggle that he’s going through, he’s battling with greed. It begins to humanize him a little bit more. Perhaps you begin to, like Jesus, feel a bit more compassion towards him.

And so Judas is in this secret battle with greed that’s been going on for a really long time, and it’s amazing the way that sin, as it begins to take over more and more of our hearts, it forces us to a place where we hide more and more of ourselves from the people that we are closest to. Judas is going through that very moment where his greed is overtaking his heart.

If you remember when we talk about Mark chapter four in the four types of soils at the beginning of this year. This is the moment where the thorns of greed are filling up his heart, are choking out his love for Jesus. It’s choking out the roots of community that he has built with the other disciples.

And what it leaves him is in a place where the money that he loves so much is worth more to him than all the relationships that he has built over this time. And it’s no coincidence that John notes the fact that he goes out in darkness because that’s what hidden spiritual warfare does to us. It isolates us, it breaks apart the community that we’ve been building.

It forces us to run and to hide, like. Judas in this moment, he’s running out the door and hiding from the only people who could offer him forgiveness and restoration. And how many times in the midst of our battle with sin do we find ourselves with more and more excuses for why we shouldn’t go to our together group?

More and more reasons why we just can’t make it to church this Sunday. It’s just this Sunday, we’ll be there next time when all the while what’s actually happening is a sin is growing inside of our heart, like thorns choking out the roots of community that we have been developing. Some of us in our attempt to hide from God are hiding from the people who actually love us and care for us.

And it isolates us. It leads us farther and farther away. And there are people in this room who are in the midst of a spiritual battle. And all of us need to be aware of that so that we can respond in the way that Jesus does, offering grace and care and compassion, aware of what is happening around us.

Because most of the people in the room, his closest friends, we’re not aware of what was happening. I mean, that brings us to John himself, the one who is writing this passage. I want you to, uh, look with me as we, as we learn about John, because John in this moment is comfortable, but hes totally oblivious to what’s going on.

And again, when I read about John, you’re gonna see a lot of his personality in some funny ways. Uh, verse 23, this is where, uh, he’s, he’s writing. And here’s what John writes. One of them, the Disciple whom Jesus loved. That’s John, in case you didn’t know. So John writing about John claims that John is the disciple whom Jesus loved most, and I love it.

That’s just his feeling, his personality coming out in the text. I also, there’s a lot of hints the more you read, John. I think that he had an amazing relationship with Peter, where he just loved to get under Peter’s skin. Um, because, you know, he continues and he says in verse 24, uh, there’s the disciple whom Jesus loved.

And then verse 24, Simon Peter motioned to this disciple, which is just like a way to like really dig at your friend and be like, you’re not the one that Jesus loved most. And so he does that. He gets his dig in. But you can see this very real situation where, uh, Peter motions to John and says to him, Hey, John.

Ask him what he means. And, and it says that he like leaned back into Jesus. Depending on your, your, the version of the Bible, you have it may something, say something weird like he reclined into the bosom of Jesus, which sounds all kind of weird. To us. Um, and you’ve gotta understand where they are. Um, and the way that they do their meals, which is very different from us too, seems really uncomfortable.

Uh, but they would actually sit at a, at a table that was very low to the ground. And the way that they would do is they would lean on their side with like their, their feet going back away from the table so that they could like, reach up and, you know, get food. So it was like, you know, you’re at home with a movie night with the kids and there’s popcorn on the table.

That’s what they’re doing here. So they’re reaching over and they’re getting food and they’re, they’re eating. And so because of this situation, John would’ve been right here next to Jesus. Um, and he kind of leans back and begins whispering to Jesus. But what you see here is that, that John is really comfortable in this position.

He is very pleased with himself as the one whom Jesus loves, and yet he’s oblivious to what’s going on with Judas. And we know this because he has to ask. He asks, Jesus Lord, who is it? And then Jesus calls out and explains to him, shows him this is who is going to betray me. And I don’t know how I would respond in that moment.

Put yourself there. How do you respond when you learn something about somebody that you probably weren’t supposed to know? And that’s a, I I had a situation similar to this not long ago, like a year ago actually, so I guess a little ways. Uh, I was at a daddy daughter dance, uh, with my beautiful little girl, Riley.

She’s somewhere, somewhere back there. Uh, we had an amazing time at this dance at her schools. You know, the, the lights are down low. They’ve got strobe lights, they’ve got all these bright lights that are, you know, flashing back and forth. It’s really loud. Um, and it’s just a lot of fun for us to dance and have fun.

But here they also had a snack table. And on the snack table was a chocolate fountain. Do y’all know about chocolate fountains? It is just a never ending fountain of chocolate. Like, God bless America, it’s amazing. And so with the chocolate fountain, usually there’s a table with a spread and they had like these skewer sticks that you could like stab into fruit or cakes or pastries and dip it under the chocolate and then like put it on your plate and you know, go and, uh, eat it.

And it’s incredible. So Riley and I have been frequenting the table all night long. Um, and there’s one moment though where you know when you’re eating this, when you finish with your stick, you’re left with a plate full of dripping chocolate. And so I think some of you already know the temptation that every one of us feels.

Well, one moment I walk over and I’m just standing near the table and I just happen to look over and it’s a daddy-daughter dance. There’s a lady over a little bit to the side in the corner probably helping to serve all of the food. And her daughter was probably here dancing with her husband. And, you know, I, I look over right as I see this woman looking at her plate and I understand what’s happening, but I’m like, no way.

This is about to happen. And I watch as this lady, probably like 40 years old, goes for it and just begins licking the plate. And it’s dark. She’s in the corner. She thinks nobody sees her. But I’m watching it. And I know the spiritual battle that she was going through at that moment. But it was amazing because as she’s like licking it, she suddenly gets her eyes over the top of the plate.

And I mean, we lock eyes from like 40 or 50 feet away, and I’m locking eyes with this 40-year-old woman who’s licking her plate clean of chocolate. It was honestly one of the most awkward two seconds I’ve ever spent with somebody I don’t know and we’ll never talk to. And why won’t I ever talk to this woman if I see her in public?

We’ll just look at each other and just go about our way because it’s too uncomfortable to talk to her about what I saw that I should not seen. And that’s where John is in this moment. That’s where you might land. When you know about a struggle that a brother or sister in our church might be walking through and you shouldn’t know, but you know you saw something, are you gonna be comfortable?

Are you gonna be so comfortable that you won’t walk up to them? Because that’s the amazing thing about John’s situation. How do you handle it? And we know from the text, he didn’t stop what he was doing and go to address Judas even though he was no longer oblivious. He was too comfortable. And I think about, there’s a, there’s a really great quote that, that I think we have to be a people who are willing to take action when we find out something we shouldn’t know about somebody that we do love.

We need to be willing to take action. And it’s, this reminds me of a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He said, being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing god’s will. So many of us, especially in our culture, are way more comfortable than we are courageous.

And so you may find yourself in the character of John, but it, the story doesn’t stop there. There’s more to it. And so, uh, we will look at the next character, which is Peter. Uh, now Peter, I have to be honest, I love Peter. Uh, Peter is confident but vulnerable. I mean, I, I love Peter because he’s, he’s super brash.

He’s confident. He’s the first to speak, the first to act. He’s always leading from the front. Peter is my kind of guy. I just like him in scripture. Um, he also says really stupid things, does things that get him in trouble. Again, I like Peter, we would hang out together probably and we would get in trouble together and it would be amazing.

Um, and yet this is who Peter is. And so when you look at Peter, uh, they go through this moment where Jesus reveals to John. And again, just to frame how this passage works, John is the only one who knows. What’s happening with Ju, with Judas, because he’s the one that leaned over and was speaking quietly with Jesus.

And even though Jesus passes the morsel of bread to Judas and Judas then takes off, Jesus says out loud to him, go and do what you’re gonna do quickly. Nobody else but John knew what that was. And so after this moment, Jesus continues what he’s been doing all along, which is teaching his disciples. That’s the most important thing for him at this moment.

He knows that the crucifixion is coming. He knows his time is at an end. And so he is packing this dinner full with all of his teachings that he wants to remind his disciples right before he knows he is leaving them. And so as he does, he tries to explain what, what A lot of us don’t understand what they would never understand.

That even as Judas is leaving to betray him, this is actually the moment when Jesus is going to be glorified. This moment, the crucifixion, it’s the pinnacle of the glory of Jesus because he’s doing His father’s will. He’s accomplishing his his mission. And so he tries to explain that to them, knowing that they won’t understand it for years to come.

And then he continues and he get, he reiterates a command to them, a command that we’ve, we’ve all heard where he says, love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another. And I’ve had this moment too, that Jesus experiences because he finishes the most important message that he’s trying to deliver, love one another as I have loved you.

If you want to be known as my disciples. You will be known by the way that you love each other. And Peter then speaks up completely oblivious to that great message. And he’s like, Hey, I got a question. You said you’re going somewhere. And I, I, I don’t know if you’ve ever had that moment when you’re talking to your children where you have this incredible, meaningful, heartfelt discussion.

And then you look at ’em and you’re like, do you understand what I’m saying? And they’re like, do you have any more crackers? And you’re like, oh, come on. That was gold. And that’s Jesus. At this moment, Peter’s speaking up. Hey, you said we’re, we’re going somewhere. And so Jesus has to explain to him that he’s not going there.

And it brings up this confidence in Peter that he says, no, there’s nowhere you will go, that I won’t go. But Jesus knows he’s going to the cross. And so Jesus tells him, Peter, you won’t go where I’m going. And Peter speaks up again and says, no, no, no, no, no. You don’t understand, I will go anywhere with you.

I will lay down my life for you. And that’s where Jesus aware of the spiritual battles of the people around him says to Peter, Peter, you won’t follow me to death. You won’t even admit that you know me. By the end of this night, you’ll deny knowing me three times. Peter was confident and yet so vulnerable to attack because he didn’t realize how weak he himself really was.

And this is a danger for all of us. When we’re following Jesus, when we’re attempting to live and be formed by him, it’s gonna change the way that we live and it’s glorious. So many people in this room have story after story about Jesus healing them from addiction about Jesus completely changing their personality, shifting them from a person of anger and bitterness to joy.

And grace. Jesus really will take you where you are in all of your brokenness, and he will take out your heart of stone, give you a soft heart of flesh that will change you from the inside out so that you are a different person. But we can never forget that even though we are different, even though we’re following, we are still vulnerable.

And this should again point us back to the character of Jesus. It should make us more compassionate for the people he has put in our lives and again. This is so important for us to recognize that in our confidence, we may forget who we are because again, nobody will claim to be Judas in the midst of a spiritual battle that’s destroying their relationship with God and with the people around them.

But a lot of us think we might be Peter and we could be, but what we need to understand is that Peter’s confidence, it leads him to his weakness. And often our greatest spiritual risk comes precisely when we think we are at our spiritually strongest point we’ve ever been. Peter’s misplaced confidence.

It teaches us humility. It teaches us that spiritual strength isn’t expressed through confidence in ourselves. It is shaped and formed through reliance on Jesus. And so as we look at these characters, I wanna take us real quick as we close down here, uh, back to the, the Leonardo da Vinci’s Painting of the Last Supper.

Because this, this painting, it, it thoughtfully and beautifully depicts a moment in a story, but it’s not our story. Like you don’t live in a painting. Your story unfolds in real time, day by day, and sometimes you’re switching seats at that table. Sometimes you are Peter at the height of confidence, trusting that the work Jesus has done in you is real, and that it gives you real spiritual authority in the world around you.

Sometimes. We’re John though. Where we’ve been in this place, we’ve done the church thing for so long that we’ve become comfortable with what we’re doing. And neither Peter nor John were looking out for the sins, the spiritual battles of the pe, the other people in the room, both of them in pursuing Jesus had gotten to a place where they were no longer concerned with the people that he had put around them.

And that’s a temptation for every single one of us. As we are approaching the end of this year where we’re gonna start our, our focus on the practice of witness, we need to understand that the person in this painting that we’re supposed to exemplify is Jesus compassionately aware of the spiritual battles in the lives of the people around him.

And from there we are called to take action courageously. To speak to one another, to call one another, to continue the fight in following Jesus to address the spiritual battles with love, with grace, but with conviction. And that takes us back to what Jesus said. What, what was his lesson in the midst of all of this, as he’s looking at some of his disciples who are comfortable, some of them who are overconfident, some of them who are in the midst of spiritual battle, he calls all of them love one another, as I have loved you love one another.

If you want to be known as a disciple of Jesus, you’re going to have to cultivate a courageous conviction fueled by enough love that you’re willing to step into the spiritual battles that people around you. Are in the midst of and feeling dragged down by. We need to be a church that cares enough that we will step into awkward places that make us feel uncomfortable, because that’s what Jesus does.

He was compassionately aware of all the battles that were going on around him. So as we close, I wanna give you a couple of steps. First, I want, I want to ask you all to pray to God for compassionate awareness for the people around you. We’ve been gone. We’ve gone through a season of prayer where we have sought after the voice of God, and I want you to know that God will speak to you.

God will help you know what you should say and when you should say it. If you will pray to him and you will ask him to help you with that. And then secondly, I want to encourage you, take action to love someone this week. Send that text, schedule that lunch. Lean into the relationships that God is building here in this church family.

Because there are brothers and sisters who are walking through spiritual battles. You will never know unless you love them enough to get close and ask. And when we do that, we are becoming more and more like Jesus. Lemme pray for us.