Keswick at Portstewart - Monday 6 July 2026 - Jonathan Thomas

 

KESWICK AT PORTSTEWART – MONDAY 6 JULY 2026 – JONATHAN THOMAS

But this evening, I want to change the focus and I want us to look at ourselves. Over the next 40 minutes, please don't think of anybody else. Don't apply this to anybody else, you know. This is a sermon for us to apply to ourselves about sin in our own lives. And so I've got a very simple question this evening and here it is. Are you a Peter or are you a Judas?

John chapter 13.

Over the last few chapters, we've seen Jesus addressing the Pharisees. Jesus addressing those who don't believe in him. And within that mix has been Judas. And really at this point we have in this kind of last evening of Jesus the point at which Judas walks out to betray Jesus. And then there's a hinge in verse 31 of John chapter 13 when it says this “when he Judas was gone Jesus said now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him.” There's a kind of change. there's a hinge and what you get is Judas on one side and then Peter on the other and there's a comparison. There's a contrast and I want to work that through this evening. Now, it is fair to say that Jesus referred to both Peter and Judas in satanic terms. You'll remember that, won't you? Matthew 16 verse 23, what does Jesus say to Peter? “Get behind me, Satan” or John 6 verse 7 what does Jesus say to Judas? “One of you is a devil.” Now, Judas and Peter, it's interesting, isn't it? Both were outwardly part of Jesus's inner ring, one of the 12 disciples. And both, as we're going to see this evening, were repeatedly offered love by Jesus. And I think it's fair to say that both Judas and Peter throughout this gospel struggled at times to truly grasp who Jesus really was. As one commentator puts it, how close Peter and Judas are. But there's one crucial difference. One went to heaven and one went to hell. And so  , this is the most serious question I could ask. Are you a Judas or are you a Peter? Well, let's look at each man in turn and then we look at our own hearts. Let's look firstly at Judas. John chapter 13 verses 1 and 2.

Let's have a look at Judas first. I want to call this brutal betrayal. Have a look down to verse 21 of chapter 13, and let's see what happens. John chapter 13, beginning at verse 21. 

If you've read John's gospel, John tends to talk on two levels, doesn't he? He's not just telling you it was night. He's telling you it was a spiritual night for Judas. So let's think about Judas. When you read through the gospels, you'll see that Judas is always listed amongst the 12 disciples. Interestingly, always listed last. You'll notice as well that in those lists, it tends to say that he's Judas, the betrayer. But we need to realize that with Judas, there was something wrong with him from the very start. You'll notice there in verse 29,  that Judas is described as the treasurer. Now, please don't think of other people, particularly church treasurers. That is not fair. But Judas was the treasurer. He looked after the money. Now, I want you to go back to an occasion in the Gospels. Do you remember when Jesus goes and Mary's there and she wants to anoint Jesus at Bethany, the anointing at Bethany, it's told in in in three of the gospels. Matthew 26, for example, talks about the way she comes. She wants to kind of extravagantly anoint Jesus. And it says that all of the disciples were indignant, calling what she was doing a waste. In fact, Mark's gospel in chapter 14, it says that they not only did that, but they rebuked her harshly. They didn't like this extravagant offering over Jesus. Interestingly, all the disciples at this point were struggling with who Jesus was and how you react to Jesus. They were all on a journey of discovery. But John's gospel goes a little bit deeper. Back in John chapter 12, we read the account there and Judas pipes in and says, "Yeah, hold on. This is terrible. We should give the money to the poor. And since I'm the treasurer, you should give it to me and I'll hand it over." I mean, it's quite cold and calculating, isn't it? There's a sense in which the disciples are on a journey. But Judas, even at the start, was a thief. It was a liar. There's a sense in which when you look at Judas in the Gospels, even at that point we've just read in John chapter 13, the disciples are completely oblivious to him. He's living a double life. It's possible to live as a Christian and it's possible to be here this evening and to be living such a double life that everybody around you and even those closest to you think that you're just living a good Christian life, but deep down you know you're not. And Jesus knew this. You can go to John chapter 6. Jesus says Judas is a devil. You see what's happening is this. When you look at someone like Mary in the anointing, what she wants to be is extravagant towards Jesus. But what Judas wants is to be extravagant towards himself, towards himself. So back to John chapter 13, we see in this kind of conversation, in this last meal, we see a kind of standoff between Judas and Jesus. It's in the public gaze, yet it's very private. Did you notice that they're having this conversation, but the other disciples just don't get it. And so they speak in front of everyone and the disciples all hear there's going to be a betrayal. They even hear Jesus tell Judas to go and do whatever you're going to do quickly. But verse 29, they think, "Well, it's Judas. He's a good egg. He must be going to give something to the poor." Jesus knew what was going on in Judas's heart. but no one else did. Can I ask you this evening? Who are you when no one else is looking? Who are you deep down this evening? Not what is your outward appearance, but where is your heart? So Judas goes and he decides to sell Jesus for money. Interestingly, if you look at Luke's gospel, Luke 22 and here in John, it states it's at this point that Satan entered Judas. It's a very important point. It's not that Judas had been entered by Satan early on and was doing everything because he had no choice. No, no, no, no. It wasn't until this point that Satan entered Judas. You see, it would seem to me that up until this point, Satan had been prompting him. You can go back to John chapter 13 if you're not quite sure. Have a look at verse two. The evening meal was in progress. And the devil had already prompted Judas. So, he'd prompted him, but he hadn't entered him. I'm going to controversially say I think Satan prompted Judas, and I think Satan prompted Peter. I think there were times when Peter was prompted by Satan to do the work of Satan. Jesus, you don't need to go to the cross. Jesus, you don't need to die for me. Hey, Jesus, I've got a sword. I can lop off ears.” What does Jesus say? “Get behind me, Satan.” You haven't got to mind the things of God. You don't realize what I need to do. But interestingly, Peter always ends up listening to Jesus. But we'll come back to Peter. But back to Judas for now. Judas walks out. He's going to get a band of soldiers. He's going to kiss Jesus in betrayal. And then he's going to feel guilty and he's going to kill himself. But the one thing Judas is not going to do is he's not going to repent. It's really important that we understand this evening who Judas really was. We need to know that Jesus knew who he was and that Judas knew exactly what he was doing. You see, in all of this, Jesus isn't some kind of hapless victim. Now, what's going to happen is as we go into this kind of last farewell discourse, and then as Jesus is going to be betrayed and handed over, as he's going to be taken through this terrible overnight court, as he's going to have all of these false allegations put against him, as he's finally going to die on the cross, and the disciples are going to think, "But this was the man who was going to save us. How can a dying man save us?" They're going to scatter, and they're going to run, and they're going to be confused. And so Jesus knows what's going to happen. And so all that he's doing at this point is to prepare them for this. Really, from chapter 13 verse 31 onwards, he's making sure that they know, he knows exactly what's going to happen. He's going to say it all in front of them. This was all a plan. And so we have Calvin, the great reformer. This is what he tells us about Judas. “He was not one of the elect and of the true flock of God. Yet the dignity of the office gave him the appearance of it.” Judas knew what he was doing. I wonder, do you sometimes wonder if Judas was some kind of hapless victim himself? Can we do a little bit of deep thinking on this? A little bit of theology, a little bit of philosophy to try and figure out what's going on here because for years I struggled with Judas. I kind of thought, well, hold on. If God had decided he was going to do it, then poor Judas had no choice, did he? I mean, what happened to Judas? Because in the text, it's clear Jesus knew he was going to betray him. So, what's going on? Krish Kandia in his excellent book Paradoxology this is a great title isn't it Paradoxology in the chapter the Judas paradox he said this “Judas is a tragic hero of the providence of God a man to be pitied more than any other or is he the master villain of the gospel story? Had God pre-programmed him as a robot assassin of the son of God.” It’s really is a debate about free will. And so, on my last night, let me chuck the theological grenade and ask ‘How does it work out?’ Because there is a quandary, isn't it? So, let me give you a silly example, okay? If God knows you're going to have chicken for dinner, do you now have to have chicken for dinner? Because if he knows you're going to have it, well, then you're going to have to have it. So, did you choose to have chicken for dinner or not? Well, it was probably your wife who chose. But, but seriously, how does it work? These really are questions of foreknowledge, predestination. And look, these aren't unique to Christianity. Muslims believe in divine destiny. Hindus believe in karma. Material atheists believe in biology and they were born this way. It's in their DNA. About the way some people deal with addictions. They were born with a weakness or it's societal. They had no choice, everybody in the world in one way or another believes in some kind of predetermination or whatever you believe that never takes away the responsibility of people's actions. And even if God does know all things and God as the master orchestrator of all history is in control of all things within that each and every one of us is responsible for everything we do. We choose to do it. You see when you look at Judas he knew what he was doing. He chose to steal that money. He chose to tell people he was giving it to the poor. He was someone who looked great on the outside but not on the inside. Spurgeon in his two volume autobiography tells the story of how as a child he used to go to I think it was his grandfather's house. Someone can correct me on the way out if I get this wrong. But Spurgeon would go to his grandfather's house and in his house on the mantlepiece there was this beautiful looking apple. This glorious juicy looking red apple. But Spurgeon says if you would go to bite it, you'd knock all your teeth out because it was a stone apple. It was an ornament. And the reality is you're able to look like one thing but be something completely different. You see, if you go back to John chapter 6 verse 64 and 70, it says this, "For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him." Then Jesus replied, "Have I not chosen you, the 12? Yet one of you is a devil." He had never truly believed. And so I also believe when you read the text of John chapter 13, that he had a choice. He had chosen, but Jesus gave him a choice not to choose that way. It's interesting meal, isn't it? They're sharing bread. They're dipping bread. I get a little nervous in that kind of meal. You know, like when you have nachos, that was our family tradition on a Sunday evening after the evening service. I'd go home and my wife would just make a huge bowl of nachos. We'd cover them in cheese and we'd have lovely salsa. But let me be very clear. I only share nachos with my wife. No matter how nice you are, don't come anywhere near my nachos bowl. There's something quite intimate about sharing nachos. And here's this picture of Jesus with the bread, dipping it. He's giving it to the ones he loves. This is an intimate act. And in this passage in John chapter 13, even though he knows what Judas has been doing, he dips the bread and he offers it to him.  I think that was an act of love from Jesus. Could Jesus even offer an act of love to Judas at this point? Krish Kandia says Jesus offers Judas genuine love. If those aren't heavyweight enough for you, Don Carson says “this is a final gesture of supreme love.” Look at the context. Chapter 13 verse one. “It was just before the Passover festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. And having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” I think at that point how this works out philosophically, theologically in the paradox of God's economy, I have to believe that that offer of Jesus was genuine. But what did Jesus do? He offered it. And Judas, Don Carson says this. “Judas received the sop, the bread, but not the love.”  We thought about that on the first night, isn't it? It's possible to receive the bread, the stuff, the manna in the desert, but not the love, the bread of life. There's a sense in which when it comes to Jesus, as we get close to Jesus, it is possible that as you've come close to him in church or in the convention this week, you can come to Jesus, but one of two things can happen. One Christian writer puts it like this. “If you get close to Jesus, one of two things will happen. Either you will become wholly his or else you will slingshot away from him and end up farther from him than who you would have been if you'd never known him at all.” If you've come this evening and you don't know Jesus yet and you've heard of the love of Jesus and he is extending the bread to you, his love to you, if he's saying, "I am the good shepherd who has laid down my life for you." Can I tell you, welcome him into your life now. Give your life to him now. Don't slingshot away from him. Too many people have said, "I'll do it later in life."  If you really get who Jesus is, you don't want to put it off. Jesus doesn't come to ruin your life. Jesus comes to give you life. Talk to Christians here tonight. Maybe a Christian who's brought you and I think they'll all tell you this. I wish I'd become a Christian sooner. I wish I'd given my heart to Jesus sooner. So Judas, he had a choice. But what about Peter? Because really we have Judas, he walks out into the night.

And then in John chapter 13 and verse 31, we turn then to look at Peter. Now I love Peter. I think Peter is one of my favourite people in the Bible. I think he's wonderful. I think Peter, he's the guy who's always the first in. You know, I used to love watching war films, Vietnam war films. And you know, when they kind of come in in the helicopter, I always imagine Peter's the first one out of the helicopter. Come on, lads. We can take them on. He's always out first. And when you look at him through the Gospels, he literally is always first, isn't he? Luke chapter 5 and the calling. Do you remember? And his calling shows the contradiction of Peter. He's been out fishing all night. They're not really getting anything. And Jesus, the carpenter, turns up. “Let me tell you how to fish, boys.” And he tells them what to do. He wants to say, he's determined to have his say first. But what did he do? He followed Jesus. He did kind of waver, but he followed him. Oh, what about in Matthew 14? Do you remember when Jesus comes out to the boat and they've been there overnight and the storm's been there and then Jesus just before dawn walks out to the boat and they see Jesus walking on the water? Who's the first to say, "Hey, Jesus, invite me onto the water. I'll have a go." It's Peter, isn't it? I love it. But then I love the contradiction which is Peter. He walks onto the water. He's hear Jesus's voice. He sees his face. He's standing on the water and then he goes, "Oh no, I'm going to sink." But I love it because what does he do then? “Save me, Jesus. Save me.” I love the way Jesus says to him, "Oh, you of little faith." Yeah, but at least he's got a little faith, hasn't he? I'll take that any day. Or what about what I think is one of the biggest highlights for Peter in one of his low lights? Do you remember his confession in Mark chapter 8? Jesus is like, "Okay, you're getting who I am. Let me tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to have to suffer. I'm going to have to be handed over. I'm going to have to die, but I'm going to die for you." What does Peter say? “Not on my watch. No, no, no. Jesus, look at us. Why do you need to die?” And so he rebukes Jesus. And so what does Jesus do? Jesus rebukes him. You got this wrong. I've got to go to the cross. But you know what I love in that passage? I love the way Peter's just blurts out honestly what he thinks. Gets it so royally wrong. And then he just makes the great confession. And Jesus says to Peter, the one who's always the first in and always gets it wrong. He says, "Do you know what, Peter? I'm going to build a church on your confession." If you were Jesus, would you have said that to Peter? I don't think he would have made it through an elder election. I mean, I would have been like, "Peter, you're really good, but if you could just learn not to say something, we might let you do the youth work." I mean, what is going on? But here we have him. And then after Mark chapter 8, did you know you get Mark chapter 9? It's wonderful, isn't it? How it works like that. And you get the transfiguration. And so now he's made this great confession. He sees then the transfiguration. He sees Jesus in all his brilliance. And do you know what? You think Peter should have learned? Just don't say anything, Peter. And he's so amazed. He's got nothing to say. And he's like, "Hey, let's have a building project." Because that's what you do as Christians, isn't it? “We'll build you something, Jesus.” I love the way the Father speaks from heaven. Have you ever noticed this? I love it's a repeat of the baptism. Do you remember in the baptism of Jesus, the Father just says, "This is my son whom I love. With him, I'm well pleased." But this time for Peter, “this is my Son whom I love. I'm well pleased with him.” And you think by this point he's got it. John chapter 13. What's happening here? The context is feet washing. Jesus is coming and saying, "I want to wash your feet." So what does Peter say? First to speak out he blurts again. “No, no, no, no, no. You don't need to do it.” But it's interesting, isn't it? Because Jesus says, "No, no, no, no. If you don't let me do this, you can't have any part of me." And so, what does Peter say? “In that case, wash all of me. Let's go for it.” I love Peter. And I think we should love people like Peter all the more. They get it wrong. They blurt it out. They doubt. They falter. They fail. But they get there in the end. In the end, they always listen to Jesus. In the end, they always come back to him. Interestingly, in Luke's account of what's happening here in John chapter 13, in Luke 22, there's that added detail, isn't there, that at this point in John chapter 13, Jesus actually says to Peter, "Satan wants to sift you like wheat." It's interesting, isn't it? Judas and Peter prompted sifted under this kind of satanic attack. Judas just goes with Satan. What a wonderful verse, isn't it? Jesus praying for Peter. Can I tell you when you read the New Testament, you read the book of Hebrews, I got some news for you. Jesus is praying for you, too. I love that idea. You know, there's that famous Robert Murray McCheyne quote, isn't there? If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.”  In heaven today, Jesus is praying for you. The whole point of Peter, I think in the gospel, and I've taken this from Ted Donnelly, Ted Donnelly in his wonderful little book on Peter, he says that Peter acts as both an encouragement and a challenge.  You’re going to get it wrong, but a challenge, but you need to repent and trust. Don't try and be self-sufficient. You need to trust in Christ. So, let's get back to our passage, John chapter 13, and we're going to read from verse 31. 

There's two things we need to see in this passage. Two things that will mean we are Peter and not Judas. The first thing is this. What did Peter see? What did Jesus teach him here clearly? Well, in verse 37 and 38, Peter is still going for self-sufficiency. I will lay down my life for you. You don't need to die for me. And Jesus is clear. No, you won't. you will fail. And so he says, what does he say in verse six? “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” There is no other way to heaven. The only way to heaven is through me. The first thing you need to grasp is this. We need a Saviour. Jesus is not an option to heaven. Jesus is the only way to heaven. It is impossible to save ourselves. The only way you are getting into heaven is through Jesus. I remember as a teenager many years ago, the accusation was always thrown at me, Christianity is a crutch. And many years ago, I'm sure many of you preachers here said exactly the same as I'm about to tell you. Christianity is not a crutch. It is a stretcher. We do not need a helping hand to heaven. We can only be carried to heaven. It's all of Jesus. And the whole lesson for Peter is I can't be self-sufficient. Jesus has to die for me. It's the only way.  It is really easy to delude yourself into thinking that if you try hard enough, if you do enough, you're going to be okay. One of my kind of heroes in technology and in business, he's a controversial figure, is Steve Jobs. You know, Steve Jobs, I've got my Apple iPhone, I've got my iPad. I mean, he owns me even though he's no longer on this earth. And I loved reading the kind of biography of Steve Jobs and you see all of these amazing things he did. He just reinvented the way that we use computers and technology and phones and music and everything. But it is one of the saddest books you'll ever read. And it's the saddest book because Steve Jobs got cancer and he decided just like he had beaten the world of technology, he could beat the world of cancer. And so he didn't go to a normal doctor like everybody else would. He didn't take the normal treatments that everybody else would take. He just tried acupuncture and fruit juices. And nine months later, he died. It is possible to know the way of salvation, but still to be convinced if I try hard enough, if I look good enough on the outside, then I'll get there.  You won't. Jesus is the only way and it is the most glorious way because he has paid everything for you and he wants to say, "Here is eternal life. All your sins forgiven, all your shame taken away, a new status of being adopted into God's family, made a son, made a child of God, given eternal life, which doesn't just start when you die, but starts now. Eternal life isn't just about death and length. Eternal life is knowing God and its quality now. That he is with me each and every day. And he has given me a mission and a purpose for life. The Christian life, even though it is a struggle at times, is a wondrous thing because the Christian life means that even when you struggle, God is with you and God is for you.  He has done it all. And we need to remember that, we need to trust in him. But we need to remember that as Christians, we don't just need the gospel to get into the kingdom. Do you remember yesterday we saw that Jesus was the shepherd? He became the gate. He was the way in to the sheepfold. But what did it say? Jesus brought them in and out and he gave them pasture. Jesus isn't just the way in. Jesus is how you stay in. The gospel isn't just the ABC of Christian life to get you in. The gospel is every day of Christian living.  We need to realize exactly what Peter realized over the next couple of chapters. We need to realize that even when we trust in Christ, we're going to fail. Even when you have new life, when you're brought into his family, even when you are one of his, even when you have your mouth wide open and he fills you, I'm going to be honest, you're still at points going to fail. And so to come into the kingdom, you have to admit, I cannot do this on my own. I need you, my Savior. And every morning when you wake up as a Christian, you need to admit, I cannot do this on my own. I can only do it by Jesus. It's wonderful, isn't it? Jesus doesn't just save you and then say, "Off you go, have a great one." Jesus is with you. He saves you and he keeps you. He secures you. He strengthens you. Do you know what's interesting? Peter denies Jesus. In John 21, you get the wonderful reinstatement of Peter, don't you? And you kind of feel by the end of John's gospel, Peter must have graduated now into the school of Christian maturity. He's obviously going to get everything right. And then you get to Acts and then he's there on the day of Pentecost. I mean, he's one of the first to get the Holy Spirit. And not only is there on the day of Pentecost, he also gets filled by the spirit in subsequent measures. You can discuss that one over supper. But something happened. And guess what he does? Paul tells us, he fails again. He starts to get his theology wrong. He starts to make disastrous pastoral decisions. Paul has to go and confront him. Whilst we will grow in holiness, the more we see Jesus, the more we love him, the more we will become like him. We will be transformed as we're transfixed on him. I want you to grasp that. But in this world, you will still fail. You will still fall. That's why you need to remember Jesus isn't just the way in. He's the way you stay in. and he always has grace for you. And so it seems to me, what did Judas get wrong? Judas never believes in Jesus. And even at the last point when Jesus held out that hand of love, he would not give his life to Jesus. I don't think he would ever be able to tell everybody, "I've been stealing the money." He'd built that facade. He was that stone apple that Spurgeon had seen and there was no turning back. He never trusted. But Peter, Peter got it wrong time and time again. But every time he came back to Jesus and trusted in him, trusted in him.  If you're struggling in the Christian life at the moment, if you're here this evening and you have started to live a double life, I don't know what you've done. Have you started to tell people in church you're doing one thing when you're doing something else? Have you started late at night looking at stuff on screens that you know you know you shouldn't be looking at? Have you started to harbour bitterness in your heart and now whenever your imagination has time to roam, it's roaming into revenge? Have you just gone cold towards Jesus and you've just stopped reading your Bible? You don't know how it happened. You missed a day and then you missed a week and now you've missed three months, but you haven't told anybody. And now you're finding yourself in church when people ask you how you are. “I'm great. I'm grand.” We all fall into these things. And now you have the choice. Will you live a double life, let that sin fester in the darkness and stop going to Jesus? Or will you see him hand you the bread of love and say, "Friend, I've died for you. My death has covered all of your sins. As far as the east is from the west, so far have I removed your transgressions from you. Come now, though your sins are as crimson. Come on, let us reason together. They will be as white as snow." You don't have to live a double life., if you've just started down that road of hiding your sin, of letting it fester in the dark, you don't have to follow it. This very evening, you can make a decision. I'm going to follow Jesus. I'm going to bring him my sin.  , look, I read someone once who put it something like this. If Jesus gave his life for you when you were his enemies, now that you're his child, now that you're his, how much more will he love you? How much more will he forgive you? Whenever you bring your sin and your guilty conscience to Jes to Jesus, he is like the father in Luke 15, isn't he? He will run towards you with open arms and he will embrace you. Don't let Satan tempt you to despair and tell you of the guilt within. Look upward and see him there who made an end of all your sins.   1 John chapter 1 and verse 8 says this, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”