[2026. 7. 5.] One of You Will Betray Me (John 13:21–30)

[2026. 7. 5.] One of You Will Betray Me (John 13:21–30) 

Sermon by Rev. Jinkook (Danny) Sohn (Hope of Heaven Baptist Chuch) 

 

2026. 7. 5. 주일예배 설교- 요한복음 강해 38
본문: 요한복음 13:21–30
제목: 너희 중 하나가 나를 팔리라

설교자: 손진국 목사 (하늘소망교회)

 

 

Jesus was sharing the last supper with His disciples on the night before He carried the cross. At that table were all the disciples Jesus loved. Peter was there, John was there, James was there, and Judas Iscariot was there. On the outside, they were all the same disciples. They heard the same words, saw the same miracles, and followed the same Jesus. But at that table Jesus spoke a shocking word. [Verse 21 b] … “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”

The disciples were shocked and asked, “Lord, surely not I?” Each one examined himself. Through this word, Jesus is not merely announcing Judas’s betrayal; He is making us examine our own hearts. A long history of faith does not make us safe. Being close to Jesus does not automatically mean we love Him. Through today’s passage, we want to look at our faith and our hearts.

 

1. Jesus is the One who knows even our hidden hearts.

[Verse 21 a] After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified,… Jesus already knew that Judas would betray Him. He was not caught unaware. [John 13:11] For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean. Yet Jesus did not immediately drive Judas away. He showed love to the very end.

Jesus does not only see our actions; He sees our hearts. People look at outward appearance—our religious life, our service, our words and actions. But God looks at the inner center of the heart.

Judas Iscariot spent three years with Jesus. He saw the miracles and heard the teachings. But his heart was slowly drifting away from Jesus. The most dangerous state is not being far from Jesus, but being near Him while the heart is leaving.

This happens more often than we think. At work, people attend meetings, work together, eat together—but inside, their hearts are elsewhere. They stay only because there is no better option. They constantly think of leaving. So instead of asking, “How can this company truly flourish, and how can I contribute?” they think, “How can I work as easily as possible and still get paid?”

It happens in families. Under the same roof, eating together, talking together, living together—yet inside, there is no expectation or love for the other family members.

What about the church? Do believers in the same community worship with one heart that loves the Lord? Do we believe Jesus sent us to this church? Do we believe the person next to me is my member in Christ? Without such faith, what do we think? We think of leaving. We avoid deep fellowship. We fear becoming closer. What is missing in such a church reality? Love for God.

A.W. Tozer warns in The Pursuit of God: “The greatest danger in the Christian life is not ignorance of God, but having knowledge about God without love for God.”

If we have attended church for a long time, that is something to be thankful for. If we know much of Scripture, that too is something to be thankful for. But years of faith and knowledge of the Bible are not proof that our inner heart is turned toward God.

A true believer is one who gives his heart to Jesus and can confess that Jesus alone is enough. May there be a love for Jesus at the center of our hearts.

[Application] Am I living the Christian life while my heart loves something else more than God? What difference is there between the image people see and the image God sees in me?

 

2. Leaving Jesus begins with small desires.

[Verses 26–27] 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 Iscariot. As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.…  Judas did not suddenly become a traitor. A small desire grew in his heart. John 12:6 records that Judas kept the money bag and used to steal from it. [John 12:6] He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

The money bag (glōssokomon) was a small box for coins. People who followed Jesus put coins into it to support His ministry and the disciples’ needs. Judas managed this box and stole from it.

How much did he steal? At first, perhaps one or two coins. “This much is fine.” Then the number increased. But even stealing more could not satisfy his desire. If he had stolen everything, would his desire have been satisfied? No. Because desire grows larger the more we hold it. How large does it grow? Larger than everything in the world. What does this mean? There is nothing in the world that can fully satisfy the desire of the heart. This is because the true nature of desire is emptiness. What is the nature of that emptiness?

[Genesis 1:2] Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 

Emptiness is the state of the world before God’s creation. How is that emptiness removed? It is filled by the word of God. In other words, it can only be removed when it is filled with God. But the desire in our hearts is a wrong choice that tries to fill this emptiness with things of the world instead of God. Ecclesiastes also tells us what this emptiness in our hearts is. [Ecclesiastes 3:11] He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Only the eternal God can fill the human heart.

So when a person meets Jesus, the emptiness is filled, and peace comes. Once we taste that peace, we begin to lay down the desires that have stolen our hearts.

This battle with desire is a spiritual war we must fight every day. It is a battle of lordship—moment by moment, whom will I serve?

Jesus said: [Matthew 6:24] No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. The greatest rival to God is money. We feel this, don’t we? Money often steals our hearts. When we suffer material loss, our hearts are troubled.

So Jesus asks, “Who is your master?” Our answer must be: “Jesus is my Master.” Then Jesus asks, “Will you give up money for Me?” How will we answer?

Jesus came to fill our empty hearts with God. But the devil tempts us to fill that emptiness with money. He stirred Judas to desire the coins in the money bag, and that small desire eventually led him to sell Jesus. [John 13:2] The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.

Judas could not rule over the small desire, and in the end he betrayed Jesus. Sin does not usually rush in suddenly to destroy us; it enters through small cracks and settles in our hearts. If we do not rule over it then, it will rule over us and lead us away from Jesus.

[Application] What am I holding more tightly than Jesus in my heart? Is there a small desire or compromise I am excusing by saying, “This much is okay”?

 

3. The love of Jesus does not end even in the place of betrayal.

[Verse 26] 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 Iscariot. Jesus said the one who receives the dipped bread is the betrayer, and He gave it to Judas. In verse 27 He told Judas, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” But amazingly, verse 28 says the other disciples did not understand that Judas was the betrayer. [Verse 28] But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.

Why did they not know? Because of what Jesus did.

At the Passover meal, bread was dipped into charoset, a sweet fruit-and-nut sauce. Giving dipped bread to someone was a gesture of deep welcome, honor, and affection. It was given to someone very close, loved, and respected. And Jesus did this for Judas—the one who would betray Him.

What do we do when someone has negative or hostile feelings toward us? We avoid them. We speak coldly. We act harshly.

But Jesus did the opposite. He acted with great kindness, respect, and affection.

Was He cursing Judas inside while outwardly showing kindness? Scripture calls such behavior hypocrisy. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for this, calling them whitewashed tombs. Is Jesus like that? No.

If Jesus outwardly showed kindness, respect, and affection, then His heart was the same. His heart toward Judas was: “Even if you betray Me, I still love you.”

Jesus knew Judas would betray Him, yet He showed love to the very end. He did not forcibly stop Judas. Why? Because love is not coercion.

What is the characteristic of Jesus’ love? It is the sermon title from last Sunday: “He loved them to the end.” Jesus was betrayed, but He did not give up loving. His heart toward Judas was a love that said, “Even now, come back.” That love led Him to the cross.

For whom is the cross of Jesus? For all humanity. Is Judas excluded? Are the Roman soldiers excluded? Are the religious leaders excluded? Is Pilate excluded? Am I included but my enemy excluded?

Once, a deaconess said to me, “Pastor, I don’t want to share the gospel with my older sister. Of course she won’t believe, but what if she somehow does?” Her faith was this: she believed that even the sister she disliked would be saved if she believed in Jesus. I said, “Jesus would feel the same way as you do.” She paused and said, “That can’t be.”

Beloved saints, what do we need? The heart of Jesus. The heart that embraces not only the disciples who betrayed, denied, and fled, but even those who killed Him. The heart of Jesus that does not give up on sinners “to the end.”

May we all be people who carry that heart.

[Application] Is there someone I still cannot forgive and still hate? Am I treating others with the heart of Jesus, who loves me “to the end”?

 

 

하늘소망교회(담임 손진국 목사)는 뉴질랜드 오클랜드 북부 실버데일에 세워진 한인교회로 '하나님의 마음으로 사람을 살리는 교회'입니다.

Hope of Heaven Baptist Church (Senior Pastor: Rev. Jinkook Sohn) is a Korean church established in Silverdale, Auckland, New Zealand. It is a church that saves people with the heart of God.