This morning we start a sub-section of John concerning Jesus’ legal trials. There were six of them, three Jewish and three Roman! Both Jewish and Roman legal philosophy were renowned. In fact, Roman jurisprudence has become foundational to Western civilization and its jurisprudence. However, when these two systems came together in the case of Jesus Christ, the result was one of the most infamous miscarriage of justice in the history of mankind! Kangaroo court is now in session!

We are jumping ahead now to chapter 18 and chapters 18-21 form the portion of John known as THE PASSION OF CHRIST. This section includes Jesus' trials and death (chapters 18 & 19), and His resurrection and appearances (chapters 20 & 21).This morning we are going to consider the details of the betrayal by Judas that Jesus has been predicting for some time. Remember, it was in the Upper Room, during the Passover Meal, that Jesus first mentioned that His betrayer would be one of the twelve.

Jesus has just finished His object lesson of foot washing with an exhortation to put these truths of servant-leadership into practice. Immediately following His exhortation, Jesus then calls out the “elephant in the room” (verses 18-19) – someone in the room would betray Him and He was telling them ahead of time to give them one more reason to believe that Jesus is who He says is. He is the Great I AM! (verse 19) In our passage this morning, Jesus is not only going to further identify who the betrayer is, but we are going to see Jesus mention a second betrayal.

Last week, we saw Jesus begin His private ministry to His disciples in the upper room with a foot washing object lesson. Because of Peter’s responses, Jesus was able to teach them two main lessons: (1) Biblical leadership requires service, and (2) Effective service requires fellowship with the Lord. At some point, for each of us, biblical teaching is designed to be implemented, not just observed. 

Last week, we saw the conclusion in John’s gospel of Jesus’ public ministry, and he now turns to Jesus’ private ministry to His disciples in the upper room at the last supper. John is the only gospel writer who records the details we have in chapters 13-17. This morning, we are going to see what a Servant-Leader looks like, and what someone looks like when their default motivation is "love for others."

What we have from Jesus this morning is His final public teaching in the Book of John. To begin, we see Pharisees who believed Jesus message but did not confess Him. Then Jesus concludes in one final teaching which is really a restatement and summary of all that He has said up to this point. Verses 44-50 are a quick synopsis of Jesus' teaching in John. This is His final shot, His parting words to persuade the public one last time.

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