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About Jesus Steve Sweetman From
The Lips Of The Apostle John Imagine the aging
Apostle John, maybe in the year 95 AD reminiscing about the good old
days with His young associates. They
enjoyed sitting around and hearing the stories of Jesus, which might
have sounded a bit like this. You know guys, I
remember those three short years I spent with Jesus. It seems like it
was yesterday. I can’t
believe it’s more than 60 years ago and I’m as old as I am.
All my brothers from those days are long gone.
Most of them were murdered because of their association with
Jesus. I think it’s a
little ironic that they gave
their lives to Jesus and Jesus handed those same lives over to the Roman
sword. Don’t get me wrong,
they all gladly gave their lives for Jesus.
And I would have too, but Jesus told me that I’d live to be an
old man and young men like you would take care of me. (John 21:18 )
I’m not really sure why I’m still around.
Maybe it has something to do with the Revelation of end time
events Jesus gave me last month. There’s a lot of false teaching about
those things these days. We were so out of the
loop back then. We couldn’t figure out half of what Jesus told us.
I remember that last Passover meal. We
didn’t have a clue what was really happening that night.
That was one strange, but amazing evening.
Jesus told us that one of us would hand Him over to the Sanhedrin
to be killed. Now this may
sound crazy, but none of us believed Him.
But that was nothing knew. Jesus
was always on our case for not believing Him. O, by the way,
everyone is wondering who really killed Jesus, the Jews or the Romans.
“The Passion” that’s playing at the amphitheater in Anyway, while we were
questioning Jesus about His betrayer He interrupted us by saying,
“it’s the one I give a piece of bread to. He
will dip the bread into the bowl with me and then leave to betray me”.
Sometimes I wonder why Jesus didn’t just tell us outright that
Judas was the betrayer. I
think I might know why Jesus was so mysterious about this?
We didn’t know it
but at that very moment there was a battle raging in the spiritual world
around us in that room. When
Jesus announced that the one who dips the bread with Him will betray
Him; those words were directed more towards Judas than to us.
My thinking is that those Words of the Lord pierced the very
heart and soul of Judas as a sword, because that’s what the Word of
the Lord does. Remember, the
Word is the only offensive weapon we
have in spiritual warfare.
While Jesus’ words
were piercing the heart of Judas satan was speaking to him as well.
I’m not sure what satan said but it might have went something
like this. “He’s talking about you Judas – take the bread from the
guy – take it now – stop hesitating – be a man and do Him in”.
Judas was caught in cross-fire between two voices pounding away
at his heart in this battle. The Passover meal
consisted of 10 steps and in
the 8th step
Jesus diverted from the normal procedure and shared the bread and wine
with us, and that includes Judas, which is amazing to me.
That diversion became what we now call the Lord’s Supper.
He told us the bread was His body and the wine was His blood.
And now after 60 years we’re arguing over what those words
mean. I guess some things
never change. After we all shared
the bread and cup and while we were trying to understand what Jesus
meant by His body and blood, the moment came. Jesus
hands a piece of bread to Judas. My
heart sank to my stomach. They gaze intently into each others eyes. We
were wondering who’d be the first to dip his bread.
Jesus dips His bread into the bowl first and Judas follows.
You had to be there to know what I’m talking about.
A horrible evil darkness enveloped us at that moment, far beyond
anything I’ve ever experienced. At
that very moment satan entered into the soul of Judas. This precious and
intimate moment that was meant for Jesus and His closest friends was
invaded by satan. I still
shake my head as I think of it. I
can’t say for sure, but even though we were clueless to this battle, I
think all the angels in Heaven were sitting on the edge of their seats,
watching this fight over Judas’ will and satan’s apparent victory.
And you know what, the
battle is still raging today.
But things are different now since we have the Holy Spirit
to enable us to see these spiritual battles, so don’t ever ignore Him.
Jesus told us that
night that He would never drink from the fruit of the vine again until He
drank it with us in the
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