Jesus answered them, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!”Jesus answered them, “Didn’t I choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?”Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?Jesus answered them, Did not I choose you the twelve, and one of you is a devil?
3 sermons cite this verse
… believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. Jesus answered them, Did I myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil? Now He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him." This is a shocking moment in the ministry of our Lord. At the peak of His miracle working, He has a mass defection on the part of disciples. It's laid out very simply in verse 66. Many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. There's a finality in the language there. They left, and they left for good. This passage introduces us to a biblical case, you could say, of Christian deconstruction, people who abandon the faith. It's a very big movement today in our world, understandably. I get it. I know why there are so many defectors from Christianity, so many who are calling themselves ex-evangelicals, or ex-Vs, or Christian deconstructionists, or hashtag empty the pews, or whatever else. The reason there are so many is because there are so many false Christians. …
… Judas' house was gone. It was gone. And Judas died and went to hell. You say, did Judas lose his salvation? He never had it. The Bible says, Jesus speaking of Judas, have I not chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil? The Bible says that Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not. Judas never, ever had real faith. Simon Peter did. Jesus SAID TO SIMON PETER, SIMON, SATAN HAS DESIRED YOU THAT HE CAN SIFT YOU AS WHEAT, BUT I HAVE PRAYED FOR YOU THAT YOUR FAITH WILL NOT FAIL. HE HAD FAITH, AND THE SAVIOR INTERCEDED FOR HIM. NOW, YOU KNOW, WHEN THE STORM HIT OLD SIMON, A FEW WINDOWS WERE BROKEN OUT. DID YOU KNOW THAT? AND SOME SHINGLES BLEW OFF THE ROOTH. And some things happened to that house, but I want to tell you something. AFTER THE STORM, HE WAS STILL STANDING AND BECAME THE FLAMING APOSTLE OF PENTECOST. AND YOU KNOW WHY? I'LL TELL YOU WHY. HE HAD THE REAL THING. HE HAD THE REAL THING. HE KNEW GOD! HE'D HEARD THE WORD OF GOD, HE'D BELIEVED THE SON OF GOD, HE'D BOWED HIS KNEE TO JESUS CHRIST, WEAK YES, FAILING YES. THE HOUSE STOOD. IT WAS BUILT ON A ROCK. I WONDER IF YOU CAN SAY, MY HOPE IS BUILT ON NOTHING LESS THAN JESUS' BLOOD AND RIGHTEOUSNESS. ON CHRIST, THE SOLID ROCK, I STAND. ALL OTHER GROUND IS SINKING SAND. …
… Also we've come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered them, Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spoke of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray him, being one of the twelve. You who has ears to hear the word of God, let them hear it. You may be seated. Let us pray. Father, as we turn our attention now to this text that we have read, which indeed contains so many hard sayings, we pray that the Spirit of truth would intercede with our weakness and slowness of heart to understand, and illumine these words, that we may grasp them in their fullness and be changed by them. For we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. The theologians have a technical term for it. They're called the phrases durioras, or the hard sayings, those sayings that we encounter from time to time in the Scripture which are called hard sayings for two reasons. …