Key Passage
Jesus answered, “The man who is against me is one of you twelve. He is the one who dips his bread into the same bowl with me.
— Mark 14:20 ERV (Read Full Text)
Key Thought
How sad Jesus’ words must have been to the apostles when they first heard them. How sad these words must have been as they remembered them. What a powerful reminder to us of our ability to falter and to let our Lord down. Our church, our fellowship of believing friends, will always have a “Judas” in our midst. In fact, most of us have let the Lord down and betrayed him at some point in our lives. Thank God that he is forgiving. Thank the Lord Jesus that he paid the price to ransom us back from our weakness, hypocrisy, betrayal, and failure. Let’s use our time at the Lord’s Table each week to remind us of the price of our forgiveness, of our vulnerability to letting the Lord down, and of the opportunity we have to live passionately for him. Most of all, let’s remember that we can begin again, fresh and forgiven, and must not let Satan win the battle when we falter. Let’s get back up, ask for the Lord’s forgiveness, receive his cleansing, and faithfully live for his glory in the future.
Prayer
LORD of all heaven and earth, my Abba Father, please help me to trust in your forgiveness and the Holy Spirit’s power so that I will not be crushed by my failures and sins. Instead, as you cleanse me, please empower me to live vibrantly and faithfully for you. This is my heart’s desire. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Related Scriptures
We heard the true teaching from God. Now we tell it to you: God is light (goodness). In God there is no darkness (sin). So if we say that we have fellowship with God, but we continue living in darkness (sin), then we are liars—we don’t follow the truth. God is in the light (goodness). We should live in the light, too. If we live in the light, then we share fellowship with each other. And when we live in the light, the blood (death) of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. (Jesus is God’s Son.) If we say that we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess (admit) our sins, then God will forgive our sins. We can trust God to do this. God does what is right. God will make us clean from all the wrong things we have done. If we say that we have not sinned, then we are saying that God is a liar—we don’t accept God’s true teaching. My dear children, I write this letter to you so that you will not sin. But if any person sins, we have Jesus Christ to help us. He is the righteous (good) One. Jesus defends us before God the Father. Jesus is the way our sins are taken away. And Jesus is the way that all people can have their sins taken away, too.
— 1 John 1:5-2:2
Look closely at yourselves. Test yourselves to see if you are {living} in the faith. You know that Christ Jesus is in you. But if you fail the test (are not living in the faith), then Christ is not living in you.
— 2 Corinthians 13:5
Brothers and sisters, a person in your group might do something wrong. You people who are spiritual should go to the person who is sinning. You should help to make him right again. You should do this in a gentle way. But be careful! You might be tempted to sin, too.
— Galatians 6:1
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