The document discusses the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, highlighting the emotional reactions and theological implications surrounding Jesus' death. It examines the concept of God's plan in relation to human sin and the nature of faith, referring to historical and contemporary theological perspectives. Additionally, it addresses God's providence and interaction with the world, culminating in a prayer that emphasizes trust in God's eternal wisdom and presence.

1. John 13:21-32
Why did Jesus
have to die?

2. Change Gear
Gesualdo 6 When David Saw
Link to Facebook Video

3. Gratitude
For what are you grateful?

4. After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared,
‘Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.’ The
disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was
speaking. One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus
loved—was reclining next to him; Simon Peter therefore
motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So
while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, ‘Lord, who is
it?’ Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I give this piece
of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ So when he had
dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon
Iscariot. After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered
into him. Jesus said to him, ‘Do quickly what you are going

5. to do.’ Now no one at the table knew why he said this to
him. Some thought that, because Judas had the common
purse, Jesus was telling him, ‘Buy what we need for the
festival’; or, that he should give something to the poor. So,
after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out.
And it was night.
When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man
has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If
God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in
himself and will glorify him at once.

6. What Does it
Say?
• Emotional reaction
• What’s the setting?
• Who are the characters?
• How would you summarize it?
• What happened before/after?
• What scriptural references do
you pick up?

7. Question
• Did God force or cause Judas to
betray Jesus?
• What’s your reasoning?

8. What Does It
Mean?

9. God’s Plan?
• Was the whole Easter thing –
Jesus’ passion, death, and
resurrection, God’s plan?

10. Theology of the
Cross
• A “thin tradition”, term originates
with Luther
• As opposed to the Theology of
Glory
• Fundamental assumptions:
• (1) Like the Sabbath, theology is
made for people, not vice versa
• (2) God, revealed in Jesus, will not
abandon the world
• C.f. Douglas John Hall The Cross in Our
Context (Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis,
2003)

11. Theology of Glory
Theology of Glory – “Substitutes obvious, non-paradoxical,
unconditional, and immediate awareness of divine presence
and glory… for the more concealed, tentative, indirect, and
paradoxical knowledge of God revealed through the
crucified one. [It] confuses and distorts because it presents
divine revelation in a straightforward, undialectical, and
authoritarian manner that silences argument, silences doubt
– silences, therefore, real humanity.” Hall, p. 20.

12. Faith as Ideology
Ideology – “a theoretical statement
or system of interpretation that
functions for its adherents as a full
and sufficient credo, a source of
personal authority, and an
intellectually and psychologically
comforting insulation from the
frightening and chaotic mishmash
of daily existence.” Hall p.25
Have you experienced faith as a
sort of ideology?

13. Penal Substitutionary Atonement
“The suffering of the son is virtually at the hands of the
Father, who requires satisfaction for the guilt and
unholiness of the human race, for which Christ substitutes
himself…. Very much informed by the power principle.. May
be said to be motivated by a desire to forgive and love sinful
humanity is able to do so only indirectly through a
transaction…” Hall p.88

14. Was Jesus’s death on the Cross a result of God’s best-laid plans gone
wrong? Did human sin take God by surprise? Was there an emergency
plan B forced upon the Creator of the universe after the Fall in
Genesis?… No, Jesus went to the Cross exactly as God had intended
before the world began. “This Jesus, delivered up according to the
definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the
hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23).
Jesus is the very design and accomplishment of God’s eternal wisdom.
The plan of redemption was not a necessary afterthought to remedy a
plan gone wrong. Jesus Christ had purposed to redeem us from
eternity past. His work on the Cross is nothing short of the pinnacle of
the revelation of God’s eternal and sovereign wisdom.
This means that when you have faith in Jesus Christ, His promise of
salvation is as sure as God’s eternal power. No surprises, just the
execution of eternal wisdom.
answersingenesis.org

15. Images of God
• What image of God does the
quote from Answers from
Genesis assume?

16. God and Change
#1
• Why have Christians
traditionally found it difficult to
talk about God changing?
• Philosophical reasons
• How does something outside time
change, in that change necessarily
has a “before” and an “after”?
• If God is perfect, then any change in
state must necessarily be to a less
perfect state

17. God and Change
#2Turn from your fierce wrath; change your
mind and do not bring disaster on your
people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and
Israel, your servants, how you swore to
them by your own self, saying to them, “I
will multiply your descendants like the
stars of heaven, and all this land that I
have promised I will give to your
descendants, and they shall inherit it for
ever.” ’ And the LORD changed his mind
about the disaster that he planned to bring
on his people.

18. Providence
… the Biblical narrative of a God whose providence is a
mysterious internal and intentional involvement in history; a
God… obliged by his own love to exercise his power
quietly, subtly, and, usually, responsively in relation to the
always ambiguous and frequently evil deeds of the free
creatures; a God who will not impose rectitude upon the
world but labour to bring existing wrong into the service of
the good: a God, in short, who will suffer.” Hall p.87

19. God and Plans
• Is God’s interaction with the
world more like a taking a train
or driving a car?

20. What Does It
Mean for Me?

21. Belief to Trust
The fundamental journey of
reconstruction is, it seems to me,
to move from purely assensus
(belief) when we think we have the
answers, a nice controlled system
to fides (trust) where we trust in the
love of God who we don’t control
and who we don’t fully understand,
but who has revealed Godself in
the life, death, and resurrection of
Jesus.

22. Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and for ever. Amen.

23. Jesus said: “remember, I am with you always,
to the end of the age”
Amen.
And the blessing of God, the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit be amongst us and remain
with us ever more. Amen