Synoptic Gospels John 13:31-33

And then get back to synoptics and you know I jokingly say that I hope to finish this before my death but you know which could be this week obviously. But if I live a normal lifespan, I figure we gotta keep pressing forward here.

That's just the way it is I'm afraid. And so we have been studying the synoptic Gospels but we've come to the place where you sort of have to go. We gotta fit John in here somewhere. And so we're looking at John 13 through 17 and then we'll for that point go back to synoptics and try to fit in John's material on the betrayals and I just have to just have to contrast how we've been doing this with my experience elsewhere in in years past.

I guess some folks would say we just go way too slow but I just remember the high level of frustration that was mine in the Southern Baptist Convention years and years ago with the speed with which you had to go through things.

I mean you just wow. You never had time to really consider anything. Make application. It was just well. Of course back then the application was you sit around a group and go what do you think this verse means.

Well what do you think this verse means. Well I think it means what my Aunt Gertrude thinks it means you know and it just sort of you know gets a little bit odd at that particular point in time. But I've told a story about when we covered the Book of Romans in what was it.

Eight weeks. Yeah all Romans in eight weeks took us about eight weeks to get through Romans six. Didn't it. Maybe a little more than that probably a lot more than that now that I think about it for some folks it's a little slow but you know some might say we just need to go more slowly because we're a little bit slower but I think at least we have an opportunity to make application.

The Glorification of the Son of Man

So we've been looking at John chapter 13. We got rid of Judas last week basically I guess is the way to put it. He kept popping up in our discussion here but now he's gone out and it was night. And therefore when he had gone out Jesus said now the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him.

If God is glorified in him God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him immediately. Little children I am with you a little while longer you will seek me. And as I said to the Jews now I also say to you where I am going you cannot come a new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as I have loved you that you also love one another.

By this all men will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another. Simon Peter said to him Lord where you going. Jesus answered where I go. You cannot follow me now but you will follow later.

Peter said to him Lord why can I not follow you right now. I will lay down my life for you. Jesus answered will you lay down your life for me. Truly I say to you a rooster will not crow until you deny me three times.

And then of course we all know the chapter divisions are a later edition. They come in the medieval period and then chapter and verse divisions in the 16th century. And so sometimes they're good sometimes they're bad.

They're certainly convenient for us for outlining the text and memorizing and all that stuff and so on that level. Yeah but I do think we need to consistently remind ourselves that there were no chapter and verse divisions for a long long long long long time.

And certainly the original authors did not divide their material up in this way. And so as soon as you know I think a lot of Christians know John 14 what. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God believe also in me.

But how many know that that came immediately after Jesus says to Peter you're going to deny me. And it's the very next sentence. We may have an entire chapter division there but there wasn't one originally and conceptually we can end up with a somewhat less than full understanding of what texts are really saying when we don't see the relationship that they have to the immediate text around it.

And when we insert rather artificial divisions as we've done at this point. So Judas leaves verse 31 and Jesus begins to speak about the Son of Man being glorified. And I said last week if you want a really in-depth beautiful study at some point look at the phrase Son of Man.

Years ago there was a group that is still active on some campuses but has diminished in size. They had a little bit of a resurgence for a little while a couple years ago they're still out there someplace but back in the day they were called the way international the way international, remember the way international.

Any young folks ever heard the way international. Probably some of you sitting around going who exactly is young and I was going to point out that certain people should not put their hands up at that point.

But anyways they were founded by a guy named Victor Paul Weirwill and he put out a book called Jesus Christ is not God. At least it was clear where he was coming from. At some level you can at least appreciate that and the kind of argumentation in this book in essence was Jesus called Son of Man X number of times, he's called Son of God X number of times, he's called Son of Man more often than not he's called Son of God.

And certainly there is truth to the statement that Jesus' favorite designation of himself is Son of Man that means that he's not God so you just line up the numbers and the whole idea of actually harmonizing these and going well but he does use the other term, it was just amazingly bad eisegesis and just really bad, bad, bad theology but there are people who think that way and unfortunately a lot of American people approach this text and they do so from a context that it never really had obviously and we wonder about this phrase Son of Man, what does it mean?

Now my Muslim friends like the phrase Son of Man because they go well Son of Man is a term used in the Old Testament it just simply means a human and in fact I think there's a new translation coming out which we absolutely positively do not need and hence is a waste of God's glorious trees, though anymore it's more a waste of bandwidth than it is much of anything else but anyway that translates Son of Man as the human one.

Well I suppose you know Son of God in certain non-biblical context could refer to a you know one of the sons of the gods and the gods ran around having kids and so on so forth and in that context I guess Son of Man could mean simply the human one but in the biblical context there are specific meanings, yes there are some places in the Old Testament where Son of Man just simply means a human being, that's true, but clearly this ain't one of them now is the human one glorified, not really this is the eschatological Son of Man, this is the Son of Man that we see in the book of Daniel who is presented before the Ancient of Days and he's worshipped and he's clearly a divine figure and now that we're getting toward the end, now that the hour has arrived there is something about what Jesus is now entering into that prompts him to say now is the Son of Man glorified you might say well, we haven't even had the betrayal yet we haven't had the Lord's prayer the high priestly prayer of John 17, we haven't had the scourging, we haven't had the crucifixion we haven't had him say it is finished, we haven't had the burial we haven't had the resurrection, then you still have the ministry amongst the disciples and then finally the ascension how can the Son of Man be glorified now and I suggested briefly to you last week that I think the answer to this is to be found in the recognition of the absolute certainty that Judas has gone out, the betrayal is begun, there is an absolute certainty in Jesus's mind that the hour has come and that also shows us that while the specific point of Jesus's giving of his life on the cross is the center of this hour, there are things that lead up to it and you would never want to interpret the death of Christ without the burial and resurrection you wouldn't want to interpret that outside of ascension to the right hand of power etc. etc. and so Jesus enters here into this this fulfillment hour and therefore the Son of Man is glorified and the glorification of the Son of Man is the glorification of God, notice the next and God is glorified in him and so when in systematic theology and again please remember I point this out to you just so that you don't you don't take it for granted and hence run into problems when you seek to have conversations outside of our context here.

For many today systematic theology is sort of a historical study it's what people used to believe but we've come to realize the Bible is really not clear enough from their perspective to produce a meaningful systematic theology.

And so systematic theology while in seminary used to be the very center class it was it was the class that sort of gave meaning to everything else. Now it's moved over to the church history section and can you believe there are once people who actually believed you could do systematic theology could actually and from my perspective that's not a movement this way that's a movement this way and I feel honestly very deeply for young men who go into most seminaries and experience this kind of teaching to the point where they come out thoroughly convinced that there's really nothing you can know about what the scriptures teach as a whole that the best you can do is say well it seems that Paul at a certain point in his life believed this but then later he believed this.

So you make one author contradictory to himself and then of course there's no harmony of the authors amongst themselves. Now of course they say well what you people do is you just turn it all into vanilla and you you just mix it all together and Luke can't have his voice and Matthew can't have his voice and no that's not the case.

We can recognize that John has his emphasis and Paul has his emphasis without coming to the conclusion that that means that there is no harmonious truth to be found in scripture. But again when we look at systematic theology when we have a high enough view of scripture to do systematic theology then we have to recognize that what we have here you know we talk about the glorification of God how does God glorify himself.

And we'll talk about how God is glorified when we live in such a way that we we seek his glory and we seek to be obedient to his word and all those things. But most the time we speak about this with ourselves in the middle of the conversation and that's understandable because we want to understand what God's will for us is okay.

That's fine. But the problem is if that's as far as the conversation goes I don't I don't think we really have proper foundation to come up with a meaningful answer to the question. What we need to realize is that all of creation from beginning to end is really focused right here it's it's focused in what God is doing in redeeming a particular people unto himself by means of a particular action and that is through the incarnation.

That's broad. I mean that's absolutely necessary for everything else to have meaning. But then because of the incarnation then the ministry of Christ and because the ministry of Christ then the cross of Christ as the center point of history everything points to it or back to it the center point of history where the divine son of man who is the God man gives his life he he restrains.

There is a tremendous restraint in the power of God that is demonstrated in the cross. I mean can you imagine puny sinful man who is dependent for his very existence upon the continued extension of God's power crucifies the incarnate one.

What kind of humility what kind of restraint is required. I mean Jesus sort of hinted this when on the way the cross he says if I ask my father give me a whole you know legions of angels and we know a single angel went through the camp of I recall it was the Assyrians and and destroyed 180 ,000.

So if you got legions of angels you're talking about global destruction. And yet Jesus says while that's clearly a possibility that's not because this is the very purpose literally of creation itself.

And so this glorification that Jesus speaks up is it odd that it occurs that the first the first things Jesus says when the trader leaves is on the glorification of God from the world's perspective make a lick of sense.

It doesn't. I mean itinerant peasant 12 followers one is about to betray him in the hands the Romans and he's going to suffer a brutal and ignominious death that is going to be so offensive that many people will call it foolishness for the next couple thousand years.

I mean from the world's perspective that's what you're talking about. And yet the first things Jesus is talking about is how God is glorified. God has been glorified in his life. He's going to be glorified in his death.

And this is going to happen immediately and will glorify him immediately. God will also glorify him in himself not just externally in the sense that God has given honor to certain people for what they have done in the past.

But there is something about the glorification that Jesus experiences that transcends that God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him immediately again. These are only words that make sense.

When we have already read John up to this point we've read that the word was in the beginning with God and this is to his nature God and the word became flesh. And we understand that there if we don't have that understanding if we if we don't we just jump in here and try to go.

Hmm. I wonder what this text by itself means. It would be difficult but when we have the context and it makes perfect sense and in the context that glorification then the Jesus begins to make sure the disciples understand that their relationship with him is about to change radically that he is going to be going away.

And he had mentioned that to the Jews John chapter 8 remember I'm going you cannot come. What's it gonna do. Remember that's not all that long ago but now he needs to make sure the disciples understand what this mean means.

And even though he explains this and you know you can be told about what's coming but until you experience it very frequently it just remains theoretical in your mind. I certainly learned that when I was a hospital chaplain so you remember years and years ago when I would go straight from the morning service to to the hospital we had the loss support group that I did which was some of the hardest work I've ever done.

And you know I'd go into the the critical care unit and I would talk to families and there'd be people there with loved ones who'd been sick for many many years and they tell me you know we we know what's coming in we're ready we're ready we're prepared.

And I often thought to myself and a couple times felt it appropriate to say you can you can never really be fully prepared. I mean you can make preparation but don't fool yourself. This is going to be a difficult thing no matter how long you've seen it coming it's still going to be a very difficult thing.

And I remember one particular situation the CCU where I had that conversation with someone and then when the death did occur I think the person, if I recall correctly it's been two decades now this person I think came to the loss support group few weeks later maybe a few months later.

I don't remember what the context was but and I just remember them saying you know you you try to tell me I had myself fooled. I thought that I'd been seeing this coming for so long that no problem and I was wrong.

You just can't you can see it coming but until you experience it and I think that happened with the disciples Jesus had given them warning but what he was saying was going to happen in his life was so dissonant so out of context with what they expected of the Messiah that they were conflicted.

They were they were torn they were pulled both directions and as a result you you know I I can't help but speculate and think and I don't think there's anything wrong as long as we don't turn it into some kind of a thing where we draw conclusions and then build dogma on it.

But we often think about that the silent hours that the scriptures tell us almost nothing about between the crucifixion and the resurrection. You know that that whole day what what was it like to be one of the disciples you know we have we have the advantage of hindsight and we can look back at you know the fact that they've recorded all this for us and we can see Jesus trying to prepare them and everything else.

And yet you know even with the disciples on the road to Emmaus even with the teaching from scripture there is still this amazement when the revelation is finally made and clearly the disciples are not sitting in the locked upper room going well it's coming quick.

Can you see that Peter. Yeah look at that. Well of course they've got a sundial or something. I don't know but you know the old whatever the version of Timex was back then I guess but just a little while longer and you know I just get the feeling they're sitting there.

I don't get the feeling they're sitting there singing hymns you know coming saying well we need to write some songs about the resurrection. You know they they are they're hiding they're in fear they they don't understand.

And the reason we know that's the case is because when Jesus does appear to them what does he say. He abraded them for their unbelief. Why didn't you believe what the prophetic scriptures had testified of me from the beginning.

And you know going through them and Luke chapter 24 etc etc. So you know what was it like were they sitting there going. I've wasted three years of my life. And now the Romans are after me and the Jews too.

And even if I go back to Galilee everybody up there knows who I am. I mean Peter's going man even in the dark they knew who I was. You know the servant girl was going. He was with him he was with him.

And of course he's sitting there thinking about how he'd had so much bravado which we have you know recorded for us right here I I would die for you. Yeah I think it'd be long Peter before you're going to deny even knowing me.

So that whole time period it makes you wonder how you could have walked with Jesus and heard Jesus teaching. But for us I think we need to realize that Peter is going to require heavenly visions to break out of his traditions in Acts chapter 10 remember the sheet you know do not call what I've called clean unclean three times.

And if that's with the Holy Spirit after three years of teaching then you can understand what it's like here before the coming of the Spirit in the the way he's going to come post-resurrection post Pentecost and without the discussion that they're going to get post-resurrection about the fulfillment of all these scriptural prophecies in Christ and so on and so forth.

So it was a difficult time. No two ways about it and you just wonder how they how they handled all of that. But the scriptures don't go into much detail on that give us clues. But they don't. They don't try to psychoanalyze the disciples.

They don't go well you know Adias handled this better than the other Jude and you know John was somewhat more spiritual than the others and Peter just kept to himself. And we don't have that kind of listing of the disciples how they handled these things though I'm sure they probably did handle them in different ways because they weren't all clones of one another.

But the conversation does turn after the announcement of the glorification Son of Man to the fact that Jesus is going away. And what this is going to mean to them. That certainly is the context that takes us into John chapter 14.

The New Commandment to Love One Another

And so when Jesus announces he's leaving he then gives a new commandment. This is same kind of language that certainly comes up over and over again in first John. And is it really a new commandment. I mean in the old covenant you had you know love your neighbor as yourself it's one of Jesus's favorite quotations from the holiness code.

Is this a new commandment. What's new about verse 34. I think the phrase even as I have loved you I think what we have I think the newness of this commandment is not that there hasn't been a command before to love but there will never be a greater example of what that means than what is about to be given.

I think that's where the newness comes in a new commandment I give to you that you love one another even as I have loved you that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

So we have to if you think about it and you go alright the betrayer is left. Jesus knows there is now. I mean literally the clock is ticking. I mean that would be I think sort of a a colloquial way to express what is going on here now the clock is ticking.

It's only take a certain amount of time for Judas to walk a certain distance and a certain number of people to be gathered and to walk back and so on so forth. So Jesus knows when this is going to take place.

And you have this intensive chapters 14, 15, and 16 and 17 you have this intensive period with the disciples on this last night. And if you know that's what's coming then what you're gonna say at this time is incredibly important.

You're not going to waste your time talking about local politics or the weather if you know the clock is ticking. What you're going to say during that time is going to be extremely important. And so as soon as the announcement of the glorification of the Son of Man comes what's the next thing?

Love one another have love for one another and this has echoed down through the centuries. Certainly when God's people especially are under persecution the care that they have for one another the tender heartedness they have toward one another in those situations has been a testimony to all men who the true disciples of Christ are now.

Don't get me wrong. Lucifer does everything he can to counterfeit the real thing and every cult and ism that I know of it's about love of one another. I remember back in the mid 80s Sun Yung Moon was real big here in the United States.

A couple people I talked to back then I'd like to talk to now that he's gone ask them what their thoughts and feelings are now but they were very active here I was actually involved. I don't know if I ever told the story.

I was actually involved in getting a church member from a local church here back from the Moonies. The church put me on a plane sent me up to Berserkly and I met with a student at Golden Gate who was from the church and I'll never forget hiding behind this garage with binoculars and watching this house so we saw the guy he had snuck a letter out to the church asking for help and he was afraid he was an immigrant he didn't know he could just walk away he thought that would get him shot or something.

We ended up showing up with the cops and making a demand with you know he'd be returned and I think I flew back on a Friday and Sunday night after I was teaching a class on Mormonism I walk in and there he was standing at the front of the church with the pastors.

Interesting experience but what they would do is something called love bombing and has nothing to do with what's going on in Israel right now they would you know they would just if you were a new person to the group they would just love all over you you know I mean you're the most important person the planet they want to know all about your life you know you were just just smothered so much so that you really didn't have any they did not want to give you time to reflect.

Rational thought is not a good thing in cults. And so they just smothered you and got you in as quickly as possible only once you were in and they managed to sever the ties you had with other you know with your normal life outside of that remove you from where you were to another location make you completely dependent upon them then you became a part of the group and now it was your responsibility to then join with them in doing that to other people was the idea and so you know from the outside you'd look at that and go wow they love one another well because they how do you know that?

Because they loudly profess it and they talk about all the time and they hug each other and they're just ishy-squishy and we have to be careful that we don't interpret biblical terms in modern terminology.

I mean what the world today calls love very rarely is. Most the time it's lust. Most the time it's self-fulfillment. Most the time it's marked by selfishness. I mean in the current conversation about the nature of marriage I cannot think of anything more selfish than to want to love someone who's a mirror image of me.

It's really narcissism and then when you think about someone in a situation like that then forcing a child into that thing. That's child abuse. I'm not allowed to say this outside of these walls. Oops.

It is. It's not love. Love is self-sacrificial and love is long-term and love is a commitment and believe it or not even Scottish people can love and you're going huh? You know I'm from Scottish stock and we are not the most emotive people on the planet.

I mean you know I've said it before but it's true. When I travel especially go back Long Island. A lot of Italians there. You go into a church and you preach and afterwards here come the Italian women and they want to hug you and I'm just sort of like Al Gore you know and I try to explain to folks let me show you a Scottish hug.

That's how we show love for one another from across the room. I mean that's deep. Oh man that's deep man. Let me tell you. That is. You should be. That's as close to you as that. Stop it. There you go.

That's just the way Scotsmen are. I mean anything more than that is just English. You know. You guys got that from us. I'm not sure how that worked but so my son was pointing out to me that in less than one month, less than one month from today I will enter into my sixth decade.

See how much white there is down here? And I think I'm finally getting once you get into your second half century one thing I can say I really appreciate I've had many people over my lifetime express love and appreciation for what I do in the ministry and all the rest of the stuff but you know the people I really appreciate?

Is the people who have been steadfast and consistent in their prayer and support. They're always there. It's not the gushiness. It's the consistency over time. And Jesus is going to say here, loved his disciples to the end.

Completely. It's one thing to profess it. It's one thing to use the language. For some folks it's really important. I understand that. But real love lasts because it is a mindset and it's a commitment.

Love the Lord your God. That doesn't mean that every single day your feelings of God are gushiness. That's one of the problems with mysticism from my perspective. Is it replaces commitment and consistency over time with the need to constantly be revving up your emotional batteries.

And there's entire denominations where the essence of quote-unquote worship is revving up the emotional batteries. Gotta get all emotional on Sunday and then you slowly... and then Wednesday you get a little bump and then... and then Sunday and then...

It's just this roller coaster of emotion. Now God made us as emotional beings, but the New Testament teaching is that we are to be of a sound mind. Sophronismos. Discipline. And that means long-term.

Long-term. The world can tell the difference between a brief temporary assertion of emotional attachment and well you know one of the greatest things I can think of about B .B. Warfield. Some of you have never even heard of B .B. Warfield.

If you haven't I would highly recommend him to you. Benjamin Breckenridge Warfield, one of the great Princeton theologians back in late 1800s early 1900s. I've seen his grave in the Princeton Cemetery which is more of a seminary than the seminary is anymore which is more of a cemetery than the cemetery is.

But anyways he wrote some tremendous stuff. I've been greatly benefited by Warfield. But if you know his history you know that at the end of his life his wife became a complete invalid. If I recall correctly this is just a sort of a faint bell in the back of my head which is getting scary to listen to those things but I think it was actually a thunderstorm or something that started her decline.

It was very very interesting. But she became an invalid and Warfield spent the rest of his life caring for her. Now he continued to work but at a much reduced level because of his long-term commitment and we see we see those you know my my parents were married over 50 years.

I was privileged to be at their 50th wedding anniversary and we see that kind of thing we go that's how you see love. It's the long-term commitment. It's not just the young couple that just constantly pawing each other.

I mean anybody can do that. But when that young couple then grows old together that's the kind of commitment that demonstrates real love and I think that self-sacrificial love that we see within the Christian community is a fulfillment of what Jesus says here.

Not the kind of love that our society talks about all the time. Well we will pick up at that point and can hopefully get into chapter 14 somewhere about where I just was. Let's close a word of prayer.

Father we do thank you for your word and we do ask that you would help us to love one another not just in word but in deed as well to pray for one another and to seek to build one another up in our faith and our service to you.

We ask that you be with us now as we go into worship. May you be honored and glorified in all that is done. We pray in Christ's name.