Love Actually - [John 13:1-20]

Bethlehem Bible Church iconBethlehem Bible Church

1 view

0 comments

00:00
Well, let me ask you, how's your love life? Isn't that,
00:08
I mean, that is the focus of so much. You go to the movies, not so much anymore, they don't do rom -coms anymore, but our entertainment focuses a lot on love.
00:18
Love songs with Delilah. Back in LA, it used to be love songs on the coast. You know, whole radio shows were just dedication and stuff like that, dedications to different people.
00:32
Books, romance novels, some better than others.
00:38
But love is a major theme of our entertainment and of our society. TV shows devoted to it.
00:47
Talk shows devoted to it. But when they talk about love, what do they really mean?
00:52
They mean romance. They mean feeling. They mean emotion. What they don't mean, generally speaking, is what the
01:00
Bible means. When it talks about love. The biblical portrayal of love is never about just emoting.
01:09
It's been said before, but think about it this way, of John 3, 16, for God so loved the world. If that was just a description of God emoting, there's no salvation in that.
01:20
God had to act. That's what love is. Love takes action. God just loving the world and just kind of pondering and thinking, boy,
01:29
I sure love the world, wouldn't save a single soul. He needed to send his son on a rescue mission to save us.
01:39
The love of God is demonstrated in action. And no human being ever embodied love as did the
01:49
Lord Jesus Christ. I would invite you to take your Bibles and open them to John chapter 13.
01:55
And this is, I entitled it, Love Actually, because as we walk through this passage, as we talk about it, not only is it kind of the leading thought in this paragraph, but love also, you could just kind of sense it in everything that Jesus does, what he says.
02:15
And I think there's even some sorrow, some genuine sorrow in this passage.
02:25
And it's born out of love, I believe. John chapter 13, and we're going to cover 20 verses.
02:32
And it's a good thing we have extra time this morning. John chapter 13, verses 1 to 20.
02:42
Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the
02:49
Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
02:58
During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Jesus Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,
03:05
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper.
03:16
He laid aside his outer garments and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.
03:23
Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
03:32
He came to Simon Peter who said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet?
03:40
Jesus answered him, what I am doing, you do not understand now, but afterward, you will understand.
03:50
Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet.
03:57
Jesus answered him, if I do not wash you, you have no share with me.
04:06
Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
04:16
Jesus said to him, the one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean.
04:24
And you are clean, but not every one of you. For he knew who was to betray him.
04:32
That was why he said, not all of you are clean. When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, do you understand what
04:44
I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right for so I am.
04:51
If I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
05:00
For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done to you.
05:08
Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
05:17
If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I'm not speaking of all of you.
05:25
I know whom I have chosen. But the scripture will be fulfilled. He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.
05:35
I am telling you this now before it takes place, that when it does take place, you may believe that I am he.
05:45
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
05:57
Well, last week we looked back at, or we looked at verses 44 to 50 of chapter 12, the end of the chapter.
06:05
It's kind of a curious interlude. It's after Jesus had kind of stepped out of the limelight, away from the crowds.
06:15
And John, also after John had explained in verses 37 to 43, the why, the unbelief of Israel, why they didn't believe.
06:26
And so in 44 to 50, we had a kind of summary of Jesus' teaching up to that point. And I said, it struck me that as he was writing it many years later, that he thought,
06:38
I better just kind of stop and kind of recap where we've been in some way to make sure that people are with me, because what's about to happen is hard, and what's just happened is hard.
06:48
So let's just get back to the basics. This morning, we're going to see six actions taken by Jesus, because love is action.
07:02
And we're going to see objective, objectively, we're going to see love and action. And subjectively,
07:08
I think we're also going to see that there is a certain, in the humanity of Jesus, there's certainly a love and emotional component.
07:17
But the primary action here, or the primary focus is on the actions that he takes.
07:24
Our first action of Jesus is that he loves his disciples.
07:30
As I said, I really think this is the controlling idea here. First, we would need to set up the setting.
07:37
Let's look at verse 1. Now, before the feast of the Passover, this is not some kind of undefined nebulous time, like at the end of chapter 12.
07:48
This is Thursday evening, right before Passover, or right at the cusp of Passover.
07:56
They're about to celebrate this week -long holiday. And to be more specific, it's evening, it's dinner time, it's supper time.
08:04
And we're literally hours away from the crucifixion. And when you think about that, it's kind of amazing to think how much more
08:14
John has here to go, we have many more chapters to go before he's arrested, let alone before he's crucified.
08:24
Now, this is known as the Upper Room Discourse. Why? Why is it called the Upper Room Discourse? We certainly couldn't tell from the
08:31
Gospel of John. Well, the answer is in the Gospel of Mark. If you want to turn to Mark 14 for a moment.
08:38
Mark 14. We could do a lot more study and kind of a comprehensive look at what the four
08:53
Gospels have to say about this. But I'm going to try to stay in the Gospel of John as much as I can. But I thought it was just kind of important to set this up.
09:01
And some of the details will help us as we walk through this. Mark 14, verses 12 to 17.
09:10
And on the first day of unleavened bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the
09:22
Passover, the Passover dinner? Excuse me. Verse 13.
09:28
And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, go into the city, that is to say, Jerusalem, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you.
09:37
Follow him. And wherever he enters, say to the master of the house, the teacher says, where is my guest room where I may eat the
09:47
Passover with my disciples? And he will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready there, prepare for us.
09:59
And the disciples set out and went into the city and found it just as he had told them.
10:04
And they prepared the Passover. And when it was evening, he came with the 12.
10:12
Excuse me. So here we are at the last supper. Not quite like the big painting that some of you may have on your walls.
10:19
But this is the last supper that Jesus eats with the disciples. Back in John chapter one,
10:29
I just wanted to set that. And like I said, some of these details will help us as we go through this.
10:37
Back in John chapter one, again, talking about the time, John writes this.
10:42
He says, when Jesus knew that his hour, that is to say the time when he was going to be dying, knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
10:56
And the apostle John portrays Jesus just as he is in control of all that is happening, knowing everything that's happening.
11:05
And because he knows that his time is limited, that he has very few hours left with these men, these disciples, the ones who are going to be responsible, just think about this.
11:18
They're just in less than 24 hours. They're going to lose their master, their Lord, their teacher.
11:24
And they are then going to be responsible for spreading the message of the gospel all around the world.
11:29
Now he's going to come back and give them some more instruction, but he now is preparing them.
11:36
He's kind of putting some steel in their backbone, as it were, trying to get them ready.
11:44
And he's going to tend to them until the very last moment of his life.
11:50
Now, if you knew that you just had a few hours to live, what would you do? What would you be focused on?
11:57
And of course, if you think about it, and it's kind of somber to think about, but if you thought, well,
12:03
I'm okay. I know I'm going to be dying in less than 24 hours. What would I do? Well, you could think
12:08
I'd go skydiving. I'd go do this. I'd do that. I hope nobody would think that.
12:14
Or you'd be thinking, I want to spend as much time with the ones that I love as I possibly can. I want to prepare them for my leaving.
12:21
I want to make sure that everything's in order. And if that's true of you, well, how much more is it true of God incarnate?
12:30
And John notes that the disciples were his own. They were given to him by the
12:36
Father. He had chosen them. He had prayed over them. He had spent three plus years, three and a half years with them.
12:44
He prayed all night before he chose them. And then he spent nearly every single day with them, eating with them, doing everything with them.
12:52
They were his students. They were his constant companions. They were, in many ways, his brothers.
13:02
And they were certainly his friends. And of course, Judas was also there.
13:10
Verse 2, during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him.
13:20
I was just reading that this morning. I just thought, how would you like to be Simon? You know, his father.
13:28
My son, the betrayer. But it'll soon become clear that Jesus knows of Judas' intent to betray him.
13:39
And I think, as a human, as a man, as somebody who'd spent all this time with him, that had to be difficult, knowing that Judas was going to betray him.
13:53
But Judas is there, dutifully, just with all the other guys. They, the other 11, were all happy to be with the master, to be celebrating this wonderful feast with him.
14:07
But look, Judas already, it was already in his heart to betray him. He was already making the arrangements.
14:16
He was already thinking it over. He was ready to pull the trigger. And we're going to see, in the not too distant future, we're not going to see it today, we'll see it next week, that he actually does go and do it.
14:29
It's in his heart. It comes to fruition in verse 27. From Monday to Thursday, what has changed for Judas?
14:40
The triumphal entry, the great procession, all the people, Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna. And I really think that Judas thought his ship had come in, that this was it.
14:50
And then, as he watches Jesus not try to take advantage of the situation, from Judas' perspective, but squander the opportunity,
14:59
Jesus doesn't know what he's doing. This is not the right guy, because Judas is not a believer.
15:07
But the other guys don't know that. First one is he loved them.
15:15
He spent time with them. He invested himself in them right to the end. Our second action,
15:21
Jesus humbled himself. First, notice how John stresses again
15:27
Jesus' heavenly roots, that is to say that he came from heaven, and his sovereignty. Look at verse 3.
15:33
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God.
15:41
Now, who can say, who in this room can say that they came from God? No one can.
15:48
This is unique to Jesus. As eternally God, he alone came from the
15:54
Father's side and came to earth. He's the only one who's going to return.
15:59
We'll go there, but we're not returning. But the
16:06
Father had given all things into his hands. Nothing was outside of his control. Now, consider the setting again.
16:18
Everything, just as Mark said, everything was ready for the dinner. There was one thing that was missing, though.
16:29
All the stuff was out there. The thing missing was a servant, somebody to wait on them, somebody to wash their feet.
16:43
Now, as you may know, you know, it was customary. They didn't sit at big high tables. I really like the big high ones.
16:50
They didn't sit at tables like that. They reclined at lower tables. And I would get down and show you, except I couldn't get back up.
16:59
They would sit at lower tables and they would recline on one another. Now, just think, after you're walking through the streets of Jerusalem, the dirty, dusty streets of Jerusalem, not nicely paved, but dirt, desert dirt, a lot of wind.
17:15
And even if it's raining, then your feet get muddy. And you're wearing these sandals because it isn't super cold most of the time.
17:21
So you're wearing sandals and your feet get filthy. Absolutely filthy.
17:28
Now, imagine again that you're at this table and you're all kind of semi -reclining and leaning on each other.
17:34
And people just have these dirty, nasty feet. So it's no wonder they had this, you know, habit, this custom of foot washing.
17:45
And it's also no wonder, if you think about it, that, you know, there would be a chain of slaves. Well, who do you suppose would get stuck on foot washing?
17:52
It's like, you know, when you're in the army and you get kitchen patrol, you have to clean the pots and pans.
17:58
Nobody wants that job. Or in the Air Force or the Marines or whatever. Nobody wants that job, right? And who gets the job?
18:08
The person lowest in seniority. The lowest slave would be assigned to wash the feet of the guests at dinner.
18:18
Because it was horrible. It wasn't like, you know, they put on these rubber gloves and had these wonderful brushes and just kind of, it wasn't like that.
18:26
You just got in there with your hands and just washed their feet in this water. So now, without turning to all the different passages where the disciples argued about who was the greatest or who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom of God, think about the incredible pride it took to have those sorts of arguments.
18:55
Many writers think that they'd had one of those discussions right before they came to the Last Supper here.
19:01
So they enter this room, there's no slave there to wash their feet. They're all going to recline at this table.
19:08
And I could almost guess, have you ever been in one of those situations where you know there's, you know, everybody's in the room and there's something that obviously needs to get done.
19:15
Like maybe a child just threw up and the parents aren't there and everybody's looking at it going, okay, who's going to clean up?
19:21
You know, somebody's got to do that. And y 'all just kind of have a stare down. Well, you're the grandfather.
19:29
And I just kind of picture it and I think, you know what?
19:36
They're all like, well, I'm not going to do this, okay? I know I'm not the least of the disciples.
19:44
I'm not the low man on the totem pole. I'm not going to stoop down to doing that.
19:50
And you know, it really should be that guy. You know, they're just going to look at whoever they think should do it, right?
20:01
Of course, the spiritual answer is, you know, I was willing, but I just want to give the other guys a chance to step up and serve.
20:09
I figured, you know, Peter hasn't done anything for a while. Maybe he should do it. But the humility of Jesus, the willingness to be humiliated, even in front of the disciples is really breathtaking.
20:26
Verse 4, he rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.
20:40
Basically, he strips to his underwear, takes a towel and just wraps it around himself. This is dirty, nasty, demeaning work.
20:53
Verse 5, then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
21:03
Dirty water, mud would be all over his hands and his arms. If he would have had clothing on, it would be all over his clothing as he scrubs the feet of his surprised disciples.
21:24
First action, Jesus loves his disciples. Secondly, he humbled himself. There's really almost nothing lower than what he just did.
21:35
Third action, he corrects Peter. Jesus corrects Peter. Peter is a remarkable character in Scripture.
21:44
If we didn't have the historical record of how the Lord transforms him and uses him, we would never guess.
21:51
You would never look at Peter in the early stages of Jesus' ministry and go, that guy, that's going to be the guy who preaches
21:58
Pentecost. That's going to be the guy that leads the church. This is going to be a major figure in Christianity.
22:07
You wouldn't think that because he's got issues. But he's also the leader of the disciples.
22:17
He has remarkable enthusiasm. Judgment, sometimes not so great. He makes a confession about Jesus being the
22:27
Lord. When the Lord says, who do men say that I am? You are the Christ, the Son of the Holy God. Jesus says, you know, blessed are you,
22:36
Simon bar Jonah, Simon, the son of Jonah. Because the spirits revealed that to you.
22:43
And then sometime later, what does Peter say? He rebukes Jesus. He rebukes
22:49
Jesus. All enthusiasm, not much self -control.
23:04
A few hours from now, Peter's going to boast of his love for Jesus.
23:10
Everyone else may abandon you. Everybody else might deny you, but not me. I'm going to stand right by you.
23:16
I'm going to be with you to the end. And then he denies him three times. And on this occasion, in the upper room,
23:22
Peter is true to form. Jesus comes to Simon Peter. It's Simon's turn to get his feet washed.
23:35
Simon Peter says, Lord, do you wash my feet? And the English really fails to capture the emphasis of the
23:42
Greek. It would have to read more like this. And this is almost hard for me to read, but it would have to be more like this.
23:48
Lord, do you my feet wash? It's the juxtaposition between you and my.
23:57
That's just, he's underlining it. When he says this, he's like, he's incredulous. This whole idea that Jesus would wash his feet.
24:06
He doesn't want anything wrong with it. Or he doesn't want any part of it. This is wrong. Jesus should not be doing this.
24:13
Again, this is, this is Jesus, the master. And this is the lowest possible thing to do.
24:24
Jesus initial rebuke is subtle. Verse seven, Jesus answered him.
24:30
What I am doing, you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand. Well, right at that moment, it seems kind of shocking.
24:41
So for Jesus to say right now, you don't get it, but later on you will get it. Okay. What's he, what does he mean though?
24:52
In retrospect, after the crucifixion, after the resurrection, as they reflect back on that evening, what are they going to be thinking about?
25:01
They're going to think about the amazing thing that God in the flesh, when none of the other guys were willing to do anything, even though it was the right thing to do.
25:12
Jesus stooped down and scrubbed their feet. They're going to think about the humility of Jesus.
25:19
They were too proud to do it. But the one who had every right to be proud, lowered himself.
25:26
And served. And of course, we wouldn't really expect
25:31
Peter to get subtle. Subtle was not something he understood. Look at verse eight.
25:36
Peter said to him, you shall never wash my feet. So it's like,
25:43
I don't care if I'm going to understand it later. Right now, I'm just, I'm refusing. That is not going to happen.
25:49
In fact, Peter uses the most emphatic language possible. He basically,
25:55
I mean, to put it in the vernacular, he's like, no,
26:00
Jesus, no, no, no, no infinity. No, no way. Times infinity.
26:07
It's not going to happen. Peter drew a big red line.
26:13
You may not cross. You may not pass. It is not happening. Well, Jesus' second rebuke is more direct.
26:22
Again, verse eight, Jesus answered him. If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.
26:31
Jesus is not merely talking about a foot washing. When he says, if I do not wash you, it's not just talking about removing the grime off of Peter's feet.
26:44
He's talking about a spiritual washing. A being cleansed from the guilt of sin.
26:53
To not have a share or a part, as other translations would say, meant that Peter would no longer be a disciple.
27:01
That he wouldn't be a follower of Jesus. Peter understood that part.
27:08
Maybe that's all he understood, but it had the desired impact. You know, the idea of not being one of Jesus' followers, too much for him.
27:17
Peter does a complete 180. He just, he's like, okay, I drew my red line. Well, now
27:22
I'd like to erase that and just kind of give you the green light. Look at verse nine. Simon Peter said to him,
27:30
Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. I hope
27:36
I wasn't out of line with that whole bit about, you shall never, ever, ever, ever in a million years do that. Because I didn't really mean it.
27:45
And to show my devotion, to show you how much I love you. I don't just want you to do my feet.
27:51
Just kind of give me the whole works. My hands, my head, the whole nine yards. He doesn't want to miss a thing.
28:03
Peter was foolish at times, but he was devoted to Jesus all the time.
28:08
And he really shows his love for Jesus right here. The idea of being apart from him was not something he wanted to even contemplate.
28:19
And then Jesus reveals more of his meaning in verse 10. Jesus said to him, the one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean.
28:31
The one who has bathed really, it doesn't give the right sense.
28:37
Because it makes it sound like we do it ourselves. It's really more passive than that. And it's a perfect tense participle, which means this perfect tense.
28:50
One -time action with ongoing results. I came to life, right?
28:58
It started at one point and has ongoing, although non -permanent results in the case of life, but this has permanent results.
29:06
The one who has bathed means it's permanent. One -time action with ongoing permanent results.
29:15
Means to have been cleaned from the stain of sin by Jesus. The judicial guilt has been removed.
29:24
We can say it this way. Once saved, always saved. Once forgiven, always forgiven.
29:30
Once in Christ, always in Christ. Once completely clean, always completely clean.
29:39
But he says, well, or you might be thinking, well, then what about the feet? Why does he say that, you know, you still have to get your feet washed?
29:46
This is a, it's a metaphor. And what he's saying is, like the repetitive collection of dirt, as you walk around Jerusalem, as you get your feet all dirty and your sandals all muddy and everything else, you still need, you're going to sin as you walk through life.
30:03
And you need the cleaning of confession, repentance and sanctification. The removal of dirt from the flesh as it were.
30:11
You have to get rid of that stuff. But you are no longer guilty of your sin.
30:18
And we know that because if we keep reading, we see what he means in verse, the second part of verse 10 here, when he basically says the disciples were all regenerated except for one, verse 10.
30:33
And you are clean. It's the plural, all of you. But not every one of you.
30:43
For he knew who was to betray him. So we know now that he's been using this as a spiritual metaphor.
30:48
And he's talking about spiritual cleanliness. And he's washing Judas's feet too.
30:54
He doesn't leave Judas's feet unclean and go, see, there's the guy. That'd be pretty obvious. He doesn't do that.
31:06
There's no joy in this. There's no joy in the heart of Jesus knowing that the betrayer is there, knowing that he's not clean.
31:15
How do we know that? Because God does not rejoice what? In the death of the wicked. Judas meant or Jesus meant
31:28
Judas Iscariot, but that doesn't become obvious to the disciples just yet.
31:35
Our third action. That was our third action. Fourth action. Jesus taught the disciples. He taught the disciples.
31:41
Look at verse 12. When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments, he resumed his place.
31:48
Oh, and resumed his place. He said to them, do you understand what I have done to you? Now it'd be possible to see this just as a nice gesture, right?
31:57
He just washed our feet. Wasn't that nice of him to do that? But Jesus isn't letting it go like that.
32:04
Look at verse 13. You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right for so I am. If I then your
32:10
Lord and teacher, see how he switched the word order from teacher and Lord to Lord and teacher.
32:15
He wants to emphasize his Lordship. His, in fact, his deity have washed your feet.
32:21
You also ought to wash one another's feet as their teacher, let alone their
32:29
Lord. It was socially inappropriate for him to wash their feet. But his willingness to humble himself and to serve his own disciples, his own creatures, right?
32:43
Isn't that wild to think Jesus is sitting there with them? And he knew them intimately. Why? Because he was their creator.
32:53
His willingness to serve even his creature shows the love of God. Hendrickson says this.
32:59
He says, if the Lord of glory is willing to be girded around with a towel, having taken the form of a servant, actually washing and drying the feet of those who are so very below him, it ought to be easy for mere disciples to render service to one another in the spirit of genuine humility.
33:20
Now, some misunderstand this and they want to make this a ceremonial washing. It's a, it's a new ordinance to go alongside baptism and the
33:30
Lord's table to be practiced by the church. We don't agree.
33:36
And I, and I think we can, we'll see that here in the context. In fact, if you look at verse 15, why we don't practice this for I have given you an example, not an ordinance that you also should do just as I have done to you.
33:55
Now, if the goal was to have the church practice this, we would see some further instruction by the apostles in one of the letters to the churches, or we would see examples of it in Acts, something like that.
34:12
However, Jesus says it's an example, an example of what? Again, it's a spiritual lesson.
34:20
Physical action with a spiritual theme. He had served them and he wanted them to serve others and each other for us, we are to emulate his humility, his willingness to serve others.
34:37
We can never wash away the sins of another, but we can serve them. We can bear their burdens.
34:43
We can put them first. We can consider them more important than ourselves.
34:49
Isn't that what Jesus was doing? I mean, when we read Philippians 2, we can almost.
34:56
Paul wasn't here at the last supper, but I'm sure he was told about it and taught about it.
35:03
We can almost see in Jesus service here.
35:08
We can almost see that in Philippians 2, how he humbled himself. And if Jesus could serve the disciples, surely they could serve one another.
35:17
Look at verse 16, truly, truly, verily, verily. Jesus says this whenever he's going to introduce a maxim, a rule, something that is very important.
35:30
He says, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him here.
35:40
It's very basic. The one who is sent is not greater than the one who sends him.
35:52
And he says, you guys are not greater than me. Therefore, this applies to you. This example applies to you.
35:57
If I can serve you, then you ought to serve one another. And there's an objective truth here.
36:05
Look at verse 17. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
36:13
We can put it this way. Whether serving somebody else makes you feel good or not is not the point here.
36:20
You are objectively blessed. You know, if you say, I felt blessed, I don't really care. But you are blessed by God when you serve others.
36:29
That's the, that's the point of the text here. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
36:36
If you know that you are to serve one another and you do them, then God has blessed you, regardless of how you feel about something.
36:44
Our feelings aren't really relevant to it. Jesus says that you're supposed to serve others, or that if you know you're supposed to serve others and you do it, you are blessed by God as a result.
36:55
Whether or not you have any sense of that or not, God objectively blesses you. So, so far, actions.
37:04
Jesus loved his disciples. Number two, Jesus humbled himself. Number three, Jesus corrected
37:09
Peter. Number four, Jesus taught the disciples. Number five, Jesus identifies the traitor or goes a long way, gives some clues as to who the traitor is.
37:21
And I think there's a kind of a heaviness, almost a weariness as we read verse 18.
37:28
I'm not speaking of all of you. I know whom I have chosen, but the scripture will be fulfilled.
37:38
Again, I don't think there's any particular joy in this. And he hasn't overtly identified Judas Iscariot yet.
37:46
And in fact, I can't help but thinking, you know, they're all sitting there. They're all participating in this dinner.
37:51
And they must be wondering, well, who is it? Right. He says, I'm not speaking of all of you, but there's only 12 of them in the room.
38:01
Well, who isn't he talking about? And I could almost guarantee you that nobody in that room, other than Jesus thought it was
38:12
Judas. Judas was the only Judean. He was the only one who had like any social sophistication.
38:19
They were simple Galileans. He was the one from around Jerusalem. He was the one with the better education.
38:32
Their minds must be like searching, trying to figure it out. And he gives them that clue there. He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.
38:45
And this is a reference to the betrayal of David by Ahithophel. Now in the mind of the ancient
38:54
East to a person from that part of the world, to betray one's dinner host was unthinkable.
39:01
It was so low. There's nothing worse you could do than eat a meal with somebody and then basically stab them in the back.
39:08
Don't turn there. I'm going to read it. Psalm 55 verse 12 to 14 says this, for it is not an enemy who taunts me.
39:20
Then I could bear it. It is not an adversary who deals insolently with me.
39:25
Then I could hide. Then I could hide from him.
39:31
But as you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend, we used to take sweet counsel together.
39:39
Within God's house, we walked in the throng. And that's a reflection on Ahithophel.
39:49
But this is the passage that Jesus is citing. Psalm 41 9. Listen, even my close friend in whom
39:56
I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
40:04
I think Ahithophel is certainly a forerunner, kind of a foreshadowing of Judas Iscariot.
40:12
And unsurprisingly, the divine author of scripture, Jesus, knows his word well. Ahithophel's ending,
40:20
I'm going to edit this a little bit. Listen to just how he dies.
40:25
When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and went off home to his own city.
40:35
He set his house in order and hanged himself. And he died and was buried in the tomb of his father.
40:44
So Judas would also die. Again, none of the disciples knew that Judas was the traitor.
40:51
He was trusted. They put him in charge of the treasury. He was their friend. They spent all this time with him.
40:57
They had no doubt of his loyalty. In fact, I'm sure that if they were called into court and asked to swear to the loyalty and the truthfulness and the trustworthiness of Judas Iscariot, they all would have done it.
41:11
They would have been great character witnesses for him because they didn't know his heart. All they saw was what he did.
41:21
And in a short while, Judas would be revealed and would put his treachery on full display.
41:30
But again, see the love that Jesus has for his disciples. Verse 19. I'm telling you this now before it takes place, that when it does take place, and he's talking about the treachery of Judas Iscariot, you may believe that I am he.
41:47
We know that when Jesus is crucified, the disciples are devastated, that they scatter.
41:54
Can you imagine that if they believe that Judas' betrayal, when he gets arrested here in a few hours, had caught
42:01
Jesus by surprise? If they thought that Judas had won, that he had somehow pulled the wool over Jesus' eyes and Jesus was caught unawares.
42:13
If they thought that Jesus had actually been defeated. And Jesus says,
42:20
I want you to know right now that when this happens, I am he. Some of you may have the last word there, he, in italics.
42:33
Maybe even in parentheses. There's a reason for that. It's because it doesn't exist. It's just put there to help us with the
42:40
English. It's I am. That you may believe I am.
42:49
He wanted them to trust in him. They wanted... He wanted them to trust in God.
42:55
God in the flesh. Not in the circumstances that they saw, but in him. No matter what transpired.
43:03
And now that he's prophesied this, when this happens, they're going to say, wait a minute, Jesus warned us about that.
43:13
Finally, six action. He previews the ministry of the apostles. It's going to be very fast. Verse 20. Truly, truly,
43:19
I say to you, whoever receives the one I send, receives me. And whoever receives me, receives the one who sent me.
43:26
He's just encouraging them. Listen, they don't even know this yet. He's going to be gone and he's sending them.
43:35
And when they are received, it's the same as receiving Jesus. And if you receive
43:41
Jesus, it's the same as receiving the father. You're going to be ambassadors for me. You're going to be my ambassadors, my messengers, my apostles.
43:49
And when people receive you, it's going to be like when they receive me, the ambassador, the disciple, the son, the apostle of the father.
44:09
Well, in this text this morning, there are many applications to everyday life and our relationships and our homes, even here at church.
44:19
Again, I just think, you know, how many times are we in a situation where you just look around the room wondering, who's going to take this one?
44:26
I don't want to do this. Who's going to volunteer for this? In the army, because I say the army, because that's what the branch
44:34
I was in, you know, what's the rule? Don't volunteer for anything. It shouldn't be that way.
44:41
In the church, we should humble ourselves, be willing to serve one another.
44:48
How is your love life? Jesus taught us to love one another, to serve one another.
44:55
I mean, if all we did was emote, that wouldn't be of any use. We are to sacrificially love one another.
45:02
We're to consider others more important than ourselves. We're to speak the truth in love, not to just remain silent.
45:09
The easiest thing to do when you see somebody err, to see somebody in error, to see somebody in sin, is what?
45:15
Not to say anything. But to come alongside and speak the truth in love, to correct them, as Jesus did with Peter many times.
45:29
It's the right thing to do. We want to edify, we want to build one another up, and we have to speak the truth.
45:38
We're also to make disciples just as Jesus did. That's the commandment, right? How do we do that?
45:44
It involves teaching them, just as Jesus was doing with his disciples. The good news is, if you're failing in any of these areas, if you're not doing things that you ought to be doing,
45:55
Jesus died for those sins. And there's plenty of time to repent and change to do the right thing.
46:06
Now, I'm going to do what you're told never to do in seminary. I'm going to close with another passage.
46:15
One that would be very familiar. You won't have to turn there because it's read at like 80 % of the weddings.
46:24
And I want you to think about these words as we just think of the actions of the Lord Jesus Christ in the upper room. 1
46:29
Corinthians 13 verses 4 to 8. Love is patient and kind.
46:38
Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way.
46:47
It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
46:57
Love bears all things. Even betrayal. Believes all things.
47:06
Hopes all things. Endures all things. Love never ends.
47:15
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the perfect example of the
47:20
Lord Jesus Christ, who though he existed as God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be held onto, to be clung to.
47:43
But he made himself a slave, the lowest of slaves, and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.
48:02
Father, we thank you for the love of Jesus Christ, for his perfect obedience, his submission to you in all things, that that record of perfect obedience might be credited to us is an amazing thing.
48:19
Father, you grant the obedience of Jesus to us by faith, just as you take our sins away and place them on the
48:29
Lord Jesus Christ by faith. His life for our life.
48:39
His death that we might be forgiven of all our sins.
48:46
Then you raised him on the third day to demonstrate that payment in full had been made for all of our sins.
48:57
What great and marvelous news. Father, let us joyfully proclaim these truths.