Lars Larson Live Stream

First Baptist Church Leominster iconFirst Baptist Church Leominster

2 views

0 comments

00:11
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ...signals
00:48
quite a significant change in the narrative of this gospel. With the conclusion of John chapter 12, the public ministry of our
00:57
Lord Jesus came to an end. And before us now with John 13 begins an account of the last few days of our
01:05
Lord's earthly ministry. This is in the midst of the
01:10
Passion Week, just prior to his arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection. And what we have is a record of our
01:19
Lord's personal and private ministry to his disciples. And with that in view,
01:25
I want us to consider a few introductory remarks about what is before us.
01:32
First, let's consider the private ministry of Jesus to his disciples.
01:38
It's really in the next five chapters of John's gospel, John chapter 13 through chapter 17.
01:45
Through the interaction of our Lord with his disciples, we'll be able to consider how we, you and I, may grow closer to our
01:54
Lord and to one another as well as his disciples. There's a great emphasis of our
02:00
Lord on disciples loving one another. We'll also give attention, great attention, to the person and work of the
02:08
Holy Spirit. For in these chapters before us, there is more information about the
02:14
Holy Spirit than any other place in the Bible. And so I think that we'll find that a very rewarding, beneficial study.
02:25
And then also, of course, in these chapters we'll consider some of the deepest thoughts and affections of our
02:31
Lord Jesus as he bears his soul before his Father, particularly in that high priestly prayer of John chapter 17.
02:41
And so I've been looking forward to these chapters for some time now, and I think we'll receive benefit from it.
02:49
Now, most of the information that we have in these chapters, John 13 through 17, is not found in the other three
02:58
Gospels, the synoptic Gospels. And curiously, there is information in the synoptic
03:05
Gospels that is not repeated here in John's Gospel. J .C.
03:11
Ryle wrote of the differences between the synoptics and this fourth Gospel. A careful reader of the four
03:18
Gospels can hardly fail to remark that in St. John's account of the last six days of our Lord's ministry, many things mentioned by Matthew, Mark, and Luke are entirely omitted.
03:29
The parable of the two sons, of the householder who let out or rented out his vineyard, of the wedding garment, of the ten virgins, of the talons, of the sheep and goats are left out, the second cleansing of the temple, the cursing of the bearded fig tree, the public discussion with the chief priests and elders about John's baptism, the silencing of the
03:52
Pharisees, Sadducees, and the lawyers or scribes, the public denunciation to the multitude of the scribes and Pharisees.
04:00
All these interesting matters are found in or other of the three Gospels, but passed over in silence in the fourth.
04:07
We cannot doubt that there were wise reasons. But the most striking thing in St.
04:14
John's narrative at this point is the entire absence of our Lord's famous prophecy upon the
04:20
Mount of Olives, the Olivet Discourse, and the institution of the Lord's Supper. Both these interesting portions of our
04:28
Lord's last doings before his crucifixion, which are most fully given in the first three Gospels, are completely omitted in the fourth.
04:37
So the fourth Gospel is unique among the four. Perhaps the most significant distinction between John's Gospel and the synoptics is the absence of any mention by John of the establishment of the
04:54
Lord's Supper. There was a testimony of an early church writer, and I was remembering this from my seminary days.
05:01
I didn't take the time to research the identity of this early church writer, but it was back in the second century.
05:07
He spoke about John writing his Gospel, that John purposely intended to include things in his fourth
05:16
Gospel that were not found in the synoptic Gospels. He purposely was attempting to fill it out.
05:24
And I think that's probably a true statement, that the Lord inspired John to pen these words, where we have information that we do not have in the other three
05:37
Gospels. Now, let's consider John's dating of the crucifixion.
05:42
This is probably the most significant, and I put the word problem in quotation marks as we begin this portion of John's Gospel.
05:56
One of the major issues that's debated is how to understand
06:02
John's timing of the crucifixion of Christ. It's clear that the synoptic
06:07
Gospels record our Lord's Last Supper, His arrest and trials to be begun the evening of the
06:14
Passover. They had the Passover meal, the Institute of the Lord's Supper.
06:20
Mark 14 .12 reads, And on the first day of unleavened bread, that would have been the first of seven days that signaled the onset of the
06:29
Passover, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the
06:37
Passover? It's argued that this preparation for the
06:42
Passover would have been done the day before the festive meal, the day of preparation. It's well attested that the
06:49
Passover in that year occurred beginning at sundown on Thursday of that week and concluded with sundown on Friday.
06:59
And that's, of course, how the Jews assessed a day from sundown to sundown.
07:06
As one wrote, in that particular year, the Passover ran from about 6 p .m. Thursday to about 6 p .m.
07:13
Friday. And again, this is one of those things that can be clearly attested because of the lunar calendar and the phases of the moon.
07:21
The preparations for the meal would have been done on the day before, that being Wednesday. And so it is universally acknowledged that according to the synoptics,
07:31
Jesus was arrested on Thursday evening after the Passover meal, which would have been on the 15th of the month
07:39
Nisan, Jewish month of Nisan, according to the Jewish calendar. However, there are many biblical scholars that believe
07:47
John, in his gospel, set forth the Last Supper of Jesus to have been on Wednesday evening of that week, the 14th of Nisan, not
07:57
Thursday evening, which would mean that Jesus was crucified on Thursday at the very time when the
08:03
Jews would have been sacrificing their lambs for the Passover meals. And so it's commonly argued, and I'll make an allusion to this, that John intentionally changed it for the day before because he wanted
08:16
Jesus to be shown to be dying on the cross at the very moment when they were sacrificing the
08:22
Passover lambs throughout the land. George Beasley Murray, who was quite a noted
08:27
Baptist scholar in the last century, wrote these words, and he described the problem, and I put this in quotation marks.
08:37
The last discourse opens with a statement of time. It was just before the Passover festival, during the meal
08:43
Jesus rises. The evangelist, that would have been John, appears to suggest that the farewell meal in which
08:50
Jesus instructed his disciples took place on the eve of the Passover, see, not the
08:55
Passover, in other words, the day before the feast. He later reports the anxiety of the high priests in the trial before Pilate not to defile themselves and thereby prevent it from celebrating the
09:08
Passover. The Synoptic Gospels, on the other hand, indicate that Jesus celebrated with his disciples the
09:15
Passover. There appears to be a clash of dates here, and scholars divide themselves over which tradition is right and which is wrong.
09:25
Here are the words of Donald Carson, and I believe his commentary on John is the best one available by Reformed scholars who have high regard for the accuracy and inspiration of the
09:39
Scriptures. Seven verses in John's Gospel, however, have convinced most scholars that John places the
09:45
Last Supper the night before, on Wednesday evening, the 14th of Nisan. This reckoning assigns
09:53
Jesus' crucifixion to Thursday afternoon, at the time of the slaughtering of the Passover lambs in the temple in preparation for the
10:01
Passover that lay just ahead. Theologically, this means that the Last Supper cannot easily be construed as a
10:08
Paschal meal. You understand what he's saying? We talk about a supper here, right, in John 13.
10:14
They are saying this is not the Passover meal, but the day before the Passover meal. Theologically, this means the
10:21
Last Supper cannot easily be construed as a Paschal meal, in other words, Passover meal, even if the link between Jesus' death and the slaughter of the lambs might be considered a significant gain.
10:32
Historically, this reckoning introduces such a jarring contradiction with the synoptics that most commentators have felt it necessary either to approve of one scheme while condemning the other, or to propose some kind of resolution.
10:46
It's a problem among biblical scholars. F .F. Bruce, a very world -class
10:54
New Testament scholar, and again, a conservative man in the 20th century, he addressed the problem in this way.
11:02
The opening time note, it was before the festival of the Passover, refers not simply to the words immediately following, but to the upper room narrative as a whole, and indeed to the record of the crucifixion which follows, as is made plain from John 18 .28.
11:18
To relate John's passion chronology with that of the synoptics who quite clearly described the
11:23
Last Passover as a Passover meal would require a separate excursus. In other words,
11:29
F .F. Bruce says we really don't have time or place to address everything about this. It is so complex, and it's so extensive.
11:38
Suffice it to say here that while John times his passion narrative with reference to the official temple date of that of the
11:45
Passover, our Lord and his disciples following, it may be, another calendar observed the festival earlier.
11:53
Our present concern is with the exegesis of what John does say, but this exegesis from time to time will bring out points of relevance to this long -standing problem.
12:05
And, by the way, the community of the Essenes down at the Dead Sea, the Dead Sea Scroll community, they followed a different calendar than the
12:14
Jews in Jerusalem. And so it is claimed that the synoptics followed the Jewish calendar, lunar calendar, of the
12:22
Jews in Jerusalem, and John followed the other calendar, the
12:28
Roman calendar, that the Essenes used. And that's where you get the different dates.
12:35
The view I would prefer to take is that John's gospel also sets the Last Supper to have been our
12:41
Lord's observance of the Passover meal. And I've known about this problem for years and years and years, but I was really encouraged to read
12:50
Donald Carson's words, where he advocated that the claim that John was presenting this meal as a day before the
12:59
Passover he thought was not accurate. And he says in his commentary he was going to show how these various seven verses that are used to argue that point are really misconstrued.
13:13
And so I'll admit my bias. You know, I'm looking forward to reading Carson's arguments that it is the same day.
13:22
And because we obviously have high regard and integrity for the accuracy of Scripture.
13:29
And although the gospel writer certainly gave theological perceptions and shaped the story theologically, the
13:37
Holy Spirit caused him to do that. To say there's contradictions in dating, I really have a problem with that.
13:43
And so as we work through these chapters from time to time, we'll be revisiting this matter. But I appreciate
13:50
Carson taking this position. Now let's consider the text itself.
13:56
And this is Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. The first episode that we'll consider in detail is the
14:03
Lord washing his disciples' feet. And here there's really, and I might just interject this at point, there's really two primary emphases.
14:13
First, there is the example Jesus is showing to his disciples, just as I've served you, you need to serve one another.
14:21
But there's a second emphasis that we're not going to address until next week. And this is the whole idea of the need for ongoing sanctification of the disciples.
14:32
The need to have your feet washed. There's a spiritual dimension. We're not going to get into that today.
14:39
We're going to talk about Jesus as an example. Which he himself, John himself, declared that he was in this passage.
14:47
And so here we have our Lord Jesus doing something that would have not brought any honor to him by anybody anywhere.
14:57
And yet he humbled himself to wash the feet of his disciples.
15:03
And so here is John 13. It's a longer passage, verses 1 -17. Now before the feast of the
15:10
Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come, that he should depart from this world to the
15:15
Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
15:22
And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,
15:29
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel, and girded himself.
15:44
After that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded.
15:54
Then he came to Simon Peter, and Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet?
16:01
Jesus answered and said to him, What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.
16:07
Peter said to him, You shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered him,
16:13
If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Simon Peter said to him,
16:19
Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him,
16:25
He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean, and you are clean, but not all of you.
16:35
For he knew who would betray him, and therefore he said, You are not all clean.
16:41
So when he had washed their feet, taken his garment, sat down again, he said to them, Do you know what
16:46
I have done to you? You call me teacher and lord, and you say, Well, for so I am.
16:53
If I then, your lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash another's feet. And here it is, for I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
17:05
Most assuredly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who sent greater than he who sent him.
17:12
If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. We can consider this episode through the means of this five -point outline.
17:24
John's introduction to this portion of the gospel. Verse 1, Jesus began to wash the feet of the disciples.
17:30
Verses 2 and 3. Peter's reaction to Jesus' action. Verses 4 through 9.
17:36
We'll have to address that next floor today, Lord willing. Jesus' response to Peter's protest.
17:42
And lastly, Jesus' resultant instructions to his disciples. So let's consider verse 1.
17:49
First, John's introduction. We read of his declaration of the deep unfailing love that Jesus Christ has for his own.
18:01
Now, before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come, that he should depart from this world to the
18:07
Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
18:13
What a wonderful word, isn't it? John sets the stage for the final events of Jesus prior to his death on the cross.
18:22
The context is the Feast of the Passover. On the night of the original Passover, in the days of Moses, God sent the angel of death through the land of Egypt, bringing death upon all the firstborn of the land.
18:35
The families of Israel were spared this judgment of God by having in advance of that night slain a
18:42
Passover lamb, one for each household. The Lord passed over the home of the Israelites who had applied the blood of the lamb to the doorpost of their house.
18:52
Of Moses it was written, by faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.
19:03
The Israelite family was safe inside its home, while feasting upon the roasted sacrificial lamb, even as the
19:11
Lord executed great slaughter throughout Egypt. And with Egypt soundly defeated,
19:17
Pharaoh pronounced the immediate release of the Israelites from slavery, and their exodus commenced, which ultimately, of course, would bring them to their promised land of rest, their
19:31
Sabbath rest, being Canaan. And so the Passover was, in the
19:37
Old Testament, a type of God's salvation from the enslavement of sin, to which the death of Jesus Christ on his cross was the
19:46
New Testament anti -type. I might just interject this at this point,
19:52
I'm reading a wonderful little book written by Greg Beale, a handbook on the
19:57
New Testament use of the Old Testament, and he has it for his seminary students in his class at Westminster Seminary, and he advocates that the main hermeneutic, or manner of interpreting the
20:11
Old Testament should be one of typology, whereas most evangelicals argue we need to interpret the
20:19
Old Testament literally, and oftentimes they claim to take it literally, and the
20:25
New Testament literally, and they come up with two different conclusions, two different schemes of history. Greg Beale rightly argues no, you need to interpret the
20:33
Bible typologically. You have the Old Testament type, you have the New Testament anti -type.
20:39
And clearly the Passover is set forth in the Old Testament as a type, and the
20:44
New Testament anti -type, to which the type pictured and portrayed, was the death of Jesus on his cross.
20:52
Types were temporary, pointing to, they were shadows of the reality coming, which is the anti -type.
21:00
And so the Passover in the days of Moses was a prehistorical portrayal of what
21:08
God would accomplish through Christ on his cross. And so, the
21:13
Passover was the Old Testament type, Jesus Christ on his cross was the New Testament anti -type,
21:20
Jesus Christ is the true Passover, to which the Old Testament event and feast pointed.
21:27
As Paul wrote, for indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. And due to the application of the blood, the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, to our own lives through faith, they, of course, put the blood on the doorposts of the house, and they were safe.
21:44
We put the blood of Jesus Christ upon our lives through faith, so we've escaped the judgment of God upon us for our sin.
21:54
The death of Jesus was the sacrifice of the true Lamb of God, which takes away sin.
22:00
His death, by the way, Jesus' death on the cross was also an exodus. Israel came out of Egypt, due to the great work of judgment, sparing his people through the
22:12
Passover, and when Jesus died on his cross, he was making an exodus as well, out of this world, going to heaven.
22:22
And so just as the Israelites experienced an exodus from Egypt, the Lord Jesus, by the way, is the true
22:28
Israel of God, the faithful son of God. He, too, made an exodus.
22:33
And this is very clearly set forth in Luke's account of the Mount of Transfiguration.
22:40
You recall when Jesus was there on the mount, the three disciples, Peter, James, and John, were observing, and they saw
22:48
Moses and Elijah speaking to Jesus. Matthew says they were talking with one another, as well as Mark.
22:55
But Luke's gospel says precisely what it was they were discussing. And behold, two men were talking with him,
23:02
Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
23:09
The Greek word translated in Luke's account as departure is the
23:15
Greek word, and the first word there is the definite article, tenexodon, the exodus, literally, is what that is.
23:24
And so when Jesus died upon his cross, he experienced an exodus from this world.
23:30
Again, John wrote, now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come, that he should depart from this world to the
23:38
Father. Now, granted, John doesn't use that Greek word exodus here.
23:43
It's a different Greek word for departure, but I would argue the idea is still there within this passage.
23:50
Jesus is departing, and in a few moments we'll see he's clearly talking about a journey here upon his death.
23:58
John revealed that Jesus was mindful of his commission of the Father, that he'd been sent to die.
24:03
Jesus knew that his hour had come. John also makes mention of the motivation of Jesus that carried him on toward his destined end, having loved his own.
24:15
Some have said that his own refers to Jewish people generally, for John had written in the first chapter of his gospel,
24:22
Jesus came to his own, and his own did not receive him. And so they say that this verse,
24:29
John 13, 1, is a reference to Jesus loving the Jewish people, Israel.
24:35
But in the immediate context of John 13, clearly his own is a reference to his disciples, not
24:41
Jewish people because they're Jewish, but because of his disciples, they're followers of him.
24:47
But within the larger context of the gospel, his own refers to the elect of God, the ones that the
24:54
Father had given him from eternity, the ones for whom the Father sent him to save through his death upon his cross.
25:01
And we may see this as recently as John chapter 10, verse 14 and 15, in which
25:06
Jesus said, I am the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and I have known, and there it is, by my own.
25:14
He loved his own, and he died as a shepherd for his sheep. He didn't die for the goats.
25:20
He died to redeem his sheep, my own. As the Father knows me, even so I know the
25:26
Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And so here, his own elect, his own are the elect, chosen by God the
25:33
Father in eternity, given to his son as his people, his possession, his own.
25:40
And here in John 13 too, we read, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them on to the end.
25:46
Or is that verse 1? And so we need to recognize, of course, and we find this in many places in the
25:53
Scriptures, in many places in John's Gospel, that the Lord has a special covenant of love for his people that he does not have for all others.
26:03
And although he's loving to all, because God's very nature is love, he's loving even to his enemies.
26:10
He actually loves his people uniquely and specially. He loves them with an eternal, redemptive love.
26:17
He calls his people, my beloved. He never calls non -disciples, unbelievers, my beloved.
26:25
My beloved is a special, endearing title that the Lord has for his people.
26:31
He loves them for who they are. He doesn't just show loving actions toward them because he's a
26:38
God of love. They are actually objects of his love. And of course, if we had time, we could go in and explain the reason for that.
26:47
It's because in eternity past, when he elected people from fallen humanity to be saved, he regarded them as being in union with his son,
26:57
Jesus Christ. And the father loves his son from eternity. And because he sees his elect in Jesus Christ, he loves them too with an everlasting love.
27:08
God has a love for his people that he doesn't have for those who are not his people. Although indeed, he is loving to all.
27:15
Very important distinction because so often you hear a misrepresentation of God to the most vile, egregious sinner in the world.
27:24
It's presented as though God loves them and he just wants to cuddle up to you like you were a teddy bear or something.
27:31
And that's not the case. The loving action of God toward sinners that are outside of Christ aggravates their condemnation.
27:39
Look what God has done for you and to you, but how have you responded? And the greater the love manifest to unbelievers who die in their sin, the greater depths of hell to which they will be judged.
27:54
And yet, there's a different kind of love that he has for his people. Jesus in John 17 will later read,
28:01
Jesus declared to the father that the father has the same love for his people that he has for his son,
28:09
Jesus Christ. I think that is perhaps one of the most tremendous verses of the
28:16
Bible. God, if you're in Christ, maybe you're not a Christian, but one day you will become a
28:21
Christian. God has you on his heart. He loves you to the same degree he loves his own son,
28:29
Jesus Christ. That's because he sees you in union with him. And this is what, of course, distinguishes, because we're not more lovely than anybody else, is because positionally he regarded us as being in Jesus Christ.
28:44
Paul wrote of the special love that God has for his elect. When giving instruction to the
28:49
Christians at the Church of Colossae, Paul wrote to them, put on then as chosen ones, holy and beloved.
28:57
And then he gave instruction about having compassionate hearts, kind of humility. He described Christians in three ways.
29:04
First, they're chosen ones. They're the elect. Secondly, they're holy, positionally.
29:12
And then thirdly, he says that they are beloved ones. Let's just work through these titles or descriptions of Christians.
29:20
First, Colossians 3 .12 were described as God's chosen ones, the elect of God.
29:26
Our election speaks again of God having chosen us in eternity past that we would be recipients of his grace and salvation.
29:35
He chose us. It's true we chose Christ. Nobody becomes a Christian unless they want to and willingly do so.
29:43
But we would have never wanted to or willed to do so unless God had first dealt with us in grace.
29:50
He changed our willer, didn't he? And so we want to do what we formerly didn't want to do.
29:56
We want to come to Christ. But he had his love set upon us. We came to love
30:02
Christ when we were converted. He loved us in eternity. We came to know him when we believed on him.
30:09
He foreknew us. He knew us even in eternity. He had you on his heart.
30:16
And he determined sin was not going to damn your soul, but he was going to save you from your sin through his son,
30:22
Jesus Christ, whom he sent into the world. And so all who are saved from sin throughout human history are saved because God individually chose them in eternity that he would save them from their sin unto eternal life through his son.
30:38
God's election of us was not because he foresaw something good in us or that he knew beforehand of their own free will they would choose him.
30:50
Some people get upset when I name names, but what's his name down in Houston's name?
30:55
Flipped my mind now. Joel Osteen. I was channel surfing the other day, and I clicked him on, and I wish
31:03
I hadn't. And he was talking about the demoniac of Gadara. Remember the man who was living among the tombs?
31:10
Chains could not bind him. And Jesus went over there and delivered legion from this man's soul, and he was converted, and he wanted to go with Jesus.
31:19
Joel Osteen said there was something good in that man that Jesus saw that moved
31:26
God, moved Jesus to want to save his soul. How horrendous that there's something good about you as a sinner that moved
31:37
God to save you. That is so contrary to what scriptures tell us.
31:43
We're lost, depraved, sinful, damned, deserving of eternal hellfire, but God purposed to glorify himself in saving you from your sin.
31:55
He gets all the glory. You don't get any. If you go to heaven, he gets all the glory.
32:01
If you go to hell, it's your fault. And the scriptures clearly teach that. Here's the biblical doctrine of election.
32:09
God has chosen certain persons from fallen humanity to be recipients of his salvation, having chosen them before creation in Christ, not based on any foreseen condition or response of them, but solely due to his own good pleasure, according to the purpose of his will.
32:28
For clarification, we might mention several points with respect to this doctrine of election. Election obviously follows upon an understanding of man's total depravity.
32:40
In other words, total inability to come to God. Left on his own, even after having been instructed, admonished, persuaded, pleaded with, man would still choose to reject
32:51
God's rule over him. He's spiritually dead, both incapable and unwilling to do the things that God has commanded him.
32:59
And therefore, salvation must originate outside of him, if it's going to take place.
33:05
And this salvation originates in God's election. Secondly, there's no indication in the scriptures of a reason that God chose the ones he chose, passing over the others.
33:17
Other than it was good in his sight, and it was in accord with his purpose to glorify himself in his grace.
33:24
All of history, all of mankind, is like a stage on which God displays his glory, reveals who he is and what he's like.
33:32
And so he purposes to show his justice, his wrath, his power, in damning sinners.
33:39
Thank God, he has purposed to show his patience and his love and his wisdom and power in saving sinners through Jesus Christ.
33:48
And if you're a Christian, or one day you become a Christian, it's because God, in his own purpose and will,
33:55
I'm going to glorify my love and my mercy and my patience and my power in saving you from your sin.
34:02
He gets the glory alone for all. And then thirdly, we need to recognize election is on to salvation.
34:10
Although certainly God's election of some means is passing over others, hence the doctrine of reprobation.
34:17
Nevertheless, in the Scriptures, election is always presented positively on to salvation.
34:23
Persons are not elected to damnation, persons are elected on to salvation. And that's a very important matter.
34:32
Now secondly, in Colossians 1, or 3 verse 12, we read, Christians are holy.
34:39
Put on then as God's chosen ones elect, holy. Most of the time when we speak about being holy, we're talking about gradually over time, progressively becoming more like Jesus Christ.
34:51
And that's what the Christian life is all about. And we'll be talking about that next week.
34:56
The idea of needing our feet washed. We're to be separated from the fallen world and our attitudes and actions.
35:04
We're to be holy. That's practical holiness. That's practical sanctification.
35:11
Progressive sanctification. But the Scriptures also speak about believers being positionally holy before God.
35:19
And this describes when it says that we're holy, here in Colossians 3 .12,
35:25
it's describing this positional holiness. We are sanctified in this sense that we've been singled out and set apart.
35:34
And that's what the idea of holy means. You're set apart for the purposes of God. He has designs upon you as a
35:41
Christian that he does not have upon those that will never become Christians. This positional sanctification was a work of grace on our behalf.
35:51
Our positional sanctification occurred once for all time. It's not done in part.
35:57
One time and more full later when we became Christians. We were completely declared holy.
36:04
And that's why we're called saints. And that's what the word saint means. We're a holy one. And so we're holy positionally.
36:11
Hebrews 10 .14 speaks of this. For by one offering he, Christ, hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
36:19
And here this sanctification should be understood as positional. You've been set apart. Christ set you apart.
36:27
This was a work of grace that was accomplished on our behalf, apart from us. On behalf of us.
36:35
And so God regards us as holy. And that's why even the church at Corinth is addressed to the saints, to the holy ones at Corinth as difficult as they were in their
36:47
Christianity. We are holy. But then thirdly we see in Colossians 3 .12
36:53
we're described as beloved of God. Christians are the beloved ones of God.
36:58
Not all people are beloved of God. Oh yes, God is loving toward all people and that he does loving things for them.
37:07
God is loving to his enemies. You are to be loving to your enemies. But it's because of his very nature is love, not because he loves them as his own.
37:17
However, there's a distinction between his people and all others. He loves his own people with an everlasting love.
37:24
They are his beloved. God loves his people who are in Jesus Christ with an everlasting covenant love.
37:31
Even the same love that God the Father has for his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And I can never talk about this matter below without thinking of my old dear friend
37:41
Doug Moore who's with the Lord now from Arkansas had a practical way about him and he was teaching one day a
37:47
Sunday school class. He says, What does it mean to be loved of God? Well it means you be loved of God.
37:52
And that's exactly what is meant by that. And this is true of God's people only because of their union with Jesus Christ whom
38:01
God the Father loves supremely with an everlasting love. Matthew Henry wrote of this special love that Christ has for his people particularly for his people that are in the world.
38:14
Our Lord Jesus has a people in the world that are his own. His own for they were given him by the
38:19
Father. He has purchased them, paid dearly for them, and he set them apart for himself.
38:26
His own, for they have devoted themselves to him as a peculiar people. His own, where his own were spoken of that received him not to his touts -idous.
38:36
Those are the Greek words transliterated in English and the touts is a neuter definite article.
38:43
Touts -idous, his own persons as a man's wife and children are his own to whom he stands in constant relation.
38:51
And then second, Christ has a cordial love for his own that are in the world. He did love them with a love of good will when he gave himself for their redemption.
38:59
He does love them with a love of complacency when he admits them into communion with himself.
39:05
And though they are in this world, a world of darkness and distance of sin and corruption, yet he loves them.
39:12
He was now going to his own in heaven. The spirits of just men made perfect there, but he seems most concerned for his own on earth because they most needed his care.
39:22
The sickly child is most indulged. Wonderful. Those whom
39:28
Christ loves he loves to the end. He is constant in his love to his people. He rests in his love.
39:35
He loves with an everlasting love from everlasting in the counsels of it to everlasting in the consequences of it.
39:42
Nothing can separate a believer from the love of Christ. He loves his own. Eis telos, again
39:48
Greek word eis, the preposition onto telos, onto the end, or the finality or the completion.
39:55
Onto perfection, for he will perfect what concerns them, will bring them to that world where love is perfect.
40:04
Now, after John described the awareness of Jesus of his commission to die, and stated the motivation of Jesus to die, he loved his own, we then read that Jesus began to wash the feet of his disciples.
40:17
So we finally arrived at the substance of it, haven't we? So we're somewhat done with the introduction,
40:22
I guess. And this event is described in verses 2 through 5. Supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,
40:34
Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel, girded himself.
40:44
After that, he poured water into a base and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel which he was girded.
40:52
John first gave the context in which Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. We read that Jesus got up from supper.
41:00
It's almost like supper was interrupted by Jesus. It wasn't, perhaps, quite done.
41:07
Again, this would have been their formal Passover meal. It was as the supper was ending that the other
41:12
Gospels record that Jesus established the Lord's Supper with his disciples. And it's then we read about Judas Iscariot, Simon's son.
41:21
We read the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him.
41:28
Although the Holy Scriptures everywhere testifies it was God the Father who gave his son to die, the actual events of his betrayal, his trials, his maltreatment, his death on the cross, was due to the malice and malignant work of the devil.
41:44
Judas Iscariot was responsible for betraying our Lord and causing him to be arrested by the
41:49
Jewish authorities. But we read that it was the devil who put it in his heart to do so.
41:55
The devil had given him the idea. But certainly Judas' own evil, covetous heart complied with the devil's incitement to sin against our
42:03
Lord. Once again, Matthew Henry insightfully says, As tracing
42:09
Judas' treason to its origin, it was a sin of such a nature that it evidently bore the devil's image and superscription.
42:17
What way of access the devil has to men's hearts, and by what methods he darts in his suggestions and mingles them undiscerned with those thoughts which are the natives of the heart, we cannot tell.
42:30
But there are some sins in their own nature so exceedingly sinful to which there is so little temptation from the world and the flesh that it's plain
42:39
Satan lays the egg of them in a heart disposed to be the nest to hatch them in.
42:45
For Judas to betray such a master, to betray him so cheaply and upon no provocation with such downright enmity to God as could not be forged but by Satan himself, who thereby thought to ruin the
42:59
Redeemer's kingdom, but it did in fact not ruin his own. And that is really the incredible paradox of history, isn't it?
43:10
The devil is an evil, powerful spiritual being who is opposed to God and God's people.
43:15
Hate controls his thinking, governs his actions. The name Satan means adversary.
43:21
That is, he opposes God and his people. The title devil speaks of him as an accuser.
43:29
He is an accuser of God's people. He accuses us before others. He accuses you to yourself.
43:37
He's also called the tempter in that he incites to sin. He's able to place people in a setting or situation in which their sinful nature will be enticed.
43:47
Clearly that's what he did here with Judas. He seeks to bring our proneness to sin to a place in which there's opportunity to sin.
43:55
He's able to put ideas into people's thinking. I'm reading through Spurgeon's study bible this year and this morning.
44:03
There was a note it was either in it must have been in the opening of Micah perhaps and Spurgeon was talking about how
44:17
God has his providences but the devil also has his providences in which he can shape things and put you in a place of danger.
44:26
He's able to do this. He's able to put ideas into people's thinking. He's able to do this even with Christians.
44:34
Peter was influenced by the devil when he rejected the teaching of Jesus that he must suffer and die at Jerusalem.
44:40
Get behind me Satan. You don't desire the things of God but rather the things of man is what Jesus told Peter. And here the devil gave
44:48
Judas the idea and the opportunity to betray Jesus into the hands of those who put him to death.
44:54
And yet we should recognize the devil's limitations. Here are J. I. Packer's words from his wonderful little book.
45:02
It's very good for a lay person. Concise Theology by J. I. Packer. He wrote,
45:09
Acknowledging Satan's reality, taking his opposition seriously, noting his strategy, anything provided it not be biblical
45:17
Christianity, and reckoning on always being at war with him, this has not elapsed into a dualistic concept of two gods, one good and one evil.
45:28
And some Christians think that way and it's a terrible error. I heard one well -known evangelist of the early 20th century,
45:35
I won't mention his name, but in a book on soul winning he talked about preaching the gospel to this young lady and this young lady rejected the gospel and then shortly thereafter died and this evangelist declared that on this occasion
45:50
Satan won the battle, God lost, and he presented God and the devil as two co -equal powers, sometimes
45:59
God winning, sometimes the devil winning. That's blasphemous according to the scriptures.
46:05
And that's what he means by this dualistic concept of two gods, one good and one evil fighting it out. Satan is a creature, superhuman but not divine.
46:15
He has much knowledge and power but he's neither omniscient nor omnipotent. He can move around in ways that humans cannot but he's not omnipresent and he's already a defeated rebel having no power, no more power than God allows him and being destined for the lake of fire.
46:33
And so we need to understand the limitations that the devil has. But God has shown his infinite wisdom in foiling the devil through the cross on which his son died.
46:43
The devil instigated Judas to betray his master and the devil moved the
46:49
Jewish leaders in their hatred and machinations to put to death Jesus.
46:55
The devil thought he was winning the great victory against God by having his son crucified but the devil did not perceive the wisdom and the purpose of God to have his son die in order to destroy the devil himself, to bring
47:08
Jesus Christ his son to the throne over all things. Paul wrote of the gospel that we proclaim saying we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God which
47:18
God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this for if they had they would have not crucified the
47:27
Lord of glory. And I don't think that's just political rulers there, though in the devil too. The satanic rulers as well.
47:36
The devil did not see it coming by the devil having bruised the heel of Christ, having crucified
47:43
Jesus in accordance with Genesis 3 .15. Jesus thereby vanquished the devil deposing him having bruised his head on the cross and the devil brought it about.
47:55
The devil brought about his own destruction and his dethronement because Jesus Christ was highly exalted over him.
48:04
And so through the resurrection of Jesus Christ who's gone into heaven is at the right hand of God angels, authorities, and powers you throw the devil in there having been made subject to him.
48:15
King Jesus, a man, the God man a man is now ruling over the devil and his minions and when he purposes to save one of his elect even though he's in a dark world the devil can't stop it.
48:30
He calls him and he comes out and God translates that sinner from the kingdom of darkness the kingdom of the devil into the kingdom of his dear son according to Colossians chapter 1.
48:42
But even though the devil had this important role in moving and enabling Judas to betray our
48:48
Lord it did not remove the responsibility from the shoulders of Judas he was accountable and so as one wrote these were
48:58
Calvin's words when the evangelist says that Judas had been impelled by the devil to form the designs of betraying
49:06
Christ this tends to show the enormity of the crime for it was dreadful and most atrocious wickedness in which the efficacy of Satan was openly displayed there is no wickedness indeed that is perpetrated by men to which
49:20
Satan does not excite them but the more hideous and extrable any crime is the more ought we to view it in the rage of the devil who drives about in all possible all possible directions men who have been forsaken by God but though the lust of men is kindled into a fiercer flame by Satan's fan still it does not cease to be a furnace it contains the flame kindled within itself in other words it was the sin of Judas himself it receives with avidity the agitation of the fan so that no excuse is left for wicked men you cannot say the devil made me do it we read the devil instigating
50:02
Judas to betray Jesus revealed to Jesus he was soon to depart to be with his father this is amazing these are the words preface to the
50:11
Lord washing the feet of his disciples it's incredible when you consider it alright he knowing the father had given him all things into his hands that he was coming from had come from God and he was going to God again
50:26
Calvin wrote I'm of opinion that this was added for the purpose of informing us whence
50:31
Christ obtained such a well regulated composure of mind it was because having already obtained a victory over death he raised his mind to the glorious triumph which was speedily to follow it usually happens that men seized with fear are greatly agitated the evangelist again
50:50
John means that no agitation of this sort was to be found in Christ though he was to be immediately betrayed by Judas still he knew that the father had given all things into his hand it may be asked how then was he reduced to such a degree of sadness when he sweat blood in Gethsemane I reply both were necessary it was necessary that he should have a dread of death and it was necessary that not withstanding of this he should fearlessly discharge everything that belonged to the office of the mediator notice how our
51:23
Lord depicted his impending death on the cross as a journey we talked about that earlier it was an exodus and here he says
51:30
I'm going to the father death to him was a journey and that's how we ought to view death as well as Christians when the time comes that we face death we should view our death as a journey from this world into the presence of God and yet even though Jesus knew that his time of great suffering and death were just before him it did not take his heart and concern off his disciples this is amazing in fact it seems to have triggered his action recorded before us and so again verses 3 and 4
52:02
Jesus knowing that the father had given all things into his hands that he had come from God and was going to God what was the response he rose from supper laid aside his garments took a towel girded himself and after that he poured water into a basin began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded here we see the great voluntary humbling of our
52:27
Lord Jesus in that he washed the feet of his disciples in that day a servant would not be asked to wash the feet of his master slaves would because that was the duty of a slave but a servant wouldn't be as one wrote some ancient sources even considered the task too demeaning for servants to perform for their masters for to do such work as to be a slave and thus although ancient teachers in Judaism usually expected disciples to function as servants later rabbis allowed one caveat unlike slaves they did not tend to the teachers sandals and that was just loosening the thongs of a sandal yet alone washing feet but here our
53:13
Lord bowed himself before each one of his disciples to wash their feet let us remember too our
53:20
Lord did this even at the time he was aware he was returning to the father and that the father had given all things into his hands when he was mindful of his highest exaltation about to take place he stooped to perform the lowliest services unto his disciples this is incredible again
53:41
Donald Carson wrote Jesus a special knowledge of his father's will for him articulated in verse 1 is now repeated but with two significant additions he knew not only the time had come for him to leave the world but that he had come from God and that the father had put all things under his power and with such power and status at his disposal we might have expected him to defeat the devil in an immediate and flashy confrontation and to devastate
54:08
Judas as an unstoppable blast of divine wrath instead he washes his disciples feet including the feet of the betrayer he washed
54:16
Judas' feet Judas was still there think about that here we see that when we're aware of the great standing that God has conferred upon us as his children with the great destiny and dignity that we have the great destiny that we are going to share in the reign of Jesus Christ as heir of all things it should not ever result in us becoming proud and selfish but rather we should follow the example of our
54:47
Lord Jesus and be humble and to be in service of others and that's the example that he's showing for us here authority and positions of leadership in the kingdom of God is the occasion of greater humility and service not a cause of personal notoriety and the desire to be exalted in the minds of other people this is so contrary to the ways of the world and it ought to be characteristic of churches
55:14
Matthew Henry stated note a well grounded assurance of heaven and happiness instead of puffing a man up with pride will make and keep him very humble those that would be found conformable to Christ and partakers of his spirit must study to keep their minds low in the midst of great advancements we read in the
55:35
Old Testament of humble Abigail you remember her she you know was the wife of Nabal Nabal died the
55:45
Lord had struck him and then David King David sent for Abigail to become his wife and look what we read of Abigail in 1st
55:54
Samuel 25 when the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel she said to her
56:01
David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife she rose and bowed with her face to the ground and said behold your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my
56:13
Lord and then a wonderful Christ like attitude of this
56:18
Old Testament lady and that she was when she is about to be exalted become queen of Israel she saw her role of washing the feet of the servants of her husband the
56:33
King David there was nothing of this action of our Lord they would commend him in the eyes of others
56:40
Jesus did so in order to illustrate and demonstrate the kind of attitude and the kind of actions that should characterize us his people and this example was not only for his few apostles before him but for you and me if we be true disciples of Jesus Christ the spirit of arrogance the lack of desire or the expressed unwillingness to be humble before others and seek their well being above your own should not characterize us who are followers of Jesus Christ Jesus rose from supper and laid aside his garments on one occasion
57:15
Christ would not leave off his preaching in order to please his family but he would leave off supper to show love to his disciples he would not allow anything to hinder his service in his task at hand he removed the garment that would hinder from his service and he thereby taught us too we should take off from ourselves anything that might hinder us in our service to the
57:39
Lord's people Jesus served them all from the least to the greatest he did not skip a one and now he serves each and every one of his people who are his disciples providing everything that we need even much of what we don't necessarily need and we want he tends to give us and this teaches us that we are to be servants to all of our
58:00
Lord's disciples he washed the feet of all his disciples we are not just to be servants to some showing favor to some over others every
58:10
Christian is a new creature in Christ and therefore we are to regard them as a new creation in Christ as Paul did therefore from now on we regard no one after the flesh he's talking about his regard for Christians even though we've known
58:24
Christ according to the flesh yet now we know him thus no longer therefore as anyone is in Christ he is a new creation old things have passed away we often apply that to ourselves
58:36
I'm a new creation old things have passed away but actually Paul is applying it to someone other than you this is the regard you're to have for that person he is a new creation in Christ she is a new creation in Christ old things have passed away therefore you ought to regard and treat that person differently than you did before not according to the flesh but because they're in Christ and that is
58:59
God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses to them and he's committed to us this word of reconciliation and so the
59:10
Lord gives us an example he illustrates for us, demonstrates for us what disciples are to be like in service to one another can you imagine what a beautiful church we would have if everyone came to church every
59:23
Sunday with the primary desire how can I serve in helping a fellow disciple of Jesus Christ know the
59:31
Lord better, walk with the Lord more closely, experience the power of God in their life more clearly and fully to defeat sin what a wonderful family relationship that we would enjoy may the
59:45
Lord produce and foster that kind of spirit within us amen, let's pray thank you father for your word, thank you for the example of our
59:55
Lord Jesus and we pray that you would help us our God to increasingly be conformed to this illustration and to be the servants of one another, forgive us of our sins our
01:00:08
God, our failings help us our Lord to walk with you in faith and fellowship and help us our