Synoptic Gospels John 13

I thought we had gotten past 31. I thought

I had talked about now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. Well.

Through 38?

Hmm. That's odd.

All right. So, we need to take a poll of the rest of the folks. Maybe the great keeper of Codex Ricketonius might remember as well.

I have recollection of talking about verses 31 and 32, but we have some indication that we didn't get there, and some indication that it all is 38, so,

I will, yeah, well

I have recollection at least of there, so I'll just, that's where I'll, yeah,

I do remember that. I do remember that, but I don't, I know

I didn't start talking about Peter's denials or anything like that. I seem to recall saying in verse 34 that the love that is mentioned there is exemplified by what

Christ is doing or something along those lines, but, yeah, that sounds about right to me, yeah, yeah, yeah, so,

I can turn on a fan for me, it's a little, you're wearing a jacket, it's a little on the toasty side, and the ladies are going, yeah, right, sure, and the guys are going, yeah, tear it down, and the ladies are going, no, tear it down, and they're like, ah, it's, and the one nice thing about summer around here is everybody's like, yeah, keep that AC running, but then once the winter hits, it's like, oh, it's just the way it always is, but it's not as bad in the other room now as it used to be.

Love that tie, Mr. C, I love that tie, and the shirt, the whole thing just goes, it's perfect, it's perfect.

All right, so, we're in John chapter 13, we need to finish this up because we've got 14, 15, 16, and 17 before we get back to the synoptic study, so at that rate of speed, we're just never ever going to get there, oh,

I don't know, it depends on how much traveling I do, I know I've got at least one trip back to Germany and London in there somewhere, so who knows, but anyway, just as a reminder, if you've not been with us,

I think most everybody here has been, oh, by the way, if you wish to apply any type of skin lotion, anything like that during the

Bible study, that's fine, I wish I had some with me,

I only put some on an hour ago and I need some more, my goodness, it is like the Sahara moved in, it is so stinking dry, it's just ridiculous, but maybe it's because also for me, yeah, see, we've got some volunteers back there, someone keeps reminding me to wash my hands before holding something,

I'm not sure what that is, maybe that has something to do with why my hands are so dry all of a sudden, but you never know, it is sort of fun to hear all the talk about how many diapers they're going through in an amazing speed of time, it's like, yeah,

I remember that, but anyway, John chapter 13, we're sandwiching 13 through 17 in here because in the

Snoptic studies, we're about to enter into the crucifixion narratives and basically, that's where this fits, that's the section where John expands upon Jesus' final ministry to the disciples, and so we've been working through chapter 13, just about to make it into 14, and just the section begins at verse 31, 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 are 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, truly

I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny me three times, this section, in essence, provides sort of the outline for what's going to be expanded upon in chapters 14 through 17, the glorification of the

Son, the going away of the Son, his announcement that he's going away and they cannot follow is what is the background to chapter 14, which is probably one of the better known chapters to most of us, when

Jesus starts off, do not let your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me and my Father's house are many, literally, it's rooms, it's not dwelling places, and it's not,

I'm sorry, mansions. That's a popular translation, it's certainly one that I, as a young person, even in hymnology, we had, you know, our mansion and glory type thing, you know, actually, it never really did make much sense, in my

Father's house are many mansions, every single house has many mansions in it,

I mean, exactly how does that work, you know, and in my mind, I just, you know, we all get our own mansion, talk about community, yeah, no, not quite, we're going to be like the folks in Hollywood that are totally cut off from everybody with a nice big fence around our singular mansion, no, it doesn't work that way, it is a community, in my

Father's house are many dwelling places, New American Standard, rooms, I think, is the best way to put it, the point is that chapter 14 then picks up on this promise that he's going away, but it's not a permanent separation that we will go to be where he is and he is preparing that place for us.

And so, this then becomes the introduction to a lot of things that are going to be expanded upon, chapters 15 and, well, 14 through 16, the coming of the

Holy Spirit, I'm not going to leave you as orphans, all of these things are going to be expanded upon, they're introduced here in this particular section.

So, Judas leaves and Jesus immediately announces upon his leaving that the

Son of Man is glorified, this glorification takes place in the crucifixion, and I would also insist in the obedience of Christ.

I think that sometimes we think of glorification only in the context of big miraculous things like the resurrection or something like that, but I think we need to recognize that there is in the obedience of Christ and in the humiliation of Christ the greatest example of the glory of God that is shown there, that restraining of divine power, the obedience of the

Son, even to the point of death, even death on a cross, as Paul records it for us in Philippians chapter 2, and then, therefore,

God has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, and so on and so forth. And that hymn comes from very early in Christian history and would flow out of the same thinking that you have here, and that is that God is glorified especially, and the

Son is glorified as well, especially in his obedience and in his humiliation. So, it's the exact opposite of what the world expects, the world would expect glorification to be the vindication of the

Son or the destruction of his enemies or things like that, but the actual glorification is seen in his obedience and in his humiliation as well.

And then they are told, 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. Remember back in chapter 8, this had come out as well in the assertion, and the

Jews said he could commit suicide, they recognized he wasn't, well some had said he could go to the

Gentiles and things like that, but others said he could commit suicide, things like that. And so, now as the disciples themselves need to be fully prepared,

Jesus announces that he is going to be leaving, he is not going to be with them, and where he is going they cannot come.

It is not God's purpose that they immediately follow their Lord in death, in martyrdom.

And it is in the midst of that then that you have the new commandment.

Now, it is not a new commandment in the sense there had never been a command to love before, and in fact, not only were you commanded to love

God, but you were commanded to love your neighbors yourself. But, there is something new to the commandment in the sense that by union with Christ, by being indwelt by the

Holy Spirit, as Jesus is going to express it in John 14, 23 off the top of my head as I recall,

God's actual dwelling with his people, the

Father and the Son will dwell with the people by the presence of the

Holy Spirit. There is something very special here. It is not the Holy Spirit had not been active in the Old Testament, the

Holy Spirit had not been. David said, take not your spirit from me. And yet, we also saw the

Spirit come upon people and then just leave. We are in that section in the

Old Testament, in Exodus right now, where the Spirit comes upon people to perform certain very special acts and having skills to make things, the tabernacle and for the worship of God and things like that.

But, the Spirit comes upon people and then leaves. But, the

Spirit in John 14, 23 becomes the very pledge of the

Father's presence with his people. Ephesians chapter 1, what is the down payment?

How does God demonstrate, I have begun a work in this person's life and I am going to continue this work?

Well, it is the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is called the Arabon, the down payment. And when you gave an

Arabon, a down payment, you were, it is not like today where you can just go, oops, sorry, you know,

I will go file bankruptcy or something like that. It did not work that way. And so,

God, the Father himself by sending the Spirit is making a pledge that he will continue and finish the work that he has begun.

And so, with that, I think the commandment becomes new in the sense that it is for this new covenant community that is going to be marked off by the fact that every person in that community shares this one

Spirit. That is what binds all the churches together when Paul talks about the unity that exists amongst believers.

How does he define that unity? He defines that unity primarily on the basis that we all partake of one

Spirit. And so, you have that as the, how would

I describe it? It is certainly not the least common denominator. That would not be an appropriate way of expressing it.

But it is the continual commonality. It is that which binds all believers together.

A believer is a person who is involved by the Spirit of God. And that Spirit has brought about the confession of faith that Jesus Christ is

Lord. And this is what binds true believers together. And as a result, there is a new covenant community that has a new commandment from God that you love one another even as I have loved you.

Maybe that likewise sheds some light on the nature of why this would be new even though in the old covenant we have the command to love

God and love neighbors ourselves. Now we have post -cross, post -redemptive history, redemptive act in Christ.

We have the self -sacrificing nature of that love illustrated in a way that could only be in a very shadowy way foretold in the

Old Testament Scriptures. The even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

And by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. And so the nature of this love, as was in some of the notes, is not an ishy -squishy love.

It is a self -sacrificing love. It is an act of love. It is a commitment love.

True Christian love is unfortunately very frequently misrepresented in our society in the sense of emotionalism.

I am not saying there is no emotion with love, but let me just put it this way, especially to young folks who are just all a twitter in love, want to get married and so on and so forth.

There needs to be, real love survives the diminishment of the fervor of feeling, shall we say.

In other words, feelings can come and go, they can wax and wane, they can be impacted by all sorts of external circumstances.

They can be impacted by the passing of the years, the aging of the body, one's financial situation, one's health situation, all sorts of other things can impact feelings.

But the commitment aspect of love is what gives ground to everything else.

And that's, I think, the same way we need to understand, the world doesn't understand how God could say the greatest commandment, love me.

I'm not even going to use the term my atheist friends. I'll talk about my Muslim friends, but I can't even talk about my atheist friends.

The people I know who are atheists, let's put it that way, love to mock and deride

God because he's an egomaniac. I mean, how could you ever respect someone that says that the greatest commandment is not love for one another, the greatest commandment is love for me.

And we all know men like Richard Dawkins who, you know, just,

Doug Wilson has rightly described, it wasn't Richard Dawkins, it was Hitchens.

But it's the same thing. Describing Hitchens' atheism, he says, there are two things absolutely certain about Christopher Hitchens.

He knows God doesn't exist and he hates him. And it's a well -expressed way of putting it.

And he's exactly right. And you look at these men who are absolutely convinced

God doesn't exist, but their entire life is wrapped up in trying to erase all evidence that would contradict their conclusions.

Some of you know that I've debated a man by the name of Dan Barker a few times. Some of you are actually old enough to remember when

I first encountered Dan Barker on the Tom Likas show on KFYI back when

I was skinny and had hair and was in my 20s, early 20s actually.

And we've debated since then. He's the head of the Freedom from Religion Foundation. He gets a year's worth of notoriety and fame around Christmas time.

I just discovered he was up in Prescott recently. Either that or his lawyers were. He has lots of them.

And they forced the courthouse there in downtown

Prescott, which if you've ever been up there, they have this beautiful Christmas display and stuff. His group forced them to take any religious elements of the display down because that's a violation of church and state.

Now you and I both know that there isn't a single person that signed the Declaration of Independence of the

Constitution of the United States that would have agreed with that, but that was a long time ago. Things change.

It's a living document, you know. And so it's just his life. It's so obvious from the outside that he lives his life just desperately suppressing that knowledge.

He's a very bright man. He's not nearly as bright as he thinks he is, but he's a very bright man and he is just so sad to see the desperation of suppression of the knowledge of God.

And it just drives these folks nuts when anybody doesn't join them in their fight because everyone who doesn't join them in their fight is evidence that they're wrong.

And they know that, but it's just an amazing thing to watch.

But anyways, this commitment kind of, going back to the text, this commitment kind of love, by this all men will know that you're my disciples if you have love for one another.

You can find all sorts, you can find elements, because we're all created in the image of God, therefore we know what true love is.

You can find parts of what love is supposed to be all over the world in false religion and no religion at all.

People who refuse to bow the knee to God and remain in rebellion against God can be very faithful friends on the battlefield, for example, because they're made in the image of God.

They're made to be that way. And so you have to be careful because what some people, they fall into the way of thinking is, well, here's what the

Bible says is true love and I see elements of that over here in Buddhism. And I see elements of that over here amongst the

Mormons. And I know atheists that have elements of that. All that proves, all that demonstrates is that what the

Bible says is true. We are created in the image of God. And though we work very hard, and especially in secularism, you spend billions of dollars and hours and hours and hours trying to efface that image and trying to get people to not think about their origins and about their destiny and about their nature and about God and about the sense they have of His existence and the fact that you do not have to teach a little child to have a conscience.

You know, that little child, even before they can speak, when they do something they know they're not supposed to do, there's that furtive look.

Or the sudden realization they've been caught. They didn't know somebody was there. And you don't have to teach them that.

You didn't have to force that on them. It's part and parcel of their nature.

Because that is true, it should not surprise us at all to see elements of that all across the spectrum of human behavior, activity, religion, government experience, everything.

You should expect to see that, and we do. So, how is this commandment then?

How are all men to know that you're my disciples if you have love for one another? What's special here?

We see loving acts, what we would describe as even biblically loving acts, self -sacrificial acts amongst people that worship different gods, have no

God at all. What then is to be the difference? And my suggestion would be that it is not the...

It is the bringing together of all of those elements, parts of which can be seen everywhere.

But there are certain parts of true Christian love that are very, very, very counter the fallen nature.

Might be one way of putting it. It's sort of like how I've explained many times people saying, how do

I know that I've been born again? How do I know...

Get over these doubts that I have and things like that. And one of the suggestions of one of the great men of God of the past that I think that I personally have found to be extremely useful and helpful was

Jonathan Edwards' observation that there are certain elements of God's revelation of his own existence that the rebel man will be willing to accept for his own purposes.

God's the provider of all things. Well, I want provision, therefore that part of God's nature...

Okay. I'll create an idol of a God that can provide for me or something along those lines.

That doesn't necessarily offend the fallen man. There are certain aspects though of God's character that are absolutely offensive to the natural man, especially his sovereignty and his holiness.

And Edwards' statement basically was that if you love those aspects of God's nature that are the most reprehensible to the natural man, that is a positive sign.

And only you can know that. Only you can look into your heart. And again, even at this point,

I would connect this and I would say if you love long -term.

Because I've met people. I remember a guy years and years ago who now in hindsight

I would identify as flash in the pan. You know what a flash in the pan is.

Flash in the pan is you know brilliant explosion but short -lived.

Brilliant explosion but short -lived. And here was somebody who really seemed to show tremendous spiritual insight and just bright as could be.

But he was a flash in the pan. It didn't last long. And so when

I say love those aspects of God's character he would have for a period of time shown great zeal for these things.

And Pastor Fry and I have had conversations over the years about the people we see who come in.

I've been here over two decades now and we would see folks that would come in and man they're just they're zealous for Calvinism.

Man they're more Calvinistic than Calvin ever thought of being. I mean they've got pictures of Calvin on their bedroom wall and they've got multiple editions of the

Institutes marked up each one with leather covers on them and they've got a backpack full of Arthur W.

Pink's The Sovereignty of God and they leave them on bus seats and on airplanes and every flight attendant that's ever met them has a copy and you know this kind of thing.

And I call it the cage stage personally where you should be put in a cage so you don't do damage to yourself or anybody else in the process.

But they'll come in and man they're and you know from my perspective give it some time.

You know give it some time. When you're younger give it some time this doesn't sound like a really good thing.

Doesn't sound like wise advice but as Brother Brick reminded me first thing that I walked in this morning

I have entered into my sixth decade which I had thought about and was actually looking forward to that.

And I am a grandfather now too. So the amount of wisdom that I gained this one week is just shocking.

It's just amazing. Someone subscribes double ARP for me in the whole nine yards.

I mean it's just wow it's great. But seriously our conclusion is give them some time.

First of all normally there needs to be some moderation and growth and wisdom along those lines. Anyways but beyond that very often you find those folks just they're looking for the most they're like the people that look for the big shows.

They're just looking for the Calvinistic show. And there can be all sorts of different shows. You can be excited about the truth about God but the question is after you've gone through difficulties in life, after your heart has been hurt, after you've been disappointed do you still love those aspects of God's character?

And the only way you can find that out is go through those things. I mean Jesus hears that.

Peter says I'll die for you. I'll follow you to death. Actually Peter you're going to have some interesting experiences.

And don't you think the Peter post denials is a far better servant than the

Peter pre -denials? And so I guess all of this to just suggest to you that that the real

Christian love that speaks to the world is not the sentimentality that the world has plenty of.

The world does sentimentality easily. I mean after 9 -11 oh man 9 -11 there were people saluting the flag right, left and center and God bless

America you know it was great. And did you watch it just like I did? Big fervor and then then there's other things and all that unity isn't so much unity fairly quickly it just tapers off over time as we get distracted with other things.

My suggestion is that what sets Christian love apart is not because we're somehow better than somebody else or anything like that it's tied back to that one statement that a lot of people in our circles don't like what

Jesus said but I think it's wonderful What did Jesus say? He who endures to the end shall be saved. What does that mean?

Well for a lot of people it means you better work up some faith within you and just keep doing it no that's not what he's talking about.

Why is anyone of us still here? It's because the

Spirit of God is active within us and that faith that is ours and that love that is ours, they're works of the

Spirit of God and that means they're not just flashing a pan things. There's a long term and that's what blew the

Romans away. This is one place where church history can shed some light

I think on how something works out in reality. It wasn't that the

Romans hadn't seen people who were zealous for various causes, they had.

I mean the Romans had experienced all across of what we would call modern day Europe, North Africa into what we would call the

Middle East they saw all sorts of different kinds of people, spoke all different languages cultures, they were really cosmopolitan they had seen a lot of this stuff.

But what was it about the Christians? Oh they loved one another and they took care of one another and but they did it long term.

I mean what caused them to think it was insane was look it's one thing that you love one another it's one thing that you'd be willing to take care of one another, but don't you you just keep doing this doesn't it come a point where you recognize this becomes foolishness?

See there was a commitment part and that's what they didn't get. It was one thing to be zealous and have the emotions and they saw that all over the place, but these folks just even when we're about to throw you in with the lions, hello, don't you think it's time to become more rational about this, aren't you going a little too far with this?

And even when they would make it much more difficult for Christians to be

Christians, it was that long term commitment, it was that this is who

I am, this defines who I am I love this God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ and no matter what you do to me short term, yeah there's a lot of folks and people put a gun to you, deny

Christ, no but people learned a long time ago, the way to make apostate

Christians is not to say I'm going to kill you if you don't it's going to say I'm going to make sure that the best job you can get is taking trash out if you don't.

Fifty years later, there's almost nothing left I mean that's how it's been done under Islam I mean remember the story, what about seven, eight years ago, a suicide bomber was about to go into a girls school and was stopped by the janitor who died by stopping him remember who the janitor was?

This is in Pakistan, the janitor was a Christian all the girls inside were Muslims but he gave his life to stop that man, he knew who he was, he knew what he was going to do, he knew what he was up to and he stopped him, and he gave his life for all those

Muslim girls and the world goes that's weird why would you do that?

What was the significance there? That's about the best job a Christian can get there

I mean you just aren't allowed to have any that's how you bring persecution against the

Christians, is you say you can live here, that's fine however I can get an education

I can be able to do this, I can be able to do that I can be able to repair your churches that's the kind of constant grinding discrimination and persecution that is far more effective we've all heard

Tertullian's statement the blood of martyrs is the sea of the church the overt kill them all thing the

Romans learned it took them a couple hundred years to figure it out, Romans learned it doesn't work it's the compromise over time grind them down focus upon our love of things the world persecution that works and that's why

I said looking at what's coming in our own society maybe I'm just talking to myself but the only power the world has to damage our joy and happiness is the power we give them by loving the things of the world that's the only weapons the world has that can be effective against Christians are the ones we give them

I'm convinced of that if our love is not of the things of this world the world has absolutely no power over us at all if our love is settled elsewhere if we really get a hold of and I don't know that any of us have ever really fully gotten a hold of but if we really get a hold of what

Paul says in Colossians 3 you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God then we recognize this world has absolutely nothing it can do to us and that's what those early

Christians realized too and that's a revelation that reveals that Christians truly are the disciples of Christ they truly are his followers

Simon Peter didn't quite get that yet and so he says Lord where are you going? Do you sense where I go?

You cannot follow me now but you will follow later clearly talking about his death and Peter's response is

Lord why can I not follow you right now? I will lay down my life for you now

I don't doubt you know we know that Peter you know impetuous

Peter this is the same dude who speaks out of turn in the presence of God the

Father, God the Son, Moses and the like okay I mean if you can if you can run your mouth off in that situation obviously you can run it off in any situation whatsoever you know but I really

I don't think Peter was being a hypocrite here I don't think Peter was actually in his own heart knowing oh man

I would never do this but I want to make myself look good no I'm sure that Peter had a deep love for Jesus and really thought

I mean when he pulls his sword in the garden that's that's pretty big stuff

I mean he's he's got soldiers there and you know he tried to be brave it's one thing isn't it amazing the bravery that Peter shows in the face of armed guards and then what does he do a matter of hours later servant girl hey weren't you with him see the total it's context you know it's one thing in you know when the adrenaline's flowing and it's another thing when you're standing there and you're cold and things aren't going well and someone says aren't you one of them totally

Jesus response to him is will you lay down your life for me truly truly I say to you a rooster will not crow until you deny me three times now once we get into we get back to the synoptic study then we will put all this together and we will deal with the infamous famous however you want to put it issue of the denials of Peter and was it cock crows three times cock crows once what's the order of the denials blah blah blah blah blah because you have different stories told by Matthew Mark Luke and John at this point and can they be harmonized we put them together

I think you can but folks like to put a point at that and say see there's there's a problem and we will we will get in that when we get into the synoptic study again again even though we have a chapter division here there is no chapter division in the originals and so we can understand why if the seemingly

Peter was the oldest of the disciples he certainly has a leadership role amongst the disciples it is interesting to me that when a foot race is held at the resurrection remember

John and Peter Peter loses badly in fact Peter loses so badly

John has time to be doing various and sundry things at the tomb before Peter ever gets there so Peter is probably the oldest guy and John is probably the youngest guy and everybody else is probably somewhere in between and yet the leader one of the three that was up on the mount the leader

Jesus just said you'll deny me now what's that going to do to the thinking of everybody else obviously something major is about to happen and that then becomes the background of Jesus' discussion starting in chapter 14 and really it goes all the way through 16 and becomes the foundation for the high priestly prayer chapter 17 so there's really no breaks here but his discussion of the coming of the spirit the role of the father son and spirit their role in regards to sustaining the disciples all these things come together in this section of scripture and it is truly there's no question that this section of the gospel of John is one of the most beloved sections of all the

Bible but once again hopefully by following the context we may be able to see that some of the texts that we have memorized

I bet you we have a bunch of us have texts from this section memorized even though we haven't memorized we always need to remember what it meant in its original context and hopefully see some new things as we work through it so it's real easy this time we're starting with John chapter 14 we've made sure that will make it much easier next time alright let's close the word

Father we thank you for your word we thank you for the provision of the spirit the promise of the