John 13:31-38
Sunday Morning Bible Study
June 30, 1996
Introduction
We are on the Thursday evening before Jesus is crucified, at the event known as "the Last Supper".
Jesus is alone with His disciples in the upper room.
He has just washed their feet, giving them an example to learn how to love and serve each other.
Though He continually reached out to Judas, Judas rejected Jesus' love, has now been possessed by Satan, and has left to make final arrangements for Jesus' arrest.
:31-33 The time for glory
:31 Therefore, when he was gone out
Jesus had just given the sop, a token of love and friendship, to Judas.
Judas took the sop, but rejected the love.
And now, at Jesus' urging, Judas has left the room to go and betray his friend.
:31 Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
It seems a little strange that the moment that the betrayer leaves to do his dirty work, Jesus announces that He is being glorified.
Shouldn't being glorified be more like having a parade, or receiving presents, or having multitudes bow down at your feet?
Yet for Jesus, His whole purpose of coming to earth in a human body was to go to the cross and pay for the sins of the world in death.
What would seem to be the most horrible and humiliating of actions was actually the greatest deed ever done.
Lesson:
It seems God's priorities aren't always the same as ours.
Oh that our priorities could be so completely overturned!
Instead of looking to have Ed McMahon knock on our door ...
How thrilling it is when Jesus knocks on our door!
Instead of winning a gold medal in Atlanta ...
How about winning a "Well done, good and faithful servant" from God Himself!
:32 If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him.
If God be glorified in him
If God is having been glorified in Jesus' death (and He was) ...
God shall also glorify him in himself
God will in the future glorify Jesus by raising Him from the dead.
and shall straightway glorify him
God isn't going to waste anytime raising Jesus from the dead, or in bringing Jesus back to heaven.
:33 Little children
He doesn't call them His little group of cowardly, yellow-belly traitors.
Which would be true.
He calls His disciples his "technia", His little children.
teknion - a little child; a term of kindly address by teachers to their disciples.
This is not some kind of put down on the disciples.
It is meant to express kindness, tenderness, affection, understanding, and sympathy.
Lesson:
Do you sympathize with the weaknesses of those who are looking to you for leadership?
Or do you look at them with scorn?
The apostle John, who called himself "the disciple whom Jesus loved" picked up on this.
He uses this term 7 times in 1John, like:
1Jo 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
Also, 2:1; 2:12; 2:28; 3:7; 3:18; 5:21
:33 yet a little while I am with you
Hey guys, I'm only going to be around a little while longer.
:33 Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.
Jesus spoke several times to the Jews about His going away:
John 7:32-36 The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him. 33 Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. 34 Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come. 35 Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will he go, that we shall not find him? will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? 36 What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come?
He spoke of it again in John 8:21-22
Jesus is talking about His death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven.
:34-35 The new commandment
:34 A new commandment I give unto you,
The commandment to love others was not a new commandment.
Moses actually commanded the people to love:
(Lev 19:18 KJV) Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
What was new was the way in which we are to love.
:34 That ye love one another
This is aimed at His disciples, learning to love each other.
The focus is on how believers will treat other believers.
The verb is in a "present tense", meaning continuous action.
It's not just loving them once and stopping.
:34 as I have loved you
This is the new standard by which we are to love each other.
It's no longer just the old standard in the law where we love others as we love ourselves.
Truthfully, we don't always know how to love ourselves.
Instead, it's to love others in the same way that Jesus loves us.
Lesson:
Treat others like Jesus would
I've been thinking a lot lately about how many of our relationships would change if we were to all learn to love others like Jesus loves us.
In particular, I've been thinking about marriages.
The Scripture doesn't have a whole lot of stuff to say to marriages, except the basics -
Wives submit to your husbands
Husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church ...
But when you get to thinking about how much the Bible shows us of how Jesus loves His church, then you find that the Bible is actually FULL of help for marriages, and ALL relationships.
Here's three qualities of Jesus' love for us:
Lesson:
1. Serving
In the same evening, Jesus has demonstrated this to His disciples.
He gave them an example to follow, He washed their feet.
He took the role of the humble servant.
Paul wrote:
Philippians 2:3-7 (NIV) Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Illustration:
A farmer was out plowing his field one spring morning. The spring thaw had just occurred and there were many muddy valleys in the field. Through one particularly wet place his tractor became stuck in the mud. The harder he tried, the deeper he became stuck. Finally, he walked over to his neighbor's to ask for help. The neighbor came over and looked at the situation. He shook his head, and then said, "It doesn't look good, but I tell you what. I'll give it a try pulling you out. But if we don't get it out, I'll come sit in the mud with ya!"
2. Sacrifice
1Jo 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love [of God], because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down [our] lives for the brethren. (AV)
Love is not about what you need from the other person, it's what you give.
Illustration:
Chuck Colson, Against the Night, p. 3233.:
Consider just a snapshot of this truth. In 1978, during President Carter's attempt to reinstate draft registration, newspapers across the country carried a photo that I have carried in my mind ever since: a young Princeton student defiantly wielding a poster emblazoned with the words, "Nothing is worth dying for."
To many this seemed a noble celebration of life. But if nothing is worth dying for, is anything worth living for?
We have turned into an incredibly selfish society.
Jesus said:
Joh 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. (AV)
It's not about demanding your rights, it's about laying them down.
It's giving up your parking space for another person.
I love how the parking lot works at the Harvest Crusade - everybody is polite to each other!
It's not about having earned a little respect, it's about going to a cross.
3. Forgiveness
Eph 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. (AV)
If we love like Jesus loves us, then we must turn around and forgive others.
Illustration:
Rabbis in Israel invalidated a 1982 marriage between Shoshana Hadad and Masound Cohen because, rumor has it, a Tunisian immigrant ancestor of Shoshana Hadad had illegally married a divorcee around the year 580. That "sin" sullied the entire family line, making it illegal for any Hadad feminine seed to marry a Cohen, because Cohens are considered descendants of the ancient Hebrew priesthood and must follow strict rules regarding marriage. The Bible teaches that the sins of the fathers extended only to "the third and fourth generations," not so many centuries. After all, 580 was a long time ago. By the way, that was 580 B.C.!
-- Liberty Magazine, March/April, 1995, p. 5.
How long will it take you to forgive?
We all need graciousness and forgiveness ...
Illustration:
There's a Spanish story of a father and son who had become estranged. The son ran away, and the father set off to find him. He searched for months to no avail. Finally, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in a Madrid newspaper. The ad read: Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father.
On Saturday 800 Pacos showed up, looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers.
-- Homemade, Vol. 17, No.1, January 1993.
Are you loving others like Jesus?
Are you serving? sacrificing? forgiving?
:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples
It's when we learn how to love each other in the same manner that Jesus loved us that people will recognize us as being disciples of Jesus.
In fact, Jesus says the ALL men will know we're His disciples if we love each other like this.
Illustration:
Tertullian, an ancient historian, said that the heathens would say when they saw the Christians pass along the streets, and meet and express their affection to each other, "see how they love one another":
But this is all kind of shallow when we don't really allow ourselves to get very close with other Christians.
A trend I find very disturbing in the church today is that people don't want to get too close.
They like going to the big "mega-churches" because they can get lost in them and never have to have any real contact with the same people from week to week.
Perhaps they've been abused or hurt by a particular church, and are kind of hesitant to get too close to another group of Christians.
But if you never allow yourself to get close enough to other Christians to love them like Jesus loves you, then how is the world going to know about Jesus' love?
Lesson:
Commit yourself to a group of Christians.
I know this is kind of a touchy subject for some.
Calvary Chapels are traditionally known for not having any official membership procedures, or at least not making any big deal over membership.
And I don't really want to make a big deal over membership either, except that I think it's important.
What does church membership mean at Calvary Chapel of Fullerton?
It does not mean ...
that you pledge to give any amount of money.
that you pledge to be on some sort of committee or something.
It does mean ...
that you're going to risk letting people get to know you.
that you're committed to be here for the long haul, and not conveniently hopping from one church to the next as soon as people start getting too close.
that you get on the church directory so other people can keep in touch with you, and so that you and your family are prayed for 4-5 times a week.
Do I have to join the church?
Abolutely not!
You can be committed to this body of believers without being an "official member".
You just need to be committed to a body of believers somewhere, whether you actually join or not.
What if I join the church and nobody ever calls me?
Then I think you've missed the point of this message.
Being committed to a church is not about what others will do for you, it's about you learning to love them like Jesus loves you.
That's not to say that we don't want to support and encourage one another.
That's not to say that we don't receive from others.
But the main focus should be on how we give love to others, not on what we receive.
In fact joining the church doesn't even mean that you're doing what this verse says.
All it does is get you in a place where you're saying, "Okay, I want to try this loving one another stuff ..."
Illustration:
John Fawcett was preparing to move. At age 32, he was leaving the small Baptist church in Wainsgate, England, for the prestigious Carter's Lane church in London.
Fawcett had worked hard. Orphaned at 12, he was forced to work fourteen hours a day in a sweat shop. He taught himself to read by candlelight and studied continuously. When he was ordained at age 25, he moved to Wainsgate. For seven years he served the tiny church of 100 members before receiving the invitation in London.
However, Fawcett never moved to London. He couldn't break "the tie that binds." The last possessions were loaded on the moving cart as Fawcett began his good-byes. Tearfully he bade farewell to those he had loved for the past seven years. They returned his tears... and his love. It was too much for the young preacher. London would have to wait. Unloading the cart, he decided to stay in Wainsgate a little longer. Fawcett never moved to London; he never even left Wainsgate. He died there 54 years later.
Fawcett was destined to become one of England's greatest preachers. He wrote hymns, published books and opened a training school for young ministers. His "Essay on Anger" so impressed King George III that he offered Fawcett "any benefit a king could confer." His love for the people and their love for him not only kept him in Wainsgate, but it also prompted the writing of a hymn we sing even today:
Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.
-- Norm Petersen