With Betrayal Comes A New Command: (John 13:21-34)

We see the disciples they have just gotten their feet washed by Christ, and now Christ tells them that the one who is to betray is among them.  He is of course speaking of Judas, but notice, something that goes on in the interaction between Christ and Judas.  Christ does not be little Judas in front of them all, He doesn’t throw down curses on him either.  Instead He dips a piece of bread in some sauce and gives it to Judas, then tells him “What you do, do quickly.”  The disciples seem confused by this, they aren’t sure what Judas is doing.  Some think he is going to buy some supplies or give money to the poor.  Why are they so confused?  Because what Christ did is show friendship to Judas.  You see we have to understand society of that time, when one dipped bread in a sauce for someone else it was an act of friendship.  So why would you show friendship to the one who is turning you over to be executed.   This shows us the kind of love God has for us.

Let us get real with a few things, we have been trying to make out like God loves us so much that all we have to do is say a few words and then our souls are fine.  God loves us a great deal. So much so that He sent His son to die on a cross to be the final sacrifice for our sins.  But God hates sin!  The scripture is very clear that becoming a Christian is not about saying a few words but it is about a change in how we think and how we treat others.  Throughout  Christ’s ministry He talked about how we are to separate ourselves from sin and follow Him.  In Luke 16:15 Christ says, “you are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”  Are we really living up to the standards that God has put before us, are we really trusting Him to provide us with strength that we need.  Maybe the better question is do we really love God?   But notice even with Christ showing love and friendship with Judas it is still not a enough to save Judas, he  still goes and betrays Christ.  Judas, one of the twelve that were close to Christ, he was there when Christ preformed many of His miracles.  Yet with all that, he still didn’t fall in love with Christ.  He never did understand that being a part of Christ is all about giving up what one wants and living one’s life out of love.

I want us to notice the next things Christ tells the disciples found in verses 31-35.  “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. ^ If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately. ^  Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you. ^ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. ^By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Notice the part that I underlined, what Christ is  saying here is so radical if we began to think about it.  He doesn’t just say love one another, but we are to love one another as Christ loved us.  What is Christ saying here? That we are to give extra love to those that come to our church?  No not all what He is saying is that we must live showing His love to all, to live in a way that His love is always shining through.  Rodger Fredrickson say this about Christ’s new commandment. 

This was not an optional extra thrown in, but a command to be obeyed. And only in keeping it would the Spirit of Jesus flood these men and draw them together in a living community stronger than life or death. This commandment of love is new because it is based on a new covenant sealed with these disciples in His own blood. The old command, "you shall love your neighbor as yourself" was based on Mosaic Law, not on grace (Lev. 19:18). This love is a gift shared freely by Jesus. He is the only Source of a love that needs no other motivation. The distinguishing mark of discipleship is not programs or signs, wonders or eloquence or ecclesiastical power, but Christ's love in us that allows us to love one another. This does not mean these men were to become a self-centered, ingrown clique. That may be caused by sentimentality, but not by Christ's love shared among His people. The world will always confront Christ and have to deal with Him if His people love one another as He has loved them.

Cleaning of Sins and Taking on a New Attitude: (John 13:1-20)

As we get into the first part of chapter thirteen of John we have two things going on at once, we also have one most misinterpreted piece of scripture in 21^st century America.  The reason I believe it is so misunderstood is because it is easier to believe that what Christ is saying that we should actually wash ones feet instead of allowing God to work in our hearts.  The first part of Chapter 13 we see, Christ taking off His outer garments, and put wraps and towels around His waist, He is becoming a servant to His disciples.  For if anyone were to walk in while Christ was washing the feet of His disciples, they would have thought Him to be a simple slave doing as he had been told to do.  But the washing of the feet also meant so much more, as we find out when Christ gets to Peter.

“When he came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, why are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now why I am doing it; someday you will.”  “No,” Peter protested, “you will never wash my feet!”  Jesus replied, “But if I don’t wash you, you won’t belong to me.” (John 13:6-8)  Christ tells Peter you may not understand now but you are going to one day, what Christ is doing is pointing to the Cross.   It is His blood that cleanses us from our sins, we like Peter must accept His forgiveness and His cleansing of our sins.  1^st John 1:5-10 tells us; “This is the message he has given us to announce to you: God is light and there is no darkness in him at all.  So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living in the truth.   But if we are living in the light of God’s presence, just as Christ is, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from every sin. If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.”

It is when we accept God into our hearts that we begin to allow God to change us, we are no longer living for ourselves.  Christ told His disciples “Do as I have done to you.”(Jn 13:15)  He is telling them to go and become servants; He had just washed their feet, even the feet of one who did not deserve to have his feet washed by Christ.  Christ is telling His disciples I have given you an example of what you are to do, this is not a direct order for us to go wash one another’s feet it is an example of how we are to serve one another even those who do not deserve it.  But because we want to live for ourselves and not have to truly serve God or others we say oh let us wash one another’s feet in church and we can talk about what a great experience it was and how God was truly moving in that service, then go home and do what we want to do.  Instead why don’t we go down to the local soup kitchen and take off any garment that may hinder our movement and strap on an apron and serve food to needy and wash up some dishes.  Let us go out and show people who Christ is by following His example, by accepting His love and living in the light and being the light as God is the light.

Why are we always talking about dying to ourselves?

why are we always talking about dying to ourselves in church? What is the big deal, can’t we just get rid of parts of us?  What if we just get rid of some of the bad things in our life?  What if we start doing some things better?  Why does it have to be die to ourselves and live for God,  why not live part time for God, and the rest of the time is ours?  In John 12:23-29 Christ says: “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. ^ Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. ^ He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ^ If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. ^Father, glorify Your name.”  Christ says in response to hearing that some people have come and want to see Him,  it seems like a strange commit after hearing that some are there to see you.  But it’s not really that odd once we see what Christ is saying to them.

He is saying don’t worry, your time is coming, but first I must go to the cross and raise from the dead.  I must do all this so that the glory of God can shine on all nations.  The seeds that are planted in spring must first die before they grow in the wonderful foods that we eat.  Before we eat that wonderful fruit or vegetable we should stop and think it started as a seed just a small good for nothing seed.  Then it was planted, watered and died but in its death came a wonderful plant or tree that brought much glory to that seed and nourished the bodies of those who partake in it.  In the same way we are to go out and bring glory to God in all we do.  Can we really bring Glory to God if we still hanging on to sin?  John tells us no in 1^st John chapter three; “See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are! But the people who belong to this world don’t know God, so they don’t understand that we are his children.  Yes, dear friends, we are already God’s children, and we can’t even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when he comes we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who believe this will keep themselves pure, just as Christ is pure.  Those who sin are opposed to the law of God, for all sin opposes the law of God.  And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, for there is no sin in him.  So if we continue to live in him, we won’t sin either. But those who keep on sinning have never known him or understood who he is. Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it is because they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous.  But when people keep on sinning, it shows they belong to the Devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy these works of the Devil. ⁹ Those who have been born into God’s family do not sin, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they have been born of God.  So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the Devil. Anyone who does not obey God’s commands and does not love other Christians^* does not belong to God.” (1^st Jn 3:1-10)

Christ was on His way to the cross, why?  It was not to bring Glory to Himself or those who followed Him. It was through being obedient to God, so that glory would be brought to God.   It was through the cross that Satan lost, that many, including us who are not Jews, came to be saved from our sins.  It is when we die to our own self and allow Gods Holy Spirit to enter into our life that we then are able to see God glorified in our lives.  Through allowing God to take control we can watch Him use us to see others come to know who Christ is and see them saved.  Who wants to come to serve a God who doesn’t changes lives, and all His followers do what they want to do?  But coming to God and giving our lives to Him means that we are no longer a part of this world, but we become a part of His Kingdom, we become His children.

Bringing honor to God: (John 12:1-18)

We talk about it all the time in churches across the world that we are to glorify God.  But have we ever stopped to think about what that really means?  We come together as the church and sing songs that are to bring Him glory, we listen to pastors talk about bringing glory to God, we may even pray that we live lives that bring glory to God, but what does it mean for our everyday life?  We look at the first part of John chapter 12 and we see Christ sitting and Mary brings in an expensive perfume pours it on His head (found in Mt. 26:1-6, and Mark 14:3-9) and wiped it on His feet with her hair.  It was common back then to anoint the head of the guest with oil, but this was a great honor she did.   The main part of glorifying, is bringing honor to the one we are glorifying.  Mary was not just a part time glorifier though, no she wanted to bring great honor to Christ, She brought out the good oil, and she didn’t stop at the head she then wiped His feet with her hair.  This upset some, but that did not bother Mary no She wanted to bring as much honor as she could to her God.

This reminds me of when I graduated College, it was a great honor as you walked across the platform, to have a professor stand up and shake your hand as you received your diploma.  But the thing about that kind of honor is it fades quickly.  No one remembers it after  awhile, as you move on in life many of those you meet do not even care how professors stood and shook your hand.   Yet many of us are giving that Kind of glory and honor to God.  We are like those in John 12:12-19, They shouted and screamed Hosanna  for the moment.  Only later in the week the very same people would be screaming crucify him.  They were not ready to give everything to God.  They wanted to be a part of the crowd that was there when things went good but, the type of glory and honor they brought was just to truly bring them more honor then it was meant to give honor to Christ. 

The questions we must ask ourselves are, are we ready to give everything to God?  Are we willing to be a Mary, to be the person who truly honors God in all we do?  What this means is that we no longer do things that bring glory to us but we do them to bring glory to Christ our savior we are not ashamed of our God.  When we do things that are good we give the glory to God who strengthened us.  When we work hard we do so that it brings glory to God not to us.  When give to the poor we do not do it to make ourselves look good but to make God look good.   Or do we just want to be a part of the crowd, the crowd that goes wherever the wind blows it?  They truly have no one belief, they are wanting to only bring glory to them, and will trample over you if need be to get ahead.  The thing about going with the crowd or just trying to bring honor to God once in a while is that it will not get us very far in the Kingdom of God. 

1^st Peter chapter four, tells us how we must live for God, He give us these words in verses 7-11.  “^ The end of all things is near;^ therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers. ^ Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. ^Be hospitable to one another without complaining. ^Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. ^ Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen^”