Verses 18-20 "I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, 'He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.' (Ref. To Psalm 41:9 “Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me.”) 19 "Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am He. 20 "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me."

 

Jesus is explaining the crux of John’s Gospel.  The Father has sent the Son, the Father and the Son have sent the Spirit, and the Father, the Son, and the Spirit have sent His people, His chosen, to be missionaries for Him.

 

Each of us are missionaries under the calling of and sending of God.  He has saved us, and sent us to do the work which He ordained before time ever began.

 

Often we think of missionaries as those people that live overseas in a remote village, eating strange food and speaking a language that is not their own.  For some that is true, God desires to reconciled His own to Himself, and in so doing some follow that call out of the country.

 

However, we are called missionaries as well.  We are pursued by God Spirit and saved by the Son, so that we can then turn and be a sent people into our own hometown.  We are full time missionaries right here in La Mesa, in La Jolla, in El Cajon, Santee, Mission Valley, and all over San Diego, wherever God has sovereignly placed you to do His work of spreading the Gospel.

 

In bringing the Gospel, Jesus tells us that there will be some that accept us, and there will be some that reject us.

 

We are to be a city on a hill, and salt to the earth.  For those that love light, it is a blessing, for those that want to stay in darkness, it hurts their conscience and angers them. 

 

If you are salt, some will see the preserving quality and be blessed, others will feel the sting of the salt on the wounds of their sin and be angry.

 

Don’t take it personally.  If you have been loving someone for some time and they are rejecting you and the news you bring to them, they are also rejecting the Son and the Father who sent the Son, so you are in good company.

 

We see this in Judas Iscariot.  Jesus has ministered to Judas, provided for Judas, was a friend to Judas, gave Judas grace, humility, compassion, and as we saw last week, Jesus even washed his stinky, dirty feet knowing all along that Judas was going to betray him for 30 pieces of silver as Zechariah prophesied hundreds of years earlier, and Judas along with being a liar and thief would also be a murderer.

 

Judas hated Jesus, not because he was not sufficiently loved or cared for, it was because his heart was hard and Jesus grace hardened all the more.

 

But Jesus recognizes that His rejection and betrayal was so much worse since He was not only rejecting and betraying Jesus as a man, He was betraying Jesus as God, and rejecting Jesus Father.

 

This troubled Jesus.

 

Verse 21 When Jesus had said these things, He was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me."

 

One of you has played the role of my friend.  You have fooled others by your act of religion.  You have even accepted my teachings intellectually.  Yet your heart is going to do what has wanted to do all along, betray me. 

 

The show is over, the façade is about to be torn down, the fake love, the fake friendship, the fake encouragement and brotherhood is going to come crashing down because one of you will turn your back on me for your own selfish, self serving, self absorbed, gain.

 

Have any of you seen the play “The Phantom of the Opera?”

 

I find the story fascinating because it is a story about each of us.

 

There is a part of each one of us that if left in the dark, if left to lurk in the shadows, will develop ways of pretending we are righteous and religious.

 

We are much like the Phantom in that we place a mask over the ugly side of our face.  We will only look into the mirror with the good side showing.

 

We impress others with this show, by staying in the dark and by dressing ourselves up to make ourselves look better than we really are.

 

Yet the mask that we place upon ourselves and hide behind becomes a curse and gives us bondage, not freedom.

 

We are constantly afraid that someone will find us out and expose us for who we really are in the light, so we shrink back in the dark more and more until all light is gone and we are left with only those that are in the dark with us.

 

Jesus has a tendency to blow the cover of each one that plays this game of masquerades.

 

What is sad about those that put a mask over their sin and try to hide from it, is that their guilt will only compound itself until they die as bitter, hateful people, or Jesus busts through and exposes their deformity and pieces them back together with His own grace and mercy.  There are only two options for those in hiding from “the Light of the world.”

 

Jesus knew all along who Judas was and what Judas was going to do.  If you remember chapter 6:70, Jesus said: “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?”  He was not caught by surprise. He was not confused by Judas heart, as He is not confused and surprised by ours.

 

Verses 22-25 Then the disciples looked at one another, perplexed about whom He spoke. 23 Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. 24 Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask who it was of whom He spoke. 25 Then, leaning back on Jesus' breast, he said to Him, "Lord, who is it?"

 

 

This is so beautiful to me.  Here sit these burly men that are probably pretty tough compared to standards today, and they are sitting around with Jesus, enjoying His company, having just had their feet washed by their Master, and now they are eating and conversing with God in the flesh.  John, who wrote this Gospel, is even reclining on Jesus, and just being loved by Him.

 

Their confused, they don’t understand what Jesus is saying, but big tough Peter, who normally is the outspoken one of the group motions to John to ask Jesus who it was.  I wonder if any of them were afraid it was going to be them that Jesus named.

 

I wonder if any of them were thinking to themselves “is it me?” 

 

I also wonder if Judas was at all convicted by John’s question to Jesus.

 

It seems to me the only ones that would dare ask a question “is it me,” are the only ones honest enough to know it could be them.  Usually the ones that are never concerned about such questions, are the very ones that will most often betray Christ.

 

Verses 26-29 Jesus answered, "It is he to whom I shall give a piece of bread when I have dipped it." And having dipped the bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. 27 Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said to him, "What you do, do quickly." 28 But no one at the table knew for what reason He said this to him. 29 For some thought, because Judas had the money box, that Jesus had said to him, "Buy those things we need for the feast," or that he should give something to the poor. 30 Having received the piece of bread, he then went out immediately. And it was night.

 

I assume the reason Jesus didn’t come outright and say “It’s Judas,” was because of the reaction the disciples would have had.  They probably would have handled things a bit different than Jesus.  I’m imagining they would have strung him up and played piñata.

 

The events that were about to transpire, needed to occur for Jesus friends and for you and I, to become children of God.  Without His crucifixion and resurrection we would not have any relationship with the Father, so, the whisper in the ear of Jesus from John, Jesus answer that was not easily discerned, was enough to perk their interest but also keep them at bay until the events were carried out.

 

Verses 31-35 So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. 32 "If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately. 33 "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. 34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

 

Here is where I want to linger for a bit.

 

Last week we learned what it meant to serve like Christ as Jesus in great humility, washed His disciples feet.  Jesus then says to them “I have given you an example that you are to imitate,” He then says to them “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

 

Now on His last night before He is about to be murdered He tells them to “love one another.”

 

He even goes so far as to tell them that everyone will know that we are His if we have love for one another.

 

But what does that mean?  What does Jesus mean when He says that His giving us a new commandment?

 

There had always been a love for family and friends.  The Commandments tell us that we are to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

 

But this is a different kind of love.  It is not just a command to love, but a command to love in a special way. 

 

Jesus commands a new and higher love that we are to have for one another.

 

So what kind of love does Jesus command “as I have loved you, you also are to love one another?”

 

Let’s look at the ways in which Jesus loves us:

 

First:  It is sacrificial

 

John 15:12-13 12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.

 

1 John 3:16-19 16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

 17 But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. 19 And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.

 

Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:1-2 1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

 

Second: It is visible

 

Jesus says that “all will know you are my disciples.”

 

All people will know, not just believers.  The way we treat each other should be a witness of God’s love for us.  It should show others that God is true, because our love for one another is true.

 

Love does something.  It doesn’t just sit there and describe what you feel inside, it actually causes action in you. 

 

It is a verb, not an adjective.

 

It doesn’t describe, it does!

 

Think of the ways Scripture defines love:

 

In 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 listen to instruction as to how love acts:

 

4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails.

 

This kind of love, which is sacrificial and visible, should be extended beyond the walls of our church.  This love that we have been showered with, should not be kept for ourselves.  We are to be springs that well up and overflow into others lives.

 

We are to be conduits that allow God’s love to flow freely through our lives to others.

 

We live in a world that does not love sacrificially.  It’s definition is totally different than God’s definition.  So naturally what is visibly seen is not representative of true love.

 

C.S. Lewis says that there are two kinds of love, need love and gift love.

 

Need love only does so that it can receive.  It only shows affection for something in return, It only serves to be served.  It only gives so that it can receive.  It is selfish, and conditional.  It is contractual. 

 

Gift love doesn’t concern itself with the value of the person being loved.  It doesn’t look for something in return as a selfish reward.  It is don’t want recognition, and it doesn’t expect performance.

 

Christ love is not contractual, it is covenantal.  It is given out of a free heart that expects nothing in return.  That is gracious love.  It is not selfish, or self-seeking. 

 

It is a gift that is freely given because it is given without conditions.

 

We live in a time where we have to outsource things that should be handled by each other out of love.

 

If I need to move, I can’t call friends I need a “moving company.”

 

If my car breaks down, I can’t call friends, I need a taxi.

 

If I am hurting financially, I can’t go to a friend, I need to take a loan at 23%.

 

If my wife and I want a date night, I have to hire a baby sitter to watch my kids.

 

Do you see how this works?

 

Our world is based upon contracts and expectations.  We pay for a service that should be done out of love.

 

In learning not to ask others for help, because no one will help, we become consumers of services which totally jacks our ability to serve others because we are too busy making money to pay for the services we purchased!

 

Our world does not give this kind of free, sacrificial, humble, gracious, love.

 

Our culture has changed in the way in networks with one another.  Over the last 25 years, connected groups have dropped by 57%.  Social, loving, networks of people are very difficult to find outside of the family of God, and even within.

 

Everyone is saying that they want friendship and love, genuine community, but no one knows what the heck that is.

 

So, we develop technology that allows us to have virtual relationships.  Pseudo friendships.  Phone and cyber sex?  Online buddies?  Do you see my point?

 

We wake up in the morning in a home designed around selfishness.  Instead of having a large family room, it has big bedrooms and a large master bathroom.  We get in our car, which is hidden in the garage, to drive to work.  We park in a parking structure under a building and ride an elevator to our job, where we sit in a cubicle and then reverse the process to rush home and hide in our bedroom with the computer or t.v. on!

 

We are like moths that are in a cocoon waiting for the day when we’ll be set free.

 

We are supposed to engage peoples lives and love them!  We are supposed to invest in relationships.  We are supposed to bring something to a world that is foreign.

 

Real community that demonstrates real love in a real and practical way.

 

Why don’t we do that?  Because it’s messy!  People are broken and need to be fixed, and we don’t like being involved in the fixing process.

 

It takes a tremendous investment of love to live this way.

 

Consider Jesus.  Of His 12 loyal disciples, one is about to betray Him and have Him murdered, the other, who is supposed to be the strong leader, is going to curse and deny that he ever knew Jesus.

 

You have to assume that Jesus was a perfect friend, yet He was betrayed, denied, and murdered by His supposed friends!

 

Why are we so fascinated with the “Real World” and “Survivor?”

 

Because these people, even though they are incredibly dysfunctional are actually talking to each other.  You have to stick them in the same house or plant them on an island to do it, but still they are talking.  We are fascinated because we feel so alone, so often.

 

We have created an entire industry around medicating people that are not loved.

 

Though there are times when there is a legitimate reason physiologically for someone to be on some type of medication, I believe often it is because they are not loved.

 

People are so hurt and so broken, and so loved in a conditional way that they become very depressed when they realize that they will never live up to those conditions.

 

So we medicate them to numb them from the pain that they don’t have a loving community to participate in.

 

People are in pain and have no idea how to alleviate that pain, yet they know something is wrong.

 

We have more books today on the subject of self help and self love and how to influence friends and win people than we ever have, yet we are more screwed up than ever.  Why?  People have no clue what love and community is supposed to look like or feel like.

 

When I was unsaved an in sin, I hated being alone.  I hated my own thoughts and my own conscience.  I would do anything to distract it.

I couldn’t stand the thought of being alone with my thoughts.

 

I’m sure Peter wasn’t very happy about Jesus saying He was going to Go somewhere without Him.

 

Verses 36-38 Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?" Jesus answered him, "Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward." 37 Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake." 38 Jesus answered him, "Will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times.

 

We make such big promises to the Lord don’t we?

 

God if you do this, or you do that, then I’ll be faithful, then I’ll sacrifice myself for you.

 

A good rule of thumb is this; if you are not willing to be faithful and sacrifice for God now, you probably won’t do it when you get what you want then.

 

Jesus knows our hearts so much better than we do.  We make these promises to Him, then He asks “will you really?”

 

I have grown to love Peter because I am so much like him.

 

I have grown to hate Judas because I am so much like him also.

 

Yet God’s love is able to remove the mask, it is able to stop the act, it is able to change the heart of a betrayer, to give strength in times of denial, and it is able to change the heart is such a way that it is able to love sacrificially and visibly.

 

Love one another….How?  Follow Christ.

 

 

Let’s pray.

 

Communion and tithe.

0 Comments | Login to Post Comments

• Calendar
• Agenda