John 13 (Part 2) :21–38 • "A New Commandment I give to you"

John chapter 13. This is part two. We're going to be picking it up in verse 21, and I'm going to have you follow along as I read through the end of the chapter, beginning at verse 21.

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Stop there. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity this morning to spend some time just hanging out in your word, talking about what it means, and most importantly, Lord, applying it to our lives. We pray that you would use this time to nourish our souls, fill us Lord with insight and wisdom, and understanding. We ask it in the name of Jesus, our Savior, amen. Amen. So, for the purposes of our study this morning, we're going to be separating the section that we've just read here into 4 segments. I'll go ahead and put them up on the screen for you so you can look at them and the verses that they cover. ● Judas the betrayer :21-30 ● “Now is the Son of Man glorified” :31-33 ● “A new commandment I give you” :34-35 ● Peter’s denial foretold :36-38 First of all, this entire section is related to Judas and his upcoming betrayal. Then we'll talk about in these few verses, these 3 verses where Jesus speaks of himself now being glorified here. Then we'll talk about the new commandment that is given to believers. And then finally Peter's denial being foretold in that section. It's interesting, isn't it, that this whole section where Judas is revealed as the betrayer takes up the largest portion of this second half of John chapter 13, a full 10 verses. It begins, interestingly enough, with Jesus expressing grief. And you'll notice that John describes Jesus as troubled in spirit or troubled in his spirit and saying, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.’ And this statement that Jesus makes tells us really two things and probably tells us a lot more than that. But these are the two that I came up with. First of all, that Jesus felt the gravity of just what was about to take place. In other words, our Lord was not exempt from feeling the difficulties that went along with this whole issue, all of the rotten feelings that go along with the cross and everything that it involved, the betrayal, and the denial, and all the things that were going to happen. What's interesting about this, and I was looking here at this passage, you notice that Jesus simply says, He was troubled, he was grieved. And the first thing out of His mouth after John tells us that Jesus was troubled in his spirit is this statement about Judas, which gives us the impression perhaps that is what is troubling Him. But the fact of the matter is we don't, we aren't told. We aren't told exactly what is troubling Him. Is He troubled because he knew that he was going to be betrayed? Was He troubled because the betrayer was one of his closest men who was right then with him? Having dinner with him? Or was He troubled because he knew what all of this meant for Judas? I have to kind of wonder. I've been asked several times, and I bet you've wondered about it too, whatever happened with Judas? I've had people actually ask me, do you think we'll see Judas in heaven? Well, if you're going to gather up all of the biblical evidence related to the statements that are made about Judas, I would have to say my answer is no. And the reason is, well, there's actually several, earlier in this chapter, Jesus said something very important about Judas. Do you remember what it was when we were dealing with the foot washing? Look at it on the screen,

"Jesus said to him, "The one who has bathed (He's talking to Peter here), the one who has bathed (He said) does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean (Jesus is speaking here to Peter), but (then he says), not every one of you." And then John added this commentary, "For he knew who was to betray him; that is why he said, "Not all of you are clean." And we talked last week about the fact that clean had to do with forgiven, cleansed of their sin. So right here, Jesus is saying concerning Judas that he was not forgiven. His sins were not forgiven. But there are some other statements too. Let me show you a note that Matthew includes in his gospel account.

He says, "The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!" (And then I want you to notice this statement) "It would have been better for that man if he had not been born."

That doesn't sound like somebody on his way to heaven. I mean, I'm sorry to say that but that certainly sounds pretty final. And then there's the statement that's given to us in Acts 1:24-25 (ESV)

You'll notice this is when they were getting… putting together a replacement for Judas. "And they prayed and (they) said, "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside…" (Look at this) "...to go to his own place." And that phrase, "to his own place," is generally believed to be a euphemism for the place of punishment. So you know, Judas' life is pretty, pretty terrible. Secondly, Jesus' statement about being troubled shows also that he was fully aware of what was going to be happening over the next several hours. He knew all along that all of these things were going to happen. He knew he would be betrayed. He knew the disciples would abandon him when they came to arrest him. He knew that he would be put through a mock trial. He knew that he would be beaten. He knew that he would be scourged. He knew that he would be crucified, of course. He knew all of it was going to happen, and He knew that the man that was going to start the ball rolling was right there at this very intimate setting with him and his disciples. And you'll remember what happened last week that we talked about, and that was the foot washing, and Jesus washed Judas' feet. And knowing that this was the man who would start that process going with the betrayal, He washed his feet anyway. I don't know about you, but that impresses me. And it's revealed in verse 22 that this statement by Jesus took them all by surprise when He said, "One of you is going to betray me." They had no idea who Jesus was referring to. We're told in verse 23 that, "One of his disciples whom Jesus loved was reclining at the table at Jesus's side." And this is, by the way, John's way of speaking of himself, rather than just saying, ‘I was sitting right next to him,’ he goes ahead and kind of speaks of himself in the third person.

So Simon Peter motions to him, he's like, ‘Ask him. Ask him.’ And I don't think Peter was afraid to ask himself. I don't think Peter was afraid of much. But John was simply closer, and it was more prudent and convenient for John to do the asking. So John leaned toward Jesus and asked, "Who this betrayer might be." And then in verse 26 we read that, "Jesus answered, " It is he to whom I have given the morsel of bread when I have dipped it." Now, here's what you may not know about this whole idea, well first of all, in eastern meals, this was a very common sort of thing, they would have this bread that they would eat, and they would pass it around the table. And people would tear off a hunk, and then there would be a common bowl that people would dip into, and they weren't afraid of double dipping. By the way, they weren't afraid of that. So they dip it and they'd eat, and this is the way that they would eat. But it was a common tradition for the host to dip some bread in the sauce and hand it to a special guest. So this is something that the disciples would have seen and they would have recognized it as part of, kind of the Jewish way, the Jewish tradition. Little did they know that Jesus was signifying who in fact would be the betrayer. And we learn at the end of verse 26 that when, "he had dipped the morsel and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot." And when, ‘he had taken (the morsel) it.’ We're told that ‘Satan entered into him.’ so Jesus told him, "to go do quickly what he was going to do." I was reading one Bible commentator on this particular event and his statement said that this is the most, the statement that Satan entered into Judas is one of the most terrible expressions in all of the Bible. And I tend to agree. And some might see this and kind of wonder how Judas could be held responsible for his actions since Satan now was in control of him. It's like, well you were just saying here a moment ago, Pastor Paul, that Satan probably wound up in hell. Well, isn't that unfair? In light of the fact that we see here in this passage that Satan just entered into the man and it would appear that Satan was controlling the situation. And so Judas… And this is the way we often see this in our kind of human way of looking at it. We see Judas as kind of an unwitting puppets of some kind of satanic forces that overtook him and took control of him. And he simply had to do what now he was made to do.

But you got to understand that Satan simply doesn't possess the freedom to enter into someone without some kind of open door or invitation. There isn't just this, freedom for Satan, just a waltz into anybody's life, whenever they, whenever he wants. And just like, I'm going to pick that one and boom, kind of set up a residence inside someone's heart. If there's one thing John has done in this gospel, he has repeatedly painted a picture for us of Judas that showed us that Judas's heart was not right with God. He was a thief, he dipped into the money for his own use. He criticized people who were just showing their love of God and his heart wasn't right. In other words, he chose this path and there was by the choosing of this path an invitation and an open door that Judas created in his life that led to Satan taking control. The point is that Judas didn't have to be the betrayer. Somebody did, but it didn't have to be him. He chose that path. But as we read and go on here, the disciples, they just thought that Jesus was sending Judas out to do something like buy some more food or whatever the thing might be. But it was after Judas left that Jesus then began to speak once again and again, because now with Judas departing, this final element, this piece of what's going to happen has now been put into place, the wheels are all turning. And you'll notice in verse 31 that Jesus begins to speak and it says that He did it right when Judas left. It says,

Wow, this is interesting. Do you know there's a lot of glory going on there in those couple of verses? Did you notice that there's 5 references to glory and glorifying in just those simple 2 verses? But what's strange about those two verses, or I should say what maybe is most strange to us, is that they are spoken in light of what's about to happen. As we've already mentioned, as soon as they get done, with the meal here. You know where they're going to go. They're going to go to the garden of Gethsemane. What's going to happen there? Jesus is going to separate himself a little bit from the guys. They're going to fall asleep because they're exhausted. He's going to go over to a place about a stone's throw away to pray and he's going to begin to suffer intensely. And that suffering is going to go on to such a degree, the Bible will tell us he will actually exude great drops of blood out of his pores. I mean, you can only imagine what someone's blood pressure has to do to kind of bring about that sort of a physical or physiological response. This is going to be a time of intense suffering, where He's praying to God, his Father and all these things are going. And then there's the arrest, and then there's the mock trial, and the beatings, and the floggings and ultimately, the crucifixion. And here's Jesus talking about being glorified. That just blows me away. If I knew all what we just talked about was coming, I don't know if I would be talking, if I'd leapfrog ahead of that and start talking about other things. But I don't believe that Jesus was focusing on all of those things for the moment. I believe what Jesus was doing in his heart and mind, he was moving ahead to the outcome of all of those things. He was moving it. Did you hear me? He was moving ahead in his heart and mind to the outcome or the result of all of those things. And this is important for us to hear guys because there's a lesson here for all of us. And if there isn't for you, I'll tell you there is for me. This whole idea of looking at what Jesus was doing here is what we are exhorted to do when we're going through all kinds of challenging circumstances. Let me show you that… Paul actually puts this into words in his letter to the church in Colossae up on the screen from Colossians chapter 3.

It says, "Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died (and that's referring to that death we share with Christ)..." And he says, "...and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." Now, Paul was writing to Christians who were going through some pretty intense trials and difficulties and persecutions. And what's Paul focusing, getting them to focus on? What is beyond. He's moving them to what is beyond, and ultimately to what? What does that verse, what does that passage end with? He says, "(And) then you will appear with Him in glory."

So Paul is talking about the same thing. His eyes are fixed upon the same thing. He's exhorting you and me to be fixed upon the same thing, to direct ourselves toward that which is beyond. And yet what we continue to do is we just focus on what's right in front of us, the pain, the difficulty, the challenge. And we get all upset and all anxious, and we forget that there's something beyond. I was reminded by a note that I received from someone just this morning, that there's this wonderful promise that God takes those things in our lives and works them together for good, for all those who are called according to his purpose and who love God. It's one of those wonderful promises in the Bible, that tells us that whatever you're going through, whatever challenge you're dealing with right now, you commit that to the Lord, you acknowledge God in all of your ways and commit that to the Lord and say, Lord, I am yours and I trust you to work this thing out for my good. He has promised to do that. So here's my question to you, what do you think is the best thing to focus on while you're going through that difficult trial? The trial itself, or what God is going to do to use that trial to bring about His purpose and His glory in your life? Well, we all know the answer to the question, but it's a lot easier said than done, isn't it? Because when I'm going, I don't know about you, when I'm going through a trial, I'm fixated on my trial, and it's pretty tough to get my eyes on anything else but that's the exhortation that we have as believers. But the reason it's so difficult, you guys, is because to focus beyond, and that's what again, Jesus is doing here, to focus beyond takes faith, it takes faith. Not feeling but faith. What I'm feeling is my current circumstances. What I am to look toward by faith is what? How God is going to use those things to form Christ in me, to bring glory to His name, and ultimately that I might share that glory. Wow, that's difficult stuff. But that's the attitude that Jesus had related to the cross. He wanted to look beyond. You guys remember what it says in Hebrews 12:2 (ESV)

I love this. We are to do what he says here, "...looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross…" What was Jesus focused on? The difficulty of the cross? No, for the joy that was set before him and all that was going to come about through the cross. That's where Jesus was looking and that's why when he begins to speak to his disciples after Judas leaves. He begins to speak of glory, and he says, this glory that the Father is going to give me, it's not going to, you're not going to have to wait for my return. You're not going to have to wait for the new consummation of all things. He's going to do it quickly. He's going to do it now. And that leads us to verse 34, where Jesus said, if you look with me in your Bible, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another;" Now that's interesting, He says, "This is a new commandment." Well, the apparent problem with it, and some people have actually pointed this out, is that quite honestly, there's really not a whole lot new about just simply the command to love. I mean, even, the Jews were told to love the Lord their God, with all their heart, soul, strength, mind, and so forth. (Mark 12:30) And they were also told to love their neighbors themselves, right? (Matthew 22:39) So, fundamentally, there's nothing new about this. But the newness of this command is found as you keep reading again, verse 34, "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another." That's the newness of this command. Jesus is saying, I have given you an example. Now go do likewise. And you'll remember that just last week we talked about this example that He gave of washing feet. We talked about that last week, about all that entails. But of course, the greatest expression of His love comes yet beyond at the cross. And He's saying to you and me, now, take this example that I've shown you, this ultimate expression of love, and love one another. And He's talking really about believers loving believers here, for the most part, okay? And so this is what He is challenging us to do, to look at what He has done and to do likewise. And this kind of love is seen in a lot of different ways. Not the least of which is forgiveness. It's difficult, isn't it?

Have you ever noticed it's almost kind of easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive someone that you really love? Because you kind of expect that people who love you are going to treat you better, that they're going to care. You know your enemy doesn't care. So it's whatever, Lord, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. But when somebody who really, who loves you and you love them, turns around and stabs you in the back or whatever the offense might be, that's a challenging thing to get over. Well, remember what Paul wrote to us in the book of Ephesians? Once again, Jesus is the model. Let me show you this on the screen. Ephesians 4 12:2 (ESV) Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. From Ephesians chapter 4, "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted (look at this), forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." Well, there it is again, that's that example we just can't get away from. It's like, Lord, you're killing me here. You want me to love people the way you loved me? You want me to forgive people the way you forgave me? I've had people say this to me in the past, and I'll bet you if someone has maybe mentioned it to you too, as it relates to forgiveness, they'll say, "I just… I don't, I just don't know if I can do that. I don't think I can do that." And you know what I tell people when they say that to me, when they say, I don't think I can forgive this person? I tell them, yeah, I know. I know. Do you know that He can enable you if you're willing to let him work in you and through you to love and forgive? See the issue isn't whether you can do it or not. The issue is whether you're willing to let Jesus work in you to do that work of forgiveness and love and that sort of thing. There's a lot of Christians, and I'm going to go off on a just a little small rabbit trail, forgive me here. There's a lot of Christians who don't forgive because they confuse forgiveness with reconciliation. Do you guys know the difference? And the world doesn't understand the difference either, but you need to understand it. You can forgive somebody without necessarily being reconciled to them. What I mean by that is if somebody is in your life who is extremely toxic, hurtful in fact, and they've hurt you repeatedly, you're still called to forgive them, but you're not called to go back and bash your head against the wall again. And there's a point in time where you can say to someone, I forgive you, but I can't have you in my life anymore. You get that? But again, the world doesn't understand that if we pull back from someone who is repeatedly hurting us. They'll say, "Well, I thought you forgave me." I did forgive you but see they don't get that because they equate forgiveness with reconciliation. But you can truly forgive someone and that means to release them from debt, okay? That's what the essence of forgiveness means to release them from any sort of a debt that they owe against you, I release you in the name of Jesus. You owe me nothing. I forgive you, but I'm not going to go back and submit myself once again to this pounding. So understand that, okay? Don't wait around. Don't wait around to forgive somebody just because you think forgiveness and reconciliation have to go together, they don't. Anyway, end of the small rabbit trail. This chapter ends with a short exchange between Jesus and Simon Peter. In verse 36, it says that, "Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus answered him, "Where I'm going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me afterward." And Peter, of course, thought that this was some kind of a physical journey, and that Jesus was going away somewhere, and he was telling the disciples they couldn't go along with him. And yet Jesus explained that Peter would follow him later. Where's Jesus going? Going to the Father. When is Peter going to follow? When he's martyred for his faith. And church history tells us that Peter laid down his life in Rome and was caught up in the same persecution that took many many other Christians in Rome by the Emperor Nero, who was an absolutely insane man and who killed many believers. But Peter gave his life and when he did, he followed. Isn't that kind of a neat way to think about somebody departing this life? Isn't that kind of a neat way? Instead of saying, well they died, you say, well they followed Jesus. He went first, to go prepare a place. They followed him. I think it's kind of cool. But Peter, of course, wasn't ready to die yet, even though he thought he was. Look at verse 37, "Peter said to him, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? (He said), I'll lay down my life for you (I'm ready. I'm ready to go to whatever it"

takes. I'll do it. I'll follow you. You can cut off my head. I don't care. I'll go with you)." And Jesus said, "(Really?) Will you lay down your life for me?" Of course, it's an interesting question because He's asking Peter, "Will you lay down your life?" Peter would lay down his life for the Lord, for the sake of the Lord, but not yet. And that's why Jesus says, "Truly, truly I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times." And this gets into a topic that we're going to get into later in our study of John's gospel. When we get to that point of talking about John's denial, excuse me, Peter's denial of Jesus. And we're going to discuss at that time what Peter had to learn the hard way, which is that he was unable to serve the Lord in his own strength. And that's a lesson by the way, that we all have to learn, and we're going to talk about that when we get to it. I don't know if you were aware of that or not. Peter wasn't aware. He was not aware that he did not possess the strength in and of himself to serve the Lord. He thought he did. He thought he had what it took. Jesus had to show him that he didn't have what it took, and we're going to deal with that when we get to it. It's a painful lesson, though. I'll just tell you right now, it's a very very painful lesson. And it comes in all kinds of shapes and sizes whether you're confident like Peter, I can do this, or whether you're fearful and timid by nature or whatever, it doesn't really matter. We all have to come to the realization that we can't do it on our own. And I had to face this very same thing in the ministry. There was a time in the ministry where I was such a colossal failure in my own eyes that I had to just look at my life, close up and just, I was pretty disgusted with things, and I'd been trying to do the ministry in the power of my own self. And the Lord actually, I started a church up in Washington when I was a younger man, my early thirties, I guess maybe I was in my late twenties. I don't remember. I was probably too young to do that sort of a thing, and I had a gentleman who was very gifted in the prophetic who came and gave me a Word from the Lord. And the Lord said, I've kept this church from growing because it would have killed you. Isn't that a great thing to hear from the Lord? It's like, I thought it was, I didn't know why people weren't coming. But it was God who kept them away. Thanks Lord. I thought you were supposed to be in this thing. But He said, it would have killed you, and I didn't understand what that meant.

But I was like Peter, I was doing things on my own, in my own strength, in my own power. We're going to do this, God. We're going to set this town on fire for you, Jesus. And it was all Paul, and the Lord was like, man, that's the fast way to go down and so I'm going to keep this thing from growing until you. And then he took me through a series of extremely difficult challenges, kind of like Peter, where I finally came to the place of saying, Lord, I don't ever want to pastor a church again. And He said, now you're ready. We'll get into that later. Let's stand together. We're going to wait. We're going to hold it. Wait. Worship team, come on up. We're going to, I'm going to pray. And then I will have you stand in just a moment and we're going to worship. And also I want to let you know that we're going to have some folks up here to pray with you. Pray for you for whatever is kind of going on in your life and heart, family or whatever. And we'll have those folks available but we're just, let's just apply this. And then we're going to, then we're going to worship one last time before we depart. Father, we thank you for, we thank you for your presence here, first of all. We thank you for your incredible goodness to us by laying out Your Word and keeping it for us, Lord, all these years. And then, Lord, we're so thankful that through your Holy Spirit, the Word comes alive. And we see all these applications and all these ways that we can take the Word and bring it into our lives and walk it out. But, Lord, we just have to confess to you today that we don't have the power to walk out this Word. I don't have it in me, Lord, by myself. There isn't enough in Paul to walk out this Word. But, Lord, through your Holy Spirit, who lives in each one of us who has come to faith in Christ, the power is there, if we would simply yield to the work of your grace to enable us to be who you've called us to be. Lord, I want to just thank you today that you sacrificed yourself on the cross that we might be saved. We know that heaven is not open to those who have lived a good life. Heaven is open to those who are sinners, who have come to Jesus for forgiveness and embraced his work on the cross. And I am so thankful that you saved a sinner like me, a wretch like me. I don't deserve your love, I don't deserve your goodness, but you've given it, nonetheless. And I just praise you and thank you for that.

Now fill us, Lord, with your Holy Spirit and the power to live for you and to walk out our faith day by day. Help us to be busy until you come back for us. The Spirit and the Bride say, come, even so, come Lord Jesus, for it is in that name that we pray. Let's stand together and let's worship the Lord.