Sunday, January 25, 2009

"You Are My Disciples" Sermon: John 13:31-35

“You Are My Disciples”
[John 13:31-35]
January 25, 2009 Second Reformed Church

Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? How would others answer this question about you?

Our Scripture this morning takes place after the Last Supper. Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper and, in so doing, he revealed that Judas was His betrayer. Judas, then, ran out into the night to seal his betrayal of Jesus. So, our Scripture begins by telling us that our reading occurred “when he had gone out.” Jesus told the eleven these things after Judas had left.

Jesus told the eleven three things that they needed to know to face what would soon occur. Jesus told them three things about being glorified. Let us remember that when we talk about glorifying, we are not talking about adding to God – to any member of the Trinity – what we mean by glorifying is that we are making Who God is more clear. We function like a telescope when we glorify – we bring God – Who is bigger than our minds can fully comprehend – and we make Who He is more clear to ourselves and others.

Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified.”

What had happened that made this the time that the Son of Man was glorified? Judas had been identified as the betrayer. If there was any chance that Judas would repent and turn back from his sin, it was now gone. He had been confronted by Jesus, and Judas became possessed by Satan himself (John 13:27), and he went out to complete his betrayal of Jesus – to lead the Romans and the Pharisees to the place where He would be praying, so they could arrest Jesus, try Him, have Him sent to be tortured and then crucified – the most horrific form of death humans have ever come up with.

Why is this the glorification of Jesus? Because this is why He came Jesus came to die The prophet Simeon told Mary and Joseph, “‘Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed’” (Luke 2:34b-35, ESV). The crucifixion reveals Jesus and the means of His Mission. Jesus could not have lived and died in any other way and fulfill the prophecies of the Savior. Jesus could not live a “normal” life and die of old age and fulfill the prophecies of the Savior. Jesus could not have overthrown the Roman government and set up an earthly kingdom then and fulfill the prophecies. No, Jesus is glorified – He is better seen for Who He is and what He came to do – as the Pharisees lead Him through a mock trial, gave Him over to the Romans to be tortured, and then cried out with glee to have Him nailed to the cross and left to die.

In the generations to come, Christians would be mocked and persecuted for believing that some dead criminal is God. But Christians look to the crucifixion and hear Jesus say, “It is finished,” and rejoice, because He accomplished all that the Father sent Him to do.

Then Jesus said, “and God is glorified in him.” How is the Father glorified in the crucifixion and death of Jesus? How do we see God the Father more clearly through the slaughter of the God-Man?

At least in three ways: in the crucifixion, we see the fulfillment of the Promised Savior, and the way He would come and save, as it was promised to our first parents: “‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel’” (Genesis 3:15, ESV).

Second, God fulfilled His Justice and Holiness by not allowing sin to go unpunished. God could not be Holy and Just if He allowed sin to go unpunished, for He said, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a, ESV). We see Jesus receiving the Full Wrath of God for all of the sins of all of us who would believe as He “descended into Hell” while on the cross. When we make that confession, we understand that Jesus endured all the suffering of eternity in Hell for each one of us who would believe in those hours on the cross. It was so horrible, so unimaginable, that Jesus cried out, “‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matthew 27:46B, ESV). In some horrible way that we cannot understand, the One God, in the Person of the Father, broke the eternal communion that the Trinity had from eternity past, and deserted the One God, in the Person of the Son, on the cross. Somehow, God disrupted the unity of Himself and imposed all of the eternities of Hell that we, believers, deserve, on Himself.

And third, God was also glorified in this horrible act of crucifixion, as He, at the same time He meted out His Justice and Holiness in punishing our sin on our Substitute, by showing us the greatness of His Mercy and His Love towards we who believe. “See what manner of love the Father has given us, that we should be called the children of God; and so we are” (I John 3:1a, ESV).

This leads us to the third way in which we see glorification in the events of the crucifixion: “If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.” What is Jesus saying? Jesus is telling the eleven – and us – that the crucifixion is not – cannot – be the end of the story. God did more than promise that all those who believe would be forgiven for their sins. God did more than promise that the Savior would die to redeem us. Because if that’s all Jesus did, the first time we sinned, we would be lost and doomed to Hell again. No, Jesus, since He is Holy and Sinless, death could not hold Him, and God raised Him from the dead and God seated Jesus – the God-Man – on the eternal throne of the Son of God. “Therefore God has highly esteemed him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the father” (Philippians 2:9-11, ESV).

God has glorified Jesus is raising Him from the dead and giving Him the throne of the Eternal Son, by giving Him the Name that is above every name, by causing all who believe to confess Him as Lord and Savior now and by causing all who do not believe to confess Him – to justify their damnation – on the last day. And the glorification was at once – Jesus was raised on the third day and seen and examined by hundreds of witnesses. They would not have to wait, but had salvation confirmed to the glory of God the Father in the resurrection of Jesus that Sunday morn.

So, Jesus assured the eleven by letting them know that the crucifixion was not the failure of His Mission, but the culmination of it – the crucifixion had to happen for salvation and to the glory of the Father and the Son.

This was hard news, even so. So, Jesus addressed the eleven – once Judas, the unbeliever, had left – calling them “little children.” Jesus expressed His Affection – His Love for the eleven – and for all of us who believe. Jesus speaks to us tenderly and assures us that He is sovereignly in control of history.

And then He tells them, explicitly, that He was going to leave them, and they would not be able to follow where He went. That was not to say that the eleven would not die for their faith – most of them did. What Jesus was telling them is that He must die, and they must not be afraid to allow Him to fulfill His Mission in this way. Jesus was calling them to trust Him and the Plan of God.

We know that’s not always easy. How do we trust a God we do not see? How do we trust when it seems like everything is going wrong? Do we question where God is or why God has allowed things to occur the way they have? Do we trust that God knows what He is doing, even when we don’t? As we see God glorified in all that He has done, we know Him better, and we can, with greater confidence, trust that God will not fail to accomplish what He intends, even though it may be hard for us to understand on any given day.

Then Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you are to love one another.” How is this a new commandment? Hasn’t God told us from the beginning to “love our neighbor as ourselves”? The difference is that, here, Jesus is emphasizing that the eleven – and all Christians – must love each other. What does that mean?

C. S. Lewis, in his book The Four Loves, (which I heartily recommend to all of you – it is short and very readable), explains that the Greeks have four words for “love.” The Greeks distinguished among four types of love: they have a word that means “affection for one another,” a word a means “brotherly love; comradery,” a word that means “sexual desire and/or intimacy,” and a word that means “self-sacrifice.”

The word that Jesus uses to described what He was doing and what He expects from those who believe in Him is agapeo – the love of self-sacrifice. Jesus was not saying that we all have to like each other’s personalities. He was not saying that we all have to be best buddies – BFFs. He was certainly not saying that we all ought to be sexually involved with each other. What Jesus was saying is that He commands all those who believe in Him to love each other with a self-sacrificial love. We are to love each other in a way that is willing to go out of our way for each other because Jesus loved us in that way and gave His Life for us.

The story is told of the conductor, Stravinsky, who was so passionate in his conducting on one occasion, that he dislocated his shoulder. Have you ever been willing to be dislocated to help a fellow Christian? Jesus commands us to be willing to love so much that – in every way that we are able – we are to be willing to show our love by being dislocated – by doing anything and everything we are able to do to make our brothers’ and sisters’ lives better. How often do you ask yourself what you can do to help the members of this congregation? If we love each other, as Jesus says we are to love each other – the way that He loved us – even to death – when we are able, we are to be willing to put ourselves out for each other. Most of us will not be asked to die for each other, but are you willing to give up your afternoon nap to help someone in this congregation for an hour?

Jesus said that it is by this type of love that the world will know we are His disciples. What are disciples? Disciples are followers or students or pupils of a teacher. Notice, Jesus does not say that we will be known for being part of the same denomination, or using the same hymnal, or agreeing on every point of teaching. Jesus says that we will be known as the disciples of Jesus because we are willing to love each other sacrificially. We are willing to go out of our way for each other. We are willing to give of our time and talents and gifts – as we are able – we all have different abilities and blessings – some people are able to do some things and some are able to do others.

Are you willing to look at a fellow believer in Christ and put aside their politics and personality, their quirks and eccentricities, their – whatever it is that puts you off – and recognize that this is a person for whom Jesus gave His Life, so you are called to do what you can for him or her? Are you a disciple of Jesus?

As Jesus looked forward to the crucifixion, He told the eleven that they ought to be comforted and trust in Him and in God as He and the Father glorify each other through His Horrific Death, and then through the Resurrection and Ascension. He tells them to be confident and trust in the Plan of God, because He is Sovereign over history. And then He tells them to love each other self-sacrificially, like He loves them – like He loves you and me and all those who believe in Him. Will you love each other like that? Will you be known as a disciple of Jesus?

Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for glorifying Yourself, Father and Son, in the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension. We thank You that You loved us so much to die to reconcile us to You. We ask that You would give us grace and help us to love each other in that way, that the world would know that we are Your disciples. May You be glorified in this and all we do. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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