An Intimate Setting for a New Command
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31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Setting the Stage
Setting the Stage
Now, Judas has left to betray the Lord.
By Judas choosing to betray the Lord…
The plot against Jesus, to crucify Him, has been put into motion.
And, Jesus says…
31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.
The Glory of God
The Glory of God
Jesus is wanting them to understand that the Cross is an expression of the glory of God.
His death is an expression of the glory of God.
He’s been telling them that He will die…
And, they have yet to really come to terms with it.
It’s like they quickly put that thought away…
And, would rather ignore it than learn from it.
As we hear what Jesus states here, we’re drawn to a Servant of the Lord passage in Isaiah.
What is known as a Servant Song…
1 Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar.
The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away. [truth spoken, dividing people, hidden/protected by the Father]
3 And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” [Jesus is the true Israel/the true, obedient Son of God]
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; [He came to His own…rejected]
yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God.” [His motive is the glory of His Father/His Father will glorify Him]
5 And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him—for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength—
6 he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
[Blessings to the Nations through the gospel of His Son]
Now, I really wanted to zero in on v.3, as that verse really zeroes in on what Christ is saying...
But the whole of the passage is so gospel rich…
And, speaks explicitly to the glory given and shared between the Father and the Son.
So, Isaiah has come to the realization that the nation of Israel could not the Servant of the Lord.
The nation will come back from Babylon with the problem of sin unresolved…
—> And, without peace with God.
The nation of Israel was supposed to indirectly mediate the blessings of God to the world…
But, they have failed miserably…
And, so a new Servant, but a Servant planned and purposed by God from eternity past…
—> Will step in and fulfill the role with a new covenant.
He will be the true Mediator of the blessings of God…
And, those blessings will flow to the Nations.
And, the work of the Son will glorify the Father…
And, the Father will glorify the Son through the work of the Son.
And, that’s what we’re being told here, by Jesus…
And, that’s what we’re being told here, by Jesus…
32 If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.
The unity of the Son and the Father are such that if One is glorified the other is glorified, as well.
If the Son glorifies the Father by His work…
The Father will at the same time glorify the Son through His work.
And, the disciples, rather than see the cross as an event of shame…
They need to see the cross as an event that displays in the greatest way the glory of God.
There is mutual glory in the work of redemption.
The Father delights to grant the Son’s requests because the Son always pleased the Father.
The Son shows the world by His death how holy and just the Father is, and how He hates sin.
The Father shows the world, by raising and exalting the Son to glory, how He delights in the redemption for sinners which the Son has accomplished.
Now we’re only hours away from the Cross.
Now we’re only hours away from the Cross.
And, the thought of His glorification which will climb to the heights of Christ’s glorified humanity having fellowship with the Father at His right hand, forevermore.
And the tone and teaching of the Lord becomes much more intimate as He speaks to His eleven.
He says…
33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’
This term is only used here in John’s gospel…
But it becomes a favorite label in Hi epistles…like beloved.
This term little children is an endearing title that the Lord gives the eleven, absent Judas…
Is from the infinitely deep well of love that He has for His own.
My dear little children would be a proper expression of this word.
And, then after this endearing label He informs them once again of His departure.
It is much more immediate now than it was before, when He taught them of such.
But, he tells them…yet a little while I am with you.
It’s about to happen.
He’s about to die on the cross.
Three days in the grave and then resurrection.
Of course, following that would be the ascension.
Now, Jesus adds something that He has said before to the RL’s…
But, the manner and the meaning in which He says it is quite different than what and how he said it to the RL’s.
33 …You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’
I don’t want to belabor the point being made here, as Jesus will address it more fully in Chapter 14.
But, Jesus is wanting to prepare them for His death on the Cross.
Jesus wants them to come to the realization that He will depart the earth and ascend to His Father.
They will be without His physical presence soon enough.
But, He is not saying to the eleven that they cannot come because they will die in their sin.
He is saying they cannot come immediately.
And, we will look more deeply at that in Chapter 14.
Now, in order to prepare them for their upcoming…
Soon to be realized ministry as Apostle of the Lord…
He gives them a command that embodies the foundation of the Christian life…
And, all Christian ministry.
Jesus says…
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
A New Commandment
A New Commandment
What a display of love the ministry of Christ has exampled for them.
What a display of love was the foot washing.
What a display of love will the cross be for them to behold.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13…
If you can speak in the tongues of men and angels.
If you have prophetic powers.
If you have all knowledge.
If you have so strong a faith as to move mountains.
But do not have love…you’re no more useful than clanging cymbals at a silent prayer meeting.
Is this a new commandment?
Is this a new commandment?
Not new in that God had never commanded for mankind to love.
The 2nd greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.
But it is new in the following ways:
As an Hebrew idiom it would carry a meaning of excellent or heightened.
There’s no doubt that the parable of the Good Samaritan showed what a low priority loving your neighbor had become.
In the new covenant it is to be elevated to the forefront…
Especially, within the household of faith.
As Christians, we are in covenant with one another because we are in the new covenant with the Lord.
We are called to:
love one another
cling to one another
bear with one another
bear one another’s burdens
there is to be a peculiar love within the church
Our hearts have been knit together in the bonds of Christ.
So, we are to love one another in a peculiar way…
And, that way is:
a forgiving way
a redeeming way
a bearing way
a charitable way
The unregenerate heart and mind may not understand/love doctrine…
But, they can understand and are drawn to charity.
And, Christ is pouring a foundation of love for His disciples to build upon.
Now, for a moment, I want us to…
Understand the Command
Understand the Command
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
Now, remember, Jesus has already stated that these disciples are fully clean.
Fully justified by Him.
And, so a newness of this command is that in the New Covenant there are no commands that have attached to them the wage of life or death.
This is a command to pursue, for sure.
But, it is a command that gives us the privilege to pursue it for our Savior…
Out of gratitude.
Not to earn life or to lose it.
But to be able to emulate the Lord without being exiled for failure.
If you are not in Christ, you are in Adam.
If you are in Adam, you are in a broken covenant with God.
You are under a deserved, justified condemnation.
Only in Christ, is one freed from such a broken covenant…
And, placed in a kept covenant.
Kept by Christ on behalf of His own.
A kept covenant that you cannot break.
Because within the New Covenant there are no commands that say…
—> Do and Live … Do not do and die
Jesus gives this new command some identifiable weight.
He says…
35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
How Shall They Know?
How Shall They Know?
As much as doctrine matters —> And, it does.
There’s no gospel without correct doctrine.
There’s no knowing Christ without correct doctrine.
There’s no salvation/justification without correct doctrine.
But, all of that without love is clanging cymbals.
Love is to be the grand characteristic of Christ’s disciples.
Love is the motive behind the:
learning
studying
teaching preaching
of sound doctrine.
Charity is recognized by the world.
Charity is recognized by the world.
And, I think the doctrinally correct churches have lost many opportunities with the lost because of a lack of charity.
And, I think the cults have gained attraction from the world…
Not because of proper doctrine, but because of charity.
But, the Bible teaches that the true church...
—> We are supposed to have both.
Let’s think about this...
Let’s think about this...
Imagine how different this world would be if love and charity were behind our words at work.
If we spoke our doctrine into the ears of others with charity behind it…
Rather than vitriolic name calling.
As one theologian stated…
It is nonsense to talk about justification, and regeneration, and election, and conversion, and the uselessness of works, unless people can see in us practical Christian love.
May the Lord help us to rest in His work.
While pursuing love towards one another.
In order to imitate our Savior!
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
