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This page was last updated 05/30/08

Series:  Study of John - Part 18

Scripture:  John 12:37-13:17

1. Have you ever noticed how the four Gospels don’t always agree in the way, or even in the chronological order, they portray the life of Jesus?

2. For example, we believe that the ministry of Jesus was at least two and a half years long? Where do we get that? Well, John has Jesus in Jerusalem three times before He was crucified, but Mark, Matthew, and Luke just have Jesus in Jerusalem one time, the time of His crucifixion.

3. There are other important differences as well: In John, he has the cleansing of the temple in the 2nd chapter after the turning of water to wine at the wedding party of Cana. While Matthew, Mark, and Luke have the cleansing of the temple at the last of their Gospels.

4. I would love to ask John some day why there is not an account of the Lord’s Supper in His Gospel? Instead, he gives us a something that the other gospels don’t; the foot washing that is in our reading for today.

5. Could it be that all of these differences were a coincidence or did the writers of the Gospels, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, deliberately write their Gospels the way they did for a reason?

6. I think they did for a reason.

7. For example, I believe that John put Jesus washing the feet of the disciples at the 13th chapter in order to contrast Jesus to those who said they believed in Him, but could not or would not try to be like Him. Let me explain….

8. After Jesus brought Lazarus back to life, there were a tremendous number of people who believed in Jesus. So much so, that the Pharisees made plans to kill Lazarus. They just didn’t want Lazarus around as a walking advertisement to what Jesus could do.

9. However, there were some leaders of the Pharisees who did believe in him (verse 42). But John said they wouldn’t confess Jesus because they were afraid that they would be put out of the synagogue. To which John added, these believers “loved praise from men more than praise from God.”

10. We talk about young people being susceptible to “peer pressure.” Truth be known, there is not a person here, including myself, who is not overly susceptible to peer pressure. It is easier to do something when we have the support of other people. And even if you know that something is right, it makes it ten times harder to do something when other people disagree.

11. For example, how many times have you and I had a good opportunity to witness about Jesus and did not do so because of what other people might say? Or at work or school, how many times have you not spoken up just because other people didn’t agree, even though you knew something was wrong?

12. John says we are that way because we “love praise from men more than praise from God.”

13. We all have the capacity to love, except for maybe a socio-path. The only question is, how do we express that love? It is very easy to love the wrong things in the wrong way.

14. John 13 gives us a wonderful and beautiful example of Jesus loving and how He showed his love. John is the only Gospel writer to include this in the Bible and I am so thankful that he did.

15. John begins by writing in verse 1: “…Having loved His own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.”

16. According to John, it was the night of the Passover and what we call the Lord’s Supper. Jesus knew that Judas Iscariot had betrayed Him, and he knew that He was going to die. So John says it this way: “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God.”

17. So He gets up, removes His outer garments, and wrapped a towel around Him. The disciples are laying down with their feet sticking out behind them, instead of setting a table with their feet underneath the table like we would do today. So, Jesus takes a basin of water and begins to wash the disciples feet.

18. The washing of someone’s feet was something that a slave or hired servant would do for the guests who had been invited to a banquet or a party. It was never, ever, ever done by the guest of honor, in whom the party was given in honor of.

19. The shock of what Jesus was doing was reflected in what Peter said: “No, you shall never wash my feet.” It would be like inviting the President of the United States to a banquet dinner at your house, with dinner guests from all over the world, and let him do the dishes and clean your bathrooms. No way would you let that happen, right ladies?

20. Yet, two things Jesus had made His mind up that He was going to do: one, he was going to die, two He was going to wash His disciple’s feet. Because as John said: “Having loved His own…He now showed them the full extent of His love.” He was going to die, but instead of dying like Royalty (which the world would have wanted Him to do), He was going to die like a servant who loved His disciples and was willing, for the last thing He did, to be washing their feet.

21. I think that, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, John was led to put this passage here to show us what someone would do who loved God more than the praise of other people. What someone would do who really knew what to love and how to show that love. Jesus died as a suffering servant; what more was the Son of God to do?

22. Now the rest of the passage… we want to ignore, don’t we? Do we want to ignore the servant part or the foot washing part? How many of you have been to a real foot washing? How many of you would like to have one?

23. It is kind of odd that Baptists, who say they believe the Bible and want to do what Jesus wants them to do, would shy away from a simple foot washing.

24. There are other ways of showing people that you love them. For example, we do have our ministry teams. You can visit and witness to people. You can call folks that haven’t come to church in a while, or you can go to the hospitals. You can invite people to church, help out the poor, and just be ready to express your love.

25. Look around you and find ways to serve God by serving people. There are people who need us…and by serving them, we serve Jesus who has set that wonderful and beautiful example before us.

Week of:  May 11, 2008
Title:   The New Commandment
Series:    Study of John - Part 19
Scripture:   John 13:18-38

1. According to Jesus, do you remember what He said are the two greatest commandments? “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” And: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22: 37-40)

2. To which He says that: “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:40) In other words, everything that the law teaches and everything that the Prophets encourage the people of God to do was and is based on love.

3. In our scripture this morning, Jesus is saying they have a new commandment. But what is new about this commandment?

4. Well, the new commandment is similar to the first and second. Love is still the essence of the commandment. Except here the commandment takes it much further than the second commandment which is to love your neighbor as yourself.

5. Because at times, we do love our neighbors as we do ourselves. In fact, you might say that at times we don’t like ourselves very much, and consequently even more so we don’t like anyone else either.

6. Now there is a difference between loving yourself and being a peace with yourself, than being obsessed with your own needs, wants, and wishes. Obsession with ourselves causes us to think of no one but ourselves.

7. When someone is obsessed with themselves and their wants, wishes, and needs, we call that selfishness. If you are a selfish person, you probably are so into yourself that you cannot think of anyone other than yourself. You’ll not make a good neighbor, friend, family member, husband or wife, or church member. In fact, selfish people do not make very good human beings.

8. Jesus is asking us to be the opposite of being selfish. He is asking us to love one another as He has loved us.

9. Therefore, He gives them a new commandment that they should love each other: “as I have loved you, so you must love one another.” It does not mean they should love each other as they were accustom of loving one another, but still loving each other as Jesus loved them.

10. Now go back to Chapter 13:1 “…Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.” What was the full extent of His love? As we said last week, Jesus showed the full extent of His love by washing His disciple’s feet and by dying for the world.

11. The result was Judas betrayed him, and Peter denied Him.

12. Look at 13:21 “…I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me. His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant.” So Peter motioned to the disciple, who was reclining next to Him, who John keeps referring to as the “disciple who Jesus loved” asked “Who is going to betray Him?” To which Jesus said: “It is the one who I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.”

13. Some people see this as a last effort to reach out to Judas. Because, personally serving someone food or even offering someone food was a sign of friendship. Anyway, when Judas received the food from Jesus “Satan entered into him” and he went out to do his evil deed.

14. Look at the last part of verse 30, John says simply: “And it was night.” Literally, it was dark because it was night. Spiritually, it was dark because the Son of Man was being betrayed.

15. And then there was Peter. Peter who was always outspoken, quick to give his opinion, seemly very confident of himself, speaks up and says: “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

16. To which I can see Jesus saying: “…I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”

17. What a sorry group of disciples! Peter denies Him, Judas betrays Him and then, when Jesus needs them to pray, Peter, James, and John fall asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane.

18. They fail Him miserably and yet He loved them deeply. This is the nature of His love. It is an “in spite of” love. It is like a good mother’s love.

19. Let me quickly give you some other characteristics of Jesus’ love. First of all, it is not romantic. It is not necessarily a strong mushy, feel good feeling toward someone. Even though John mentions this “beloved disciple” whom Jesus loved, there is not an instance in the Gospels in which Jesus says “I love you.” He demonstrated His love by what He did. In the Bible, loving is seen in how you treat other people.

20. What keeps us from treating other people as we would like to be treated? Most of the time it is pride or ego. We are just too prideful of ourselves and it often interferes in treating other people with love and respect. “So and so did this or said this to me and I am not going to let it go.” I know I’ve been there and done that.

21. Do you remember what Jesus said on the cross? He prayed a prayer. It was a request that Jesus asked of God: “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”(Luke 23:34) Who was that meant for? Just the soldiers who did the actual crucifying? How about Judas? How about Peter? James? John? You and me? Love is built on forgiveness, and forgiveness is built upon love. They are deeply related to one another.

22. In addition, true love, when it becomes so deep, requires selfless sacrifice. In fact, only God’s love and a parent’s love understand just how much sacrifice there is involved in love.

23. It is the kind of love in which Jesus has given us this New Commandment. Peter says it this way: “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sin.” (1 Peter 4: 8)

Week of:  May 18, 2008
Title:   Comfort of the Savior 
Series:  Study of John - Part 20  
Scripture:    John 14

1. How many of us like to be comfortable? We all do, don’t we? We have seats with backs on them, padded seats. We have air-conditioning in the summertime and heating in the winter. We just spent over one hundred thousand dollars to make our building comfortable in that regard.

2. But physical discomfort is only one kind of misery that, as human beings, we experience. What about psychological and emotional discomfort we experience when we are going through mental anguish? Regardless of the source and the area of discomfort, most people will seek comfort any way they can get it.

3. In our scripture today, John is moving the story of Jesus toward what we call the passion narratives. Does anyone know what the passion narratives of the Gospels are all about? The suffering and death of Jesus.

4. In Chapter 14, Jesus has just told the disciples that He is going die. What follows is Jesus’ attempt to comfort His confused and scared group of disciples.

5. He starts off by saying: “Do not let your hearts be troubled…, if you trust in God, if you say you trust in God, then trust also in me.” Why? Because I am telling you the truth, I am truthful.
     a. There is purpose in me leaving you. The purpose is to prepare a place for you some day. So that you come to join me. We can endure a lot of things if we know there is a purpose to it. Needless suffering is a hard pill to swallow.
     b. Second, the place that I am going is big enough for everyone. There is plenty of room; no one needs to fear that they will be left out. Heaven is big enough for everyone.
     c. I will come and get you because I am the way, the truth, and life. Look at verse 18: “…I will come to you.”

6. Phillip speaks up and says: “Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied with what you are telling us.” Haven’t you thought, man I wish I could just see God? Or I sure wish someone could prove to me that God exists, it would sure make this living by faith easier.

7. But look, even Phillip who lived with Jesus and knew Him personally was asking the same type of questions that we do and wanted to see God personally. In our relationship with God, there is always going be a tension between living by sight and by faith. There is always going to be “Lord, let me know you exist” and “I’ll just have to live by faith.”

8. So Jesus tells Phillip to be content with what he has. He says: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

9. How about us then? Have we seen Jesus so that we can say we have seen God the Father? Yes we have. We’ve seen Him through the eyes of John, Mark, Matthew, Luke and a host of other witnesses who wrote the Holy Scripture. As you read your Bible you see Jesus.

10. He also comforts His disciples by telling them: “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” How do you see this: is it a blank check or a get out of jail free card we can use anytime we want it? Even though He does say: “You may ask me for anything…” most Christians would say that “whatever we ask we must pray according to His will.”

11. But everything that Jesus promises is predicated on verse 15: “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” If we love Jesus, truly love Jesus, we will try our very best to do what He commands us to do. Now, it is not a contest who can love Jesus more. It is not work salvation in the context of loving Jesus.

12. In return for our love and obedience, He sends us a “counselor”—the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth and love that comes to us, guides and directs us. It is a Spirit of love and peace that helps us and comforts us. It is the Spirit of Jesus that lives in our hearts.

13. Look in verse 19, “Before long, the world will not see me.” In other words, He is going to die. However, He says: “you will see me.” He is not talking about us literally seeing Him, but He is talking about Jesus being with us in His loving, truthful, and comforting Spirit. In short, Jesus who loves us… will show Himself to us, when we love Him back. Loving Jesus is the way we experience the comfort of the loving Spirit.

14. This loving Spirit, according to Jesus, “will teach you all things,” verse 25, and will call to mind everything that Jesus has said to them (verse 26). This loving Spirit, will give us peace of mind, and according to verse 27, will give us the courage not to be afraid. So He says: “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

15. Does that mean that Christians should never be troubled, upset, or even depressed? No! Does that mean that Christians should never be anxious or afraid? No! But it does mean that there should be a depth and an end to our pain and discomfort. Why? Because Jesus and His loving Spirit are meant to be our comforter. He is meant to comfort us as He comforted His disciples.

Week of:  May 25, 2008
Title:  Fruit That Will Last 
Series:  Study of John - Part 21  
Scripture:  John 15: 1-17

 
1. How many of you love to eat fruit? What is your favorite fruit? Apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, grapefruit, watermelon, peaches, pears, pineapples, strawberries—how about fresh grown tomatoes?

2. A website I looked at gave 10 reasons why we should eat fruit.
     a. It is 80 percent water just like the human body
     b. Stimulates our memories
     c. Has mysterious healing properties (kid you not)
     d. Not expensive
     e. It is fibrous, therefore good for digestion
     f.  It 100 percent natural
     g. Makes you feel better
     h. You don’t have to kill anything to eat it
     i.  Makes for a good balanced diet
     j.  No bad-cholesterol

3. However, like most food, fruit spoils rather easily.

4. In our scripture this morning, Jesus is talking about fruit, about grapes and grapevines that grow them. According to John, Jesus sees Himself as being the vine and His disciples being the branches of the vine, and God being the vineyard keeper or the Gardner.

5. In the Old Testament, Jeremiah 2:21, Israel is the vine that God has planted, but Israel has ignored its Planter and produced some wild and strange fruit that is alien to God.

6. In John, Jesus is the vine yet, unlike Israel, He doesn’t ignore the Gardner—the Father. In fact, Jesus and the Father are one. He does exactly what the Father wants and the vine grows, and the branches increase and grow. There is one more variable, the vine is healthy but the branches which grow from the vine don’t always do as they should. They don’t always grow strong and produce grapes.

7. The Bible has little patience for anything that should produce fruit but doesn’t. In Luke 3:9, John the Baptist is speaking and he says: “every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

8. In Matthew 21:18, Jesus is hungry and sees a fig tree by the road. He walks up to it to get a fig and finds nothing on it except leaves. To which he curses it and it dies.

9. In our scripture, Jesus says that every branch that grows from Jesus, the vine that doesn’t produce fruit, the Divine Gardner cuts it off, throws it in the fire and it burns up.

10. In the spiritual world, despite the longsuffering of God and the eternal patience of the Loving Father, there is this expectancy for everything that is created to fulfill its purpose. There is this desire from God, our creator and maker, to have His creation fulfill its designated purpose.

11. If you read the Bible seriously you cannot help but to see when God gives you a gift, He expects you to use it. When I was growing up in my home church, I heard terrible stories about how people felt that because they didn’t use a gift that God gave them they lost it. For example, if you’ve got a voice to sing, and you don’t sing then you’ll someday loose it.

12. But what does it mean to produce fruit? In Luke 3:9, after John the Baptist tells the people listening to Him that “every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire,” they start asking “what then should we do?”

13. Turn to Luke 3:10-14 and please read. To Luke and John the Baptist, producing fruit is not taking advantage of people and doing good deeds to help other people out.

14. To John, producing fruit is having faith in God and loving God. But scripture passages can be tied together by saying that “good fruit is loving, caring deeds done because we believing in Jesus that shows how much we love God and one another.”

15. Everyone produces some kind of fruit—selfish or good.

16. Everyone’s life someday will have something that will show for it. The only question, what? Don’t you ever ask yourself “why or to what am I living for?”

17. Jesus says something very interesting that reached out and grabbed me in verse 16. “Fruit that will last.” What is it?