The Gospel of John 13:1-38

We're on John 13, 1 through 38, which ends up being the entire chapter. So this is getting to be a pivotal moment. in that we're looking at what's typically called the Last Supper. I ask you to take a look at the last page, which is a color printout in today's handout, and we'll step through the slides here. Some that we've been through before, and I have one particular page highlighted, what we've done is rather than text to have some Here's what we've got and we've been pointing out.

This is getting to be Passover time. The typical Jewish pattern was Passover officially starts at sundown. And so the Passover would be observed that evening, but technically speaking, the rest of the next day until sundown is still Passover, right? So the event that we're looking at here is often called the Last Supper. It's less than a day in hours before Christ would be crucified. And so this is April 3rd, 33 AD, is the day of Passover and Christ's crucifixion, which is as we typically view it on a Friday. Here is what we pointed out previously. Here in chapter 12, we end up in Passover week. This is the day of Passover, sundown having come about.

The Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and those three cover actually some different material than what John covers. On the other hand, what John does cover is some phenomenally rich material from chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17 that the other Gospels don't have. So they're good complementary passages. Here is what you have, actually is one small slide where I just step through each little part of it.

This is the traditional chronology. Zacchaeus would have been, that event as described would have been the Friday before Christ's crucifixion. We saw Saturday would be Lazarus raised in Bethany and Sunday would have been what's typically called the triumphal entry.

I put it in quotes because it was not as triumphal as is typically presented. On Monday, Jesus drove out the money changers, that's not recorded in John. And then Tuesday, the Olivet Discourse, that would be Matthew 24 and 25, not recorded in John. Wednesday, Jesus coming to the Temple in Jerusalem.

And Thursday, here now, the Last Supper, which would be the evening of Passover, following sundown on the day of Passover. and then the crucifixion and burial on Friday the next day, and then on Saturday in the grave, and then Sunday resurrection. So our focus today will be largely this Thursday, just the day before Christ's crucifixion, which would be the Passover, starting at sundown. Alright, now this, and I think you have most of this on a slide there on the supplement, the last page of your handout. You'll want to make sure you get a handout to track this here.

And so what happened, and this is not described explicitly in the Bible, but it does come from Exodus 6, 6 and 7. What they did is they developed traditions about Passover in addition to what was explicitly spelled out, and that tradition is they had four cups of wine, diluted five parts of water to one part of wine. So it was very dilute wine, but they had four cups of wine, around which the entire Passover ceremony took place.

And the first one was centered on, I will bring you out, signifying deliverance. I will rid you of your bondage, signifying freedom. The next one, I will redeem you, so that's redemption. And then finally, I will take you for my people and will be your God, so consummation.

So those four statements out of Exodus 6, 6 and 7 were tied to the drinking of the cup together, the cup of diluted wine. So this first one would be an opening prayer for Passover. I will bring you out. The next one would be explaining Passover, and then Psalm 113 to 114 would be often sung there, traditionally. I will redeem you, they would eat the bread, lamb, and bitter herbs. And we're going to talk about that in a minute, because that's a critical point here in today's passage. The fourth cup, I will take you for my people and be your God.

They would sing Psalm 115 to 118. Now, between Psalm 113 to 118, so that would be called the Hallel, they would sing those as they would climb up the grade to Jerusalem. They sing those together. And those songs were sung that fit along with what we find is the triumphal entry, Hosanna, and Hallelujah. That would be called the Hallel. So they would sing those psalms spread between the second and the fourth cup.

And those were also traditionally sung, Psalm 113 through 118, as the Jews would ascend the grade up towards Jerusalem. Now, and this you have also in your handout, this first cup here, it appears likely that Luke 22, 17 describes Christ saying the blessing before they all drank from the first cup. So it would be like we would pray before beginning a meal, right? And then this third cup, it was during the eating of the bread, lamb, and bitter herbs associated with the third cup that Christ spoke of Judas' betrayal, as well as saying, this is my body and this is my blood, which shows up in the other Gospels, but not in the Gospel of John.

But this is what we're going to see in chapter 13. That's the point that we're going to find. And this brings up another point and a principle that frequently people will look at the Bible and they will interpret based only on what they see and what frequently is not stated is what would have been assumed that everybody knows. And things like these four cups, you don't see them talking about all those four cups.

Why? Because everybody knows that stuff. So the Gospels have this as a backdrop But don't go through all this explanation like I just gave you. And so it's important as we interpret the Bible to go through and look at what is the background, what is not stated because it's assumed everybody knows this. And what I find frequently where I'll look at some commentator and I'll say, well that's not quite right. is they're looking only at what is there and not what is assumed because everybody knows that stuff, right? Okay. Pardon? Yes, as a matter of fact, I have several books at home. I didn't bring one, but I have several different copies of the Passover Haggadah.

Nancy and I brought some years back a Jewish lady who lived across the hall from us She gave me a bunch of these things. She was an older lady, so I offered to her family to take any of them back that they wanted. One of them was made in Jerusalem with a custom wooden cover. And so anyway, they took that back. But they left me with a few.

And what they do is they'll have Passover Haggadahs, which is a, and by the way, you read it from the back to the front from our usual practice. And they'll go through and read through that as a part of the Passover celebration. And it includes this. It includes the same tradition.

The Sadducees often had different traditions. But at 70 AD, when the Romans attacked, the Sadducees were wiped out. It's not the only ones that were wiped out, but the Sadducees were wiped out. So the traditions we have now among the Orthodox Jews, many of them come from the Pharisees who were not wiped out in the 70 AD attack on Jerusalem.

So to answer your question, long answers, is yes, that's generally how it's practiced today. that the tradition has, it has some variation but in general has been held that way. I'm trying to think. The interesting, I think it's Folgers or one of the mainline coffee producers actually printed out a bunch of them. I had a bunch of them available here some time back but I've run out of them.

Nonetheless, yeah, this is a tradition that's been longstanding and it's not like the Jews originally did it, but it's traditions added to the Passover celebration. Okay, here you have the bottom of your supplement handout, a map of Jerusalem. This is the location where it's believed the Last Supper, the upper room, took place. Studying the history, the upper building has been added during the Middle Ages, but the floor area there is actually very likely the room. I've got some pictures of it here. This was the room, what I say, the column and the ceiling. part is certainly added later, but the floor area is very likely the room where the Last Supper was held. Here's another shot of that same room here.

So this would have been an artist's rendering, probably pretty true to form, of Jesus reclining at the table. By the way, this reclining at the table, the way they did, they didn't sit in chairs like Leonardo da Vinci had them. They would actually recline at the table like on cushions or pillows or something of that sort.

That was originally not a part of the tradition, because remember, Passover, they were told to eat standing. They're ready to go, eat standing. And it was actually considered during Old Testament times pagan and rude and slothful to eat reclining. But the tradition changed. The Greeks actually introduced this reclining at table pattern and it was accepted.

And so here's Judas, the betrayer. And let's see, this picture right there shows him taking off. In the artist's rendering, him taking off to carry out his betrayal. Okay, with that, let's head into the main part of the handout here. So we're John 13, 1-38, starting with verses 1-4.

So now, before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that he would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, the devil made, excuse me, having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper and laid aside his garments and taking a towel he girded himself. Now we brought up before and so I brought this forward starting in chapter 2 of John, this is where Jesus was at Cana, which is a small village in the northwestern part of Galilee. He was at Cana, this is where the water was turned to wine.

This is the first mention of my hour has not yet come. And we see from John 2 to John 7 and John 8, a continuing pattern of my hour or my time is not yet here. And then as we get into John 12 and John 13, finally we see an open recognition, my hour has come, the time is here. So that's the pattern we have laid out on page one there. Why all this focus on the time and the hour? Why all that significance? It's extremely significant. And why was it extremely significant?

Yeah, in other words, this is the ultimate purpose for why I came. I came here to do this, I came here to do that, and I've done all sorts of different things, and I've not done certain things, but in the end, the most important thing that I've come here for, the reason that I came here to planet Earth, is now about ready to happen. And so, really, it's interesting. Probably most of us don't have that same kind of sense. It's like my whole reason for being here is about to happen here in the next hours.

Probably none of us has quite that sense, but here's Jesus realizing that yeah, he came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he came and appointed disciples and everything he did was purposeful, but nothing was as purposeful, nothing was as important as this crucifixion and burial and resurrection. Nothing is as important as that. So this hour for which I've come, isn't it interesting, when did Jesus first, when did the Son first address, deal with, consider this death on the cross? When did he first consider that? The time of the Eternal Covenant, we'll be talking about that in Hebrews, before God said, let there be light.

Revelation 13.8, He was slain before the foundation of the world. The eternal covenant was, okay, knowing that mankind will need to be saved, and that Christ's death on the cross is the only way that that's going to happen, before God said, let there be light, before God created all things, before God made man male and female, before any of that, I'm going to be crucified. And so here is this pivotal point standing between eternity past and eternity future.

Here is this pivotal point, this pivotal moment, and now it's getting down to the count of hours. It's getting down to the count of hours. Here at this Last Supper event, it's not even going to be 24 hours and He will be in the tomb. So this is not Jesus getting all obsessive This is not Jesus, you know, getting kind of cranking out of balance.

This is Jesus from eternity past, finally at this moment, fulfilling this. He's seeing this hour that had been agreed upon before he said, let there be light. Now, at this time, to fulfill it. So that's his perspective. And that moment, that pivotal moment, will affect all the rest of eternity. It's essential. It is the hour. It is the hour. OK, let's take a look at verse 4.

He says, getting up from supper, he laid aside his garments, and taking a towel, he girded himself. This was something that the lowest servant would do. And so I'm sure at first the disciples were puzzled. What's he doing? Now, wait a minute, where is this in the Passover Haggadah, you know? You're probably thumbing through this thing and trying to figure out, you know, what's happening here.

And so he started doing this, basically taking off the outer garment and then putting a towel around yourself, which is something that the lowest servant did. Not the one who was heading up the Passover event. OK, let's take a look at the top of page 2. This is John 13, 5 through 11.

Then he poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. So he came to Simon Peter and he said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet? So Jesus answered and said to him, what I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter. Peter said to him, Never shall you wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head. Jesus said to him, He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not all of you. For he knew the one who was betraying him, and for this reason he said, not all of you are clean." So it was the typical place of the household servant to wash the feet of the others in the household.

It was the rabbinical tradition in Israel that a rabbi could ask his disciples to do lots of things. Go get this, go here, do that. It was against the tradition, and it was specifically stated, A rabbi may not ask his disciples to wash his feet. However, there was no tradition at all that said that the rabbi could not wash his disciples' feet. They didn't even conceive that that might happen. So Jesus wasn't breaking tradition, he was establishing something entirely different. by reversing, turning on its head, the tradition where a rabbi could not ask his disciples to wash his feet. So he instead is going to be the rabbi who washes his disciples' feet, all of them.

Peter's questioning the appropriateness of Jesus washing his feet turned into refusal. Even Jesus telling Peter that he would understand later did not seem to deter Peter. It's not like, okay Peter, you'll understand later, just be cool. Peter's not settling with that. So Peter's refusal to have Jesus wash his feet was emphatic. It conveyed something like, and by the way, this is in Greek, they have in Greek grammar something that in English is not proper. It's actually not not.

We've encountered it before, John 10.28, and they shall never perish, and John 10.28 is actually, I'll expand on it, and they shall not not perish of their own doing. This is also, and later on in Hebrews we'll run into this, he will never leave you or forsake you. Twice this not not is there. So this is emphatic.

Peter is saying, and I quote it here, there is not the slightest chance that you will wash my feet. No way. That would be the way we would carry it across in English. There is no way I'm going to let you wash my feet. No. And so after Peter's abject refusal, there's no way, then Peter goes the other way, and the Lord says, you know, I've got to wash your feet or else you're going to have no part with me. Oh, in that case, wash everything! Right?

So here's this Peter who's kind of brash and outspoken and easily flip-flops. So Jesus was using the foot washing as an illustration. both in his actions and his speech to refer to spiritual cleanliness. Notice as he talks to them he starts talking about spiritual cleanliness and this is illustrating spiritual cleanliness.

This conveys what we have come to call position and condition. Here at Holly Hills those are the terms. Some will use related terms, standing and state. We say that positionally you are in Christ. Positionally Christ is in you. However, in your daily condition, that is from moment to moment, there is a question of, am I walking in my position? You see that?

Jesus is actually conveying things in that terms. Peter is positionally already clean. That is, he has a relationship with Christ. but only needs to be conditionally clean to maintain fellowship with Christ by foot washing. Judas, on the other hand, is positionally and therefore conditionally unclean. He has neither relationship nor fellowship.

I've explained this before, but just to make it ultimately clear, if I could use this example. Randy is my son. I'm his father. That's our relationship. And it will always be. I will always be his father. He will always be my son. So that's our relationship.

It is possible, however, that I could be over at his house and do something that he and Jessica considered extremely offensive. And so he might call me on the phone and say, What you did was horrible, or what you said was horrible, and so we need to have you stay away for a few weeks while we cool off. So what would happen is that wouldn't change our relationship, but it would change our fellowship.

See the significant difference there? So that's really what Christ is dealing with here with Peter, is he's saying, look, you're already washed in total, but in terms of fellowship, in terms of fellowship, I need to deal with just washing the feet. That's the only issue here. You see the difference there? That's what Christ is presenting to Peter. And of course Peter doesn't get it, so he goes from reversal, you will absolutely not wash my feet, to wash everything, right? Not understanding Christ's point with doing this. Yeah, Stan?

So is it washing the feet because that's what comes in contact with the world? Yeah, if you think about it, washing the feet, in the traditions of the time, what did they have? They typically would have a lot of dirt roads. And even dirt roads, what have you got for transportation? Well, all your modes of transportation, you've got animals that have droppings and everything else. So you would get dirty feet along the way, and so washing the feet Even if you've fairly recently taken a bath, washing the feet would be something you'd need to have taken care of.

And then that was relegated typically to the lowest servant. So here's Jesus, instead of being a rabbi and taking the rabbinical traditions, he does the opposite of that and says, OK, I'm the rabbi, but I'm going to be the lowest servant here. By the way, if there was multiple servants, it was the one who had the least rank who did this. So here's Jesus who takes the position of the least ranked, and that's why Peter's, you can imagine Peter's reaction, wait a minute, here is Christ, I'm his disciple and now he's washing my feet.

So, now, John 13, 12-20, and I'll just point out one thing, at the bottom part of there is I am, I put it in capitals to indicate, this is the Greek egoimi, he has used this pair of words before when he says, I am the door, I am the good shepherd, I am the way, the truth and the life, I am the resurrection and the life.

Seven metaphors, basically, he's used before and he's using it here again, but without a metaphor. So, alright, let's read through it. So, 13, 12 through 20, so when he had washed their feet and taken his garments and reclined at the table again, so now he's gone back to sitting at the table, he said to them, do you know what I have done for you? Well, of course, they're thinking, yeah, he washed their feet.

You call me teacher and lord and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and Teacher, wash your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I gave you an example that you should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I do not speak of all of you, I know the ones I have chosen.

But it is that the scripture, and I have in here Psalm 41.9, may be fulfilled. He who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me. From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am, this is the egoe me, I am he. I'll restate this in verse 19, from now on I am telling you before it comes to pass so that when it does occur you may believe that I being in fact deity am he. Verse 20, truly truly I say to you he who receives whomever I send receives me and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. Okay, let's look at the top of page three then. So here's Jesus.

He gives an example of humble service. As a matter of fact, as far as Peter's concerned, it's too humble, right? It's too humble. Then instructed that they, in turn, should give humble service to one another. Now, there's some interesting things here.

We've talked about in the Jewish culture, it was the tradition that a rabbi could ask his disciples to do various things, but not wash the feet. So Jesus turns that on his head, for which nobody conceived that you might do such a thing, turned it on its head and washed his disciples feet. So that was a turning on its head of the Jewish tradition. Now, in the Greek and Roman culture, it's interesting, humility was considered not a virtue but a personality defect. If you were humble, that was considered like there's something wrong with you. So, what Jesus did was not only a reversal of anything according to Jewish tradition, but it was completely contrary to anything in the Greek and Roman culture.

The next paragraph, some have taken this, what we saw in this passage, as an instituting an ordinance of foot washing in the church. I was talking to a guy just Thursday night that goes to a church where they do the foot washing as a standard ordinance. We're going to have the Lord's table here in our main service, and we have had baptisms here behind the screen, and we take that. But there are some churches who take the foot washing as, OK, that's something the Lord instituted. I wouldn't say there's something bad about it, but I think there's something to consider. We've got four bullets here.

One, what Jesus did was an example of humble service, not just the specific act. Secondly, what Jesus did was symbolic of something deeper, in which Jesus referred to spiritual cleanliness. So just following through on the external act doesn't necessarily get at what he intended.

See the difference there? Verses 16 and 17 present a larger principle with foot washing as the example rather than the specific action that Jesus wanted apostles to take as an ordinance. That is, he wanted humble service to be the standard in the church, not just, I'm instituting some foot washing ritual. You see the difference there? In other words, I might establish a foot-washing ritual and still not get the idea of what Jesus was presenting. The idea of humble service, which may include other things, would be ignored if I simply took it as establishing a new ordinance. See the difference there?

The next one, there is no record that any of the apostles took foot washing as an ordinance comparable to the Lord's Table and Baptism. The Lord's Table and Baptism are, in fact, both of them mentioned in 1 Corinthians. Foot washing, not. Foot washing, not.

So there's no indication that all the ones gathered there took it as, OK, we're all going to wash each other's feet every once a month or once a week or some such thing. The other thing is our typical lifestyle is different as well. We're not walking, most of us, dirt roads with donkey dung all over the road. So, that's another difference.

Jesus then made another statement to refer to Judas, which the disciples did not immediately understand. What's interesting is Jesus, I mean, we can look at all four of the Gospels. Jesus kept telling them, I'm going to go to Jerusalem. The leaders are going to kill me.

I'm going to be lifted up. I'm going to be crucified. I'm going to be put to death. And I'm going to be buried and I'm going to be resurrected. And you guys need to get that. And I've been telling you before and I'm telling you again that one of you is a rat. One of you is going to betray me.

And they're going, huh? All the way up to this moment, they're still going, huh? They don't get it. This is not an aha moment, this is a duh moment. The prediction of events, even if they were not understood until later, were said and done specifically so that the disciples would believe that Jesus was the I Am. Do you see that from verse 20? Jesus is telling them, not because they are going to understand, they won't understand until later. But Jesus is telling them so that they would in the end realize, not just I am Jesus, but I Am Deity. Isaiah 48-3 is a great reference. Okay, why don't you read that for us, please.

I have declared the four things from the beginning, and they went to and out of my mouth. Yes. I showed them, I did them in something, and they came to pass. Yes. Isaiah 40-48 contained, thank you for pointing that out, contained a great number of those kinds of passages because in Isaiah 40-48, God is making the repeated statement, I am not like those pagan deities made out of gold and silver and wood and stone. I am not like those pagan deities. I can tell you what's going to happen before it comes to pass because I am God, not a hunk of wood.

And so thank you for pointing that out because that's a critical point. That's the backdrop for this statement right here, where Jesus is telling you, I'm going to tell you ahead of time, because that's what God does. And so that when it's all said and done, it all comes to pass, and you have these aha moments, you will realize that I am deity. That's what he's telling. That's what he's telling.

So verse 20 is among those in the Gospel of John that are preparing the disciples to be Christ's apostles in the church context. Now it's interesting. Here's Acts chapter 1. Jesus is gathered just across the way on the Mount of Olives with his disciples, 11 of them. Judas is out of the picture here.

So he's gathered together with his disciples and they're asking, well is now the time you're going to establish your kingdom in Israel? Is now the time? And he says, I'm paraphrasing, you guys don't get it. No, this isn't the time. The Father is the one who calls those shots. But what's happening right now is the Holy Spirit's going to come upon you and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth. And I'm sure at that point in time that they're thinking, boy, we got a lot of questions. And that's when he goes, goodbye. And so they're going, oh wow, we have a lot of questions, and what you just said to us raises even more questions, right?

But they're going to understand why. Because the Holy Spirit will be given to them, and we'll see here in the Gospel of John, one of the reasons the Holy Spirit is given to them is to help them recall and understand the things that He said that they never got before, including the stuff we're reading right here. They will understand it. They will understand it because the Holy Spirit was given to them to help them recall and understand the things that Jesus said and did.

Yes, Dan? Doesn't it say at the end of one of the Gospels that he explained all things before he ascended as well? Yes, and of course one of the questions is did they understand what he explained? Well, after he had arisen, I think it was. Yeah, and here's the disciples on the road to Emmaus.

Jesus had just resurrected. That may be what you're talking about. He's talking about, here he explains from the Old Testament, here see, this and this and this pointed to me. And they're kind of going, okay, okay. And then finally, he opened their eyes and they go, whoo, you know, and that's when he disappeared. Real interesting, the pattern, and we're going to see it here.

Christ does not just stick around and explain everything. Okay, do you guys get it? Okay, now I'm going to go. He frequently would say, okay, you've got what you need for now, and then I'm taking off. And that being one of them. Yes? That's actually at the last two verses of Luke. Ah, okay. Yes. That's what you're thinking of. That He opened their minds so that they could understand the Scriptures. Yep. Let's take a look at the top of page four here. I'm sorry, let me have you go to page 3, because I didn't read John 13, 21-30. Okay, so we have John 13, 21-30.

When Jesus had said this, he became troubled in spirit and testified and said, Truly, truly, I say to you that one of you will betray me. The disciples began looking at one another at a loss to know of which one he was speaking. which is kind of amazing. Verse 23, There was reclining on Jesus' bosom one of the disciples whom Jesus loved. So Simon Peter gestured to him and said to him, Tell us who it is of whom you are speaking. He leaning back thus on Jesus' bosom said to him, Lord, who is it?

Jesus then answered, That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him. So when he had dipped the morsel, he took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. And after the morsel, Satan then entered into him." Isn't that an astounding statement? Therefore Jesus said to him, what you do, do quickly. Now no one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose he said this to him. For some were supposing, because Jesus had the money box, that Jesus was saying to him, buy the things we have need of for the feast, or else that he should give something to the poor. So after receiving the morsel, he went out immediately, and it was night.

So this is now the third time in three chapters, chapter 11, 33, chapter 12, 21, and now 13, 21. In each case, What troubled Jesus was human death, even of His own. Isn't it interesting? Right before He is about to raise Lazarus is the time that He gets troubled. I mean, wouldn't you think, boy, this is a great moment and He's kind of excited for it. He even told the disciples, I'm glad that Lazarus is dead. But at that moment, facing it, He was troubled. So here we have now at this the third time in three chapters that Jesus is troubled. Several points to note here, we have here in the bullets.

The first one, the disciples did not have any idea that Judas was the betrayer, neither by Judas' behavior, nor by Jesus' behavior. Here Judas was the ultimate hypocrite, and he was very good at it. Can you imagine? He was not only a hypocrite, but he was good at being a hypocrite. Because none of the other disciples even suspected that he was the hypocrite that he was. Not a clue. And Jesus, by anything he said or did, didn't tip them off. Even these statements, you know, one of you is, they never got it. They couldn't guess. They couldn't guess.

Aside from John 13.23, the other passages where John referred to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved are John 20.2, 21.7, and 20. John named a number of other disciples, not all of them, the other three Gospels have lists of the disciples. John does not, but he does name a number of them. He doesn't name himself among them. No other author of the four Gospels used that term for any disciple.

So these points are taken together to mean that the disciple whom Jesus loved was in fact John. One of the things we looked at in our intensive study of Revelation is in the very first chapter, Jesus says that he is constantly loving us. Constantly loving us. And so John's point is well taken. I'm the disciple whom Jesus loved, but he's constantly loving us, all of us.

The next one, the third bullet, because it was Judas' responsibility to purchase food for the disciples, the disciples assumed that Jesus was arranging for Judas to purchase more food or perhaps make another contribution of some sort. So Jewish traditions permitted this even on the Passover. You could go out on Passover evening and buy more food. That was allowable, if you need more food. interesting their definitions of what was work and what was not work. It still allowed them to on Passover evening to go out and buy food. Judas, as Christ knew, was actually doing other business that night.

Judas' role as treasurer had now ended. He wasn't going to be their treasurer anymore. He was done with that. He's got 30 pieces of silver that is going to be his last financial transaction, and that didn't come for the disciples. So his role as treasurer is now ended. His place as a disciple is now ended.

So here's John 13, 31 through 35, Therefore when he, Judas, had gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him immediately. Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek me. And as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another. Let's ask a question here.

Why didn't Jesus, instead of saying where I'm going you cannot come, why didn't he just say I'm going to die? He's not going to die and stay dead, right? In fact, let's ask this question. Did Jesus tell him he was going to die? At some point? Yes. He actually had told him that before and that didn't sink in.

So now he tells him where I'm going, you cannot come. which is, we'll find out, Peter is just greatly frustrated with this. You know, imagine, here's Peter, it's the Last Supper. No, you can't, you can't wash my feet, you know, not a chance, no way. Okay, then wash everything, right? And so now, Jesus says, you know, where I'm going, you cannot come. And as we'll see soon, he gets all flustered and frustrated about that too.

So here's Jesus, Judas is gone, he's speaking just of the 11th, These all had much to learn, but Jesus knew that none of them was a betrayer. None of them was a betrayer. As Jesus would be crucified by 9 a.m. the next morning, Jesus anticipated glorifying the Father and the Father glorifying Him. That's what the first verses of that passage we just read are about. The crucifixion would be painful beyond comprehension on several levels, but once complete would bring glory as would what follows that.

Jesus told the disciples, who do not understand of course, that they cannot come with him where he is going. Then gave them a command to love one another with his love for them as the example. So John 13, 36 through 38, Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Okay. Jesus answered, where I go you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later. What does he mean by that?

Yeah, here's Christ. Here is Christ who is going to be crucified in less than 24 hours by 9am the next morning. Peter, tradition has it, was crucified upside down. But nonetheless, he too would die. So he says, you'll follow me later. Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you right now? Here's this Peter, impetuous, outspoken, brash. It's one of those things, you know, engage mouth and then engage brain. Jesus answered, will you lay down, excuse me, Peter's finishing there, I will lay down my life for you. Jesus answered, will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny me three times.

So Peter was puzzled that he couldn't go where Christ was going. He did not understand that Christ would soon die. See, all the events there that night, just later that night, the time that the high priest's house, all that he didn't understand. Christ was crucified, he didn't understand that. Did Peter understand when Christ was resurrected? No, he didn't understand that either. So all this is going to be a complete, incomprehensible surprise to him.

And he doesn't understand, Lord I'll lay my life down for you, but in a few hours I'll deny that I even know you. And I will be afraid of the little servant girl in the courtyard. So in response to Peter's oath, that he would lay down his life for Jesus. Jesus told Peter he would deny Christ three times before the rooster crowed.

That is, before early the next morning. Alright, so we have the end of chapter 13. This is the setup if you will, for what we're going to look into the next few weeks, actually. Chapters 14, 15, and 16, actually into 17, have some very unique material.

It's not in the other four Gospels in anywhere near that degree. Some very special material that's going to explain to the disciples that they won't understand at the time, explain to the disciples the role of the Holy Spirit and the character of his ministry with them on into the times to come. And think about the disciples, all right, now about not quite two months later, 50 days later, would be the Pentecost. The Holy Spirit would be given.

And so they're having an aha moment. Not quite two months later. And just think about it for us, it would be something like in early September. We all of a sudden have this phenomenal event that's life-changing and changes our perspective on everything.

It would be about ten years later that Peter would be told, go ahead and eat this food that you've been told your whole life you can't eat. Oh no, no. And three times, oh no, no, no. And so then he is led then to share the gospel with the house of Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and actually to stay with Cornelius, totally contrary to any Jewish tradition or anything he'd ever done. And so what happened is shortly thereafter he goes back to Jerusalem and the rest of the disciples and the elders in Jerusalem are saying, Peter, you've got some explaining to do, right? And so here's Peter, you know, kind of letting the guys know, hey, this is what happened, the Lord had me share the gospel with the Gentiles.

An aha moment. You mean this gospel we've been telling all the Jews about is for the Gentiles too? Yeah. And then to have Paul, who's up to this point been going around killing Christians every chance that he has, That's what he said in Acts. Every chance I had, I voted for death. And so then, as you look at it, here's Paul becomes a believer and starts saying, you're identified with Christ. You're identified with him in his death, burial, and resurrection. But he doesn't talk about, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, you've been seated with Christ in the heavenlies, you have a heavenly citizenship. He doesn't write any of those things about our heavenly position until 30 years after the events we're reading about now. Three decades later. This would be like for us in the year 2043 going, aha! Right? If you can imagine that. So they're having a-ha moments for decades. A-ha moments for decades.

So what we see here is they don't understand anything. They don't understand anything. But eventually they will understand this and much more. And so that should give us hope. Right? If we think, well I don't understand some things. Okay, well just wait a while. The Lord will make it clear to you. Well, either the buzzer went off or I've got tinnitus. So let's pray. Okay.

Lord, we do thank you for these revelations and even just seeing that the disciples, soon to be apostles, did not understand what was going on and even to realize that you taught them over the years and over the decades. And you're doing the same with us. You're teaching us over the years and over the decades. We thank you for these insights. We thank you for the perspective that we have. And Lord, we do pray that these truths will be brought home to our hearts, that we would learn and understand to your glory. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.