John Lesson 36

Introduction

A very pleasant good day to you. I hope that all is well with you and that you have the time and the disposition of heart to take your Bibles and study that along with us in this program we call Let the Bible Speak. We call it this because it is our intention to simply study the book of God, the Word of God, the Bible, verse by verse, and taking each verse in its own setting and its context, and we feel certain that we know what the Bible is intending to reveal unto us from the mind of God. We’re studying the Gospel of John, and we’ve come to John chapter thirteen, and our lesson today is from about verses eighteen through to the end of the chapter.

I’d like to encourage you to get a New Testament and to turn there and read with us in just a moment as we study the scripture concerning Jesus Christ. As we said in the last time, John chapter thirteen, verses one through seventeen, we pointed out that we had come to the last week of the life of Jesus Christ. Is the time of the feast of Passover, and that was a very important Jewish feast. Once each year they would gather together at Jerusalem where the temple was built, and they would keep a memorial of the time when their fathers had been delivered out of Egyptian bondage, when God had passed over every house and had taken the life of those of the firstborn of every house that did not have blood sprinkled on its doorpost.

You can read about it in Exodus chapter twelve. But every year Akabath, the Israelites or the Jews, were to keep this memorial feast, remembering how God had delivered them from bondage. It was at the Passover feast at this time that Jesus Himself was crucified. And he is our deliverer. Through him we are delivered from the bondage of sin. Jesus at the Passover Supper, as according to Luke chapter twenty two and Matthew twenty six and Mark fourteen. At that same supper, he instituted what the New Testament describes as the Lord’s Supper. For Christians, we observe a memorial of our deliverance from sin through Jesus Christ. Unleavened bread is representative of his body, and fruit of the vine is representative of his blood, the blood of the New Testament, which is shed for the remission of sins.

And so it is an important part of the New Testament to be studying. In John’s account of the Last Supper, we do not have that institution of what is called the Lord’s Supper. But John gives us some other details that Matthew, Mark, and Luke do not give. And we studied in these first seventeen verses how that Jesus uh taught his disciples a lesson of humility. But what John reveals is how that he took a basin of water and a towel and began to wash their feet. He did not teach them a religious ceremony to be observed by Christians today. But what he did teach them was that they ought to act as servants toward one another. If the Lord and Master could do the act of a servant, that is to wash feet, and that was a customary practice in that day and age where they commonly wore sandals, and as they would come into a house that the the host uh would have his servant to wash their feet and and to, you know, prepare them for this uh time visiting in the home.

It was a very common practice then. It’s not common today in our country at least, and so it is not regarded or known as an act of a servant, and that any church observed foot washing, you know they just simply made a religious rite or a religious ceremony uh out of that practice. But Jesus was not really instituting some kind of ceremony. Never again do we read in the New Testament where the church has gathered ever observed foot washing. Only one time this side of the cross, it’s in 1 Timothy 5 and verse 10, we find that a widow indeed would have washed the saints’ feet, but she would have done other acts of servitude as well, in helping those who were in need. But the Lord’s Supper is never associated with the foot washing.

John tells us about one, Matthew, Mark, and Luke uh tell us about the other. But we do see in that first 17 verses of John 13 a lesson that is so important today, and that is that we must not have hearts filled with envy and strife or jealousy. But rather if we’re truly the Lord’s servants, the one who should be first will be last. The one who would wish to be great would be a servant. That’s what Jesus was teaching his disciples at a time when they needed to learn that lesson. But that’s a lesson needed even for our generation of time. Are you willing to be a servant even of others? Are you filled with pride? Are you filled with envy? Or are you willing to yield yourself to those who are about you and put them ahead of yourself?

1. Before It Come to Pass, I Tell You

Well, that’s the important lesson of John 13, and I hope we’ve learned it. But now if we read in John 13, verses 18 through 20, Jesus said, I speak not of you all, and I know whom I have chosen, but that the scripture may be fulfilled. He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. Now I tell you before it come, that when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he. Verily, verily I say unto you, he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me. And he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. Before it come to pass, Jesus said, I’m telling you. In this time Jesus is telling them about the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, one of his own.

Several times the statement is made, before it come to pass I tell you, and then he gave the reason that ye may believe. Prophecy. Before things came to pass, God could speak them. Only the divine mind or deity could do such an event. And you might say that this is another proof that Jesus indeed is God, that he is the Son of God, that He possessed the nature of Godhood. Not only did He do works, that is miracles that no man could do, and they were proofs that he is the Son of God, but Jesus also could tell an event before it came to pass. In this occasion, he he told concerning Judas Iscariot, how Judas would betray him before it came to pass, as verse 19 says, that ye may believe.

When it does come to pass, you’ll know that I knew in advance. Later in John chapter 14 and verse 29, he spoke about the coming of the Holy Ghost upon them. And he again said that ye may know when it came to pass. I’ve told you even beforehand, and you’ll know and believe on me. And in John chapter 16 and verse 4, he spoke about his death. And again, that expression is made, before it come to pass, I tell you. Jesus was able to tell events before they happened. Even as in the prophecy of Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 42, verses 8 and 9, the grand book that tells us about God in contrast with idols, God is pictured as one who could tell, even he says, before they spring forth, I tell you.

God could tell events hundreds of years before they came to pass. And that is proof that he stands out unlike any idol. He is God who could know beforehand things that would happen. That makes him God. No idol can do that. No wood or stone or that which is made of man’s hand can do that, but God can. And Jesus Christ, the Son of God, could tell before things came to pass. Now in this particular instance, he says in verse 18, I speak not of you all. That might be a little confusing just to start right there, but when you drop back to about verses 10 and 11, you know what he’s talking about, because when he had taken this basin of water and began to wash them, to wash their feet, Peter said, You’re not going to wash me.

Peter didn’t want Jesus doing the act of a servant for him. But Jesus then spoke how that that not all of them really needed washing. He said, You’re clean. Those who of you have come and purified yourself for the Passover are clean, but then he said, Not all are clean. So he went from the physical cleanness, that is, they didn’t all need anything of cleansing of their body. They needed the foot washing, or they didn’t need the cleansing of their body, for they’ve been purified. But he said, There’s one of you who is not clean. That is, you’re not purified from the heart. And verse eleven says he spoke about the one who should betray him. You see, Judas Iscariot had an evil heart. He had already covenanted with the religious rulers for thirty pieces of silver to betray our Lord.

And Jesus knew it. And Jesus now begins to talk in clearer language that before it came to pass, I’m telling the rest of you. I knew that Judas had covenanted with thirty pieces, four thirty pieces of silver to betray me. And in fact, Jesus even quoted here in John 13, the scripture from Psalm 41, uh and in verse 9, he that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. There’s a prophecy about Judas Iscariot. He ate with him, had fellowship with Jesus, but he would lift up his heel against him. And Jesus said, I’m telling you, even before it happened. Now in verse 20, he assures his disciples, though, that even though there is going to be one who would betray him, that it would not destroy or their work or make their work ineffective.

Because he went on to say that whosoever receives the one whom I send will receive me. And whosoever receives me will receive my Father which sent me. It is really a change. But if you believe in the apostles and their word, then you’re going to believe in Christ. You believe in Christ and His Word, you’re going to believe in the Father. For really it’s an unbroken chain. To reject one is to reject the other. To accept one is to accept the other. Because the words that Christ spoke were the words of the Father. The words the apostle spoke were the word of the Father. There is perfect unity. So he said, Just because there may be one who will betray me, don’t believe your work is ineffective.

2. Knowledge Does Not Nullify Human Choice

Whosoever receives you will receive me, and whosoever receives me will receive you. Whoso receives me will receive the Father, whosoever received the Father will receive me. Now reading further in verses twenty-one through thirty.

Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. He then, lying on Jesus’ breast, saith unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly. Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him, for some of them thought, because Judas had the bag that Judas Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we need of against the feast, or that he should give something to the poor.

He then, having received the sop, went immediately out, and it was night. The fact that Jesus could tell before it happened, that Judas would betray, and the fact that he quoted the scripture even written almost a thousand years before it happened, that that one who would eat bread would would also lift up his heel against him, has led some to believe that Judas was forced to betray the Lord. That Judas Judas could not help himself, that it was God who ordered it. And they would have Judas like a robot or like a puppet that at the end of strings is doing what God says. And there are many today who believe whatever will be will be, and and from that point of view, they make God responsible for every action of every individual.

But that is not at all the correct picture or the correct understanding. For knowledge does not nullify human choice. Judas did not was not forced to betray Jesus Christ. Jesus had matter of choice in this. In fact, Hebrews chapter three, verses twelve and thirteen, infers that all of us as Christians had matter of choice. Even believers are not forced to remain believers. The apostle says, Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Exhort one another daily while it is called a day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Now he says, Take heed, brethren. You can make a choice to turn from serving God. You can depart from the living God.

Judas was with the Lord, it was one of his, but he could choose to depart, and he did so.

You have free moral choice. Who would you serve? Now Judas was tempted by Satan, and Judas let Satan enter his heart. That is, he fulfilled the temptation of Satan, and he went out and betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. The Lord could know beforehand and did know beforehand that Judas would do it. That doesn’t make Judas forced to do it. I can tell my children, certainly when they were younger, I could tell you in advance what they would eat. We could come to the table, and if we put uh say turnip greens on one end of the table and we could put cookies on the other end, he said, Take your choice, eat what you want. I always knew what they would take. Now I could know beforehand.

That’s not exact parallel with the Father, but I could know their likes and dislikes. That doesn’t mean I would force them to take the cookies. I just would know beforehand what they would eat. Well, in some manner, and perhaps you can understand from that illustration what we’re saying. When we say that foreknowledge does not nullify human choice. Judas had the right of choice as a free moral agent. He could choose to do uh God’s will or choose to follow the temptations of Satan. The Lord knew some things before that happened. In John 1 and in verse 42, he spoke about Simon and called him Peter because he knew that he was of a sound and solid characteristic. He would be like a rock. Or in John 1 and 47, he saw Nathaniel even under a fig tree before Nathanael ever came to it.

He knew beforehand. And in John chapter 2, verses 24 through 25, uh the scripture speaks how that uh he knew what was in the heart of men. He did not commit himself to any man, he did not need their testimony, for he knew what was in that. Jesus could know because he is God, but he did not force and does not force today anyone to serve him. Well, as the disciples heard Jesus talking about one who should betray, they became trouble. Who is he talking about? And so there was the disciple whom Jesus loved leaning on his breast, and Peter observing said, Ask him. Ask Jesus, who does he mean? Now, this disciple whom Jesus loved is not specified for us by name throughout the book of John.

But it’s commonly believed that it is talking about John the Apostle, the one who wrote this gospel. It’s Tom’s found several times in the book of John, John 19, 26, and John 20 in verse 2, and John 21 in verse 7. But in the closing words of the book in John 21, verses 20 through 24, we have this disciple mentioned this way. Peter turning about, see the disciple whom Jesus loved following, which also leaned on his breast at supper and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? In verse 24, this is the disciple which testifieth of these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. The one who wrote these things is this same disciple. Now John is nowhere mentioned by name in this whole book.

But if this is not referring to, then we know not who it is. This seems to be the one whom Jesus loved, the disciple who wrote the book, John. That doesn’t mean that Jesus had special ones and he loved John and didn’t love the others, but there were somebody who, Peter, James, and John, three different times at least are spelled out for us, as being selected by Jesus to go with him. They went up with him on the Mount of Transfiguration. They were with him later in the Garden of Gethsemane when we went aside to pray. These three were close unto Jesus, but John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was now leaning on his breast, and they say, What who is it that betrays thee? And Jesus answered him, the one who will who will dip the sop in the bowl.

3. Judas Had Another Choice to Make

The sop is a piece of bread or a morsel of bread, and there was a bowl of perhaps bitter herbs on the table there at the feast of Passover. And so Jesus identified. He took that bread and dipped it, and then gave it unto unto Judas Iscariot. He had dipped the sop and gave it to Judas Iscariot, and said, What thou doest do quickly? You ever start to think? Judas knew at that point that Jesus knew. Judas was not fooling anyone, at least not the Lord, whom he had betrayed. Judas must have had some chills go through his body, you would think at least. What he was about to do was known to the Lord before he did it. I say to you, Judas had another choice to make at this point.

Either go on and fulfill the covenant that you’ve made with the religious leaders for thirty pieces of silver or repent. Today you have a choice. When you know truth, you have to decide, will you let Satan continue to lead you or will you repent? Jesus said in Luke 13 3, Except you repent, you’ll all likewise perish. Are you willing to turn in your life to turn it around to serve the Lord? Or do you, like Judas, say, Well, I know what’s right, but I’ll go on out and do what’s wrong? We’ll be back in just one moment and study further. Are you willing to glorify Jesus Christ in your life? Or would you like a Judas go right on out and betray him? Even after Judas knew that Jesus knew, when he had dipped the sop and given it to him and told him what thou doest do quickly.

Judas did not try to explain himself. He he did not try to give any kind of explanation or an apology for it. He just simply went out. There are those a day who, for things of this world, perhaps of less value than the thirty pieces of silver, in fact, will go right on and do to serve themselves. They reject Jesus Christ. They say they believe. They say they would love to glorify him, but they’re not willing to give their lives unto him. What about you? Have you yielded yourself in humble obedience to Jesus Christ? Have you repented of your sins truly, determined to live for him? Confessed your faith in him as God’s Son and not ashamed to do so? Have you been immersed into Jesus Christ for the remission of sins?

4. God Is Glorified in His Son

If you haven’t done these things, why not? Would you like a Judas just go right on out and betray the Lord, or at least live for yourself rather than to live for him? In John chapter eighteen, in verses thirty one and thirty two, the scripture said, therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said now the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. God is glorified in his Son. And when we exalt Jesus Christ, in effect we’ll exalt him the Father. But Jesus Christ, by giving his life on the cross, was obeying the Father, exalting his Father. God is glorified through Jesus Christ. In Ephesians chapter one, there’s a little insight given to us concerning the plan of God Almighty, and how that through Jesus Christ the Father is exalted.

You see, we learn from Ephesians chapter one and about verses three through really fourteen or fifteen, how that how that all things are brought together in Christ Jesus, that is the scheme of redemption. God plans salvation to be through Christ. And the scripture there says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, through forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace.

The passage here talks about God predestinating salvation. He chose beforehand, He planned salvation. You see, the divine architect of the scheme of redemption is the Father. Jesus Christ came and carried out God’s plan. He executed it, he performed the will of the Father. The Holy Spirit has revealed that will unto us. But as we obey Jesus Christ, as we obey the will that has been revealed in the Bible by the Holy Spirit, we are exalting the Father who planned it. We are glorifying him even as we obey the Son. In Ephesians chapter three, verses ten and eleven, the passage there speaks about how the manifold wisdom of God is made known by the church. He said to the intent that now the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ was no accident, it was no after thought of God. Even the church, that is those people who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, who make up the body of Christ, that church is according to God’s eternal purpose. It’s not an afterthought of God either. And in verse 21, the last verse of Ephesians 3, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all ages, world without end. As far back as you can look the churches in God’s plan, as far into the future as you can look the churches in God’s plan. But the church is the body of Christ, and Christ is glorified even in the church, by the church. And God is glorified in Christ Jesus.

5. A New Commandment: Love One Another

Are you willing to glorify the Father? Are you a Christian? Are you a faithful servant, working as a member of the Lord’s church? Are you one who is a believer, a saved believer? You need to be, if truly you’re going to be like those of the disciples who were faithful to the Lord. Don’t be like a Judas who would go in and live for yourself. But now, in the closing words, verses 33 through 35 of John chapter 13, Jesus talked about a new commandment. He says in verse 33, Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me, and as I said unto the Jews, whither I go ye cannot come. So now I say to you, a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. How could this be a new commandment? Even in the law of Moses, they had been taught to love their neighbor as themselves. Love thy neighbor as thyself. That’s not new, that is love is not new, is it? But what Jesus taught them was a new degree, a new kind of love. When he said, Love even as I have loved you. The type of love he’s describing, the self-sacrificing love. That’s the new character or quality of love that Jesus is saying. And that’s something that the disciples should have. Love even as I have loved you. Christ was about to die for them. And it was in this context of telling them about his death that he had taught them to be servants to wash one another’s feet.

And now he teaches them to love one another. Don’t be filled with the jealousy and the envy. Don’t have the strife among yourselves as they had already displayed. But rather even be willing to give yourselves one for the other. Christians are known by this characteristic. You have love for the brethren? Do you love even as Christ loved us? Well, we may not be able perfectly to obey that commandment. Certainly we do not lay down our lives for the other, but we should be willing. In Philippians chapter 2, verses 2 through 5, fulfill you my joy that you be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of nine that each esteem other better than themselves.

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also in the things of others. Let this man be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself a new reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in passion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Let this man be in you, the apostle says. You put others ahead of yourself. There are some who say they are the servants of Christ, but they do not have this kind of love. They’re selfish. They want their way first.

And if they don’t get their way, they get their feelings hurt. They carry their little chip on the shoulder, as we say. But Jesus said, You will count others better than self. You’ll put them ahead of self. You’ll have the kind of love that even God has for you. God is love. First John chapter 4, verses 7 through 11, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. If you don’t love your brothers yourself, and even to the degree that Jesus did, then you really couldn’t be his disciple. You need to study 1 Corinthians 13, verses 4 through 7, where it talks about the characteristics of love. Let’s love, even if the Lord loved us.

Conclusion

The closing verses of this chapter 13, Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice. Peter’s sincere promise was later turned to tears as he denied the Lord. Jesus was about to die, and he’s going to the paraplace. We’ll study about that in our next chapter. We hope until then the Lord will be with you and bless you.