Month: March 2021

John 14.1-4

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”

Hope is a necessary part of a healthy mental attitude. If we lack something to look forward to motivation quickly dissipates. For many of us we mostly live in the moment but that is in the context of also having hope even if it is short term and even unrealistic. Hope helps us tackle the everyday with positivity. Having no hope can be a symptom of depression. Taking away hope from an individual is one of the weapons of an abuser.

Hope can be severely tested when circumstances turn against us and if we are frequently confronted by loss and obstructions to happiness then it is understandable when people give up on hope. Such events are very common and occur even when on the surface someone is apparently in a stable secure position. One does not have to be homeless or jobless to have lost hope. Lack of hope leads to a sense of powerlessness and powerlessness leads to a lack of hope. These feelings can grow slowly or descend quickly. In the bible, the story of Job is possibly the most complete and dramatic account of cataclysmic circumstances to test one individual’s capacity to have hope.

The theme of hope is one of the three great threads that extend through the entire text of the bible. As Paul famously writes ‘Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.’ ^{1 Corinthians 13.13} At this point in the narrative of John’s gospel Jesus wanted to provide his disciples with hope because he knew the hope they had in him is about to be severely tested. In doing so Jesus has provided hope to all who believe in him whatever their circumstances. Hope to strengthen his disciples in times of trouble and hope that goes beyond death.

At the time Jesus said these words he was speaking of his own death. When he leaves them, it is not to be a permanent separation. He is preparing a place where they can be together in the presence of God the Father. His absence from his disciples is to be a temporary separation. The implication is that Jesus’ reunion with his disciples will take place whether or not the disciples have died during his absence.

It is Jesus’ unique claim in John 14 that differentiates Jesus from any other founder of a major world faith. All other religions have a founder who points to what they believe must be done to achieve the end goal. Jesus says it is not possible for you to achieve those things by your efforts. Jesus says I am going to prepare a place for you and I will come back for you. The Christian’s hope is the person of Christ not a route map to salvation. He summarises this in verse 6 when speaking to Thomas, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

God through Jesus Christ is the source of the Christian’s hope not the Christian’s own endeavours, no striving on the Christian’s part is sufficient. Peter who listened carefully to Jesus’ words eventually fully grasped their meaning and wrote to the churches many years later. ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’ ^{1 Peter 1.3}

Are we still placing our hope in our own endeavours?

In Christ alone

John 13.33-35

The meal had been completed. Judas Iscariot had walked off into the night to inform the authorities of Jesus’ whereabouts and time was short. In John’s gospel we are now at what has been termed “The farewell discourse” that continues to 16.33. During this final teaching Jesus explains the significance of his death, resurrection and ascension. He also outlines the promise of the Holy Spirit whom he will send after he has left to be with the Father. However, before he gets into the depth of that teaching he has two important things to say. Firstly, what he is about to do is something that only he can do and they are not able to be a part of it. Secondly, the disciples are to be a distinctively loving community. The tenure of Jesus’ words is him being firmly gentle. He understands the emotional roller coaster they are about to go on. He wants them to understand and become the people he wants them to be even if it is only possible when they look back over events.

He addresses them with an intimate term, ‘Little children,’ ^v33 John adopts the same term in his epistles late in life. He explains they cannot go where he is about to go. This is to his inner circle who have been close by his side for three years. Only Jesus can pay the price for sins. He allowed no room for disciples to think in some way they shared in the cost Jesus paid because only Jesus could be the lamb of God. For a little while the disciples were going to feel lost and leaderless. Jesus knew about their oncoming grief and confusion and he was preparing them for it. Their grief and suffering was to bear no comparison with Jesus’ but even so he had time to support them and remind them of their responsibility to support each other. When we face grief and confusion it is good to remind ourselves that Jesus understands us as much as he understood his first disciples.

Jesus them gave them a new commandment which continues to be a commandment for all his followers. ‘That you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ ^vv34-35

What could Jesus have meant by, ‘As I have loved you?’ None of us can do what Jesus did in terms of taking upon himself God’s wrath that is rightfully ours. However, we can share many of his qualities. We can be genuinely sacrificial in our love for each other. We can be unchanging in our love. We can be righteous in our love and by this I mean not mixing it with sin, leading each other towards holiness. We can actively love the poor, the weak, the vulnerable, the stranger and those who are different to ourselves. We can be family. Tertullian wrote describing the Roman view of the early church, “It is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See how they love one another, they say.”

Being a loving Church family is to be actively involved in gospel mission. Words that have no substance behind them carry little weight. It is in the living out of Christ’s love for others that we demonstrate the reality of how he has transformed out lives. It is resurrection life in action. In this way we can all be engaged in communicating our own relationship with Jesus. ‘By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.’ ^v34

How can we continue to show by the way we live our life that we are a disciple of Jesus?

The love of Jesus – Nathan Taylor

John 13.31-33

Judas leaves the room and the conversation changes. Judas stepping into the night ^v30 seems to take the darkness with him. The second half of John’s gospel is all about glory it is just not as the world would recognize it. Jesus’ face is set towards a journey to glory. ‘When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him”.’ ^v31 Glory for most comes from a public display of triumph but Jesus in less than 24 hours was to gasp his last breath on a Roman cross. A very public display but to those watching at the time an utterly humiliating defeat. A world view of glory and a Godly view of glory being in sharp contrast because the world did not understand what Jesus’ had been teaching. Even his closest disciples at this stage failed to grasp the nature of how it was that God the Father was going to glorify Jesus. The words Jesus spoke were intended to stay in their memory so that in a few short days they would understand firstly that Jesus knew what was coming and secondly it had been God’s prophesied plan for mankind’s salvation.

Jesus could have been drawing on Isaiah’s second servant song describing the Messiah who will save the nations. ‘You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’ ^{Isaiah 49.3} There is a mutual glorifying effect, the saving sacrifice Jesus was about to make would bring glory to both Jesus and God the Father. The repeated use of the word glory in verses 31 and 32 indicates glory above normal honour, this is supreme glory. The Message version provides a straight forward understanding of a verse that can seem confusing in NIV or ESV. ‘When he had left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is seen for who he is, and God seen for who he is in him. The moment God is seen in him, God’s glory will be on display. In glorifying him, he himself is glorified—glory all around!’ ^{vv 31-32 (The Message)}

Jesus, knowing the disciples forthcoming emotional and spiritual confusion seeks to soften the blow. What he is about to do no other person can do. In a very short while they will feel left alone but he is saying you have already heard me speak about this to the Jews. ^v33 Here he meant the Jewish leaders as well as the crowds. They were about to witness Godly glory. They were about to witness the most significant moment in history and he had to do it on his own. The only perspective that would matter would be how God the Father saw the unfolding events.

The loneliness of Jesus’ crucifixion must have been extreme. It was the only time in eternity when Jesus and the Father have been separated as seen in his agonised cry from the cross, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ ^{Matthew 27.46} Jesus’ path to glory was down a road of suffering, rejection and mockery.

How does this bear upon our own path of discipleship? Where and in what way are we seeking plaudits? What have we got to say to God if we would rather be in a different place to do his work? Are we liable to grumble if events have not turned out to be how we initially hoped? Have we in the past promised to sacrificially follow Christ but are now saying, ‘not this sacrifice, can’t I be associated with something a bit more fun, a bit easier, a bit more glamourous, a bit more recognised?’ ‘Just not here Lord, alright?’ Do we sometimes think, I deserve more than this.

Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.’ ^v27 In only a few hours he was to deny he knew Jesus. Jesus knew that, but Peter would, about 30 years later, die on a cross for his faith in Jesus, as Jesus indicated. “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” ^v36 Peter the person who Jesus chose to found his church in the end walked the same path as Jesus.

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

John 13.18-30

‘Even my close friend in whom I trusted,
who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.’ ^{Psalm 41.9}

When things all go wrong, even dramatically wrong, it is easy to believe you and God have been thwarted. When I was appointed as Headteacher of Central Middle School in Exeter the linked church, St Leonard’s, had just experienced a catastrophic fire gutting the main building. It was arson and the Rector, whom I know and have great trust in his spiritual judgement, was confident it was more than vandalism and had elements of spiritual adversary. St Leonard’s was already a thriving evangelical Anglican church with a well developed university student ministry but itself attracted opposition. The fire though acted as the spark (forgive the pun) to enable a major refurbishment and the building of a new purpose built annex for midweek ministry as well as improved young people and student outreach.

When we read of Judas betrayal of Jesus it may have been easy for the disciples to think, this is when it all went wrong. The bible’s perspective along with Jesus’ is different. This does not mean that Judas’ betrayal was OK, it was not. Our perspective looking back on events must inevitably be different from the disciples during the days of Jesus’ trial, torture, death and burial. Jesus though was preparing them to understand God’s purposes when they later reflected on events.

Spiritual opposition as well as physical and intellectual opposition was and is real. Jesus was about to complete God’s plan. Jesus had been confronting evil spiritual forces throughout his ministry. Now at the last supper Judas had been tempted through his major weakness, the love of money, to join with a final attempt to do away with Jesus for ever. It is not surprising that the devil uses our principal weakness to tempt us, whether that is wealth, sex, substances, anger or any other of a multitude of sinful tendencies. Judas had lived closely with Jesus, maintained a responsible role as keeper of the purse but the king of his heart was not Jesus it was money. There had been tell-tale signs as small amounts of money had gone missing. ^{John 12.6} We need to be spiritually self-aware of who or what really is king of our heart. We will know by what we find the most difficult to stop and if we are a Christian the Spirit will strongly convict us of it. Whatever it is we need to die to it, lay it at the cross of Christ and not only ask him to forgive us but also remove the compulsive desire for it.

God is not overcome by evil and Jesus needed the disciples to understand that even Judas’ betrayal was part of God’s sovereign plan and fulfilling the scripture. ^{Psalm 41.9} Even so the pain of Judas’ betrayal is evident. If ever we feel we have been unjustly betrayed or let down when we come to Jesus in prayer we can know he empathises. ^{Hebrews 2.18}

By foretelling events Jesus wanted his betrayal to increase their faith rather than destroy their faith. It is in the face of opposition and suffering that faith can grow when at last we can see the hand of God in it.  ^‘I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he.’ ^v19

Jesus then instructs them to equip them for mission after his ascension. ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.’ ^v20 The disciples were completely at a loss when Jesus said that and reverted to questioning him as to who was going to betray him. However, Jesus was drawing a distinction between the betrayer and the faithful. Jesus was saying the other disciples would be sent by him, with the gospel, and if they were accepted the recipients would also be accepting Jesus and God the Father.  This great honour of taking the good news to the world is now the privilege of all Christians, whether or not they are specially commissioned as evangelists. How we should be encouraged and emboldened by his promise. As Josh Moody simple puts it, ‘If someone accepts you as you proclaim the gospel, they accept the Jesus who sends you, and they accept God the Father.’ _{(John 13-21 for you.)}

Whether in the face of opposition or not do we have the confidence and trust to share our faith in Jesus?

Broken Together – Casting Crowns

John 13: 12-17

‘When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? ¹³ You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. ¹⁴ If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. ¹⁶ Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant^[a] is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.’

Jesus washing his disciple’s feet was an act of profound importance. He did this within 24 hours of dying for them and all who believe in him. He could have done it at a host of occasions during his ministry, at any one of hundreds of times he ate with them. His act spoke of the deep and divine love he had for his disciples and continues to have for his disciples now. He did it with the intent of them learning a truth they still had failed to grasp. ^v15 What Jesus did was unique among founding religious leaders, there is no comparable story for Mohammed or Buddha. Fully aware of his place in the Trinity ^v3 he reduced himself to the most humble state.

My wife and I watched a minister at the end of one of a church’s regular times when it cooked and served meals for the local hungry go and fetch a mop and bucket and set to cleaning the floor. There were plenty of other volunteers around doing a variety of jobs. He was happy to mop even though he was the church leader and teacher. To him it was a natural thing to serve. There is a story of John Stott, a famous leading bible teacher who when visiting some African bishops after the meeting started cleaning the floor to the astonishment of the bishops. He had internalised Jesus’ words, ‘you also should do as I have done to you.’ ^v15

Jesus’ teaching goes beyond using one’s gifts to serve each other. I doubt whether the minister or John Stott had the gift of cleaning. If they were to stop at giving through their gifts both of them would have stopped once the sermon or talk were over leaving the cleaning to others. Jesus is teaching all of us to humbly seek to serve in whatever way we can. To do it willingly out of love for God and love for each other. Love for God and love for each other cannot be separated. If we do not love each other, love for God is an idea we assert but not a reality in our lives. ^{1 John 4.7-8} None of us are above the most humble acts of service for no one approaches the greatness of God.

Loving acts of service are part of the way the church is intended to demonstrate the gospel. Firstly, through serving each other. If we cannot serve each other, then acts of service to those outside the church have a hollow ring of insincerity. Loving service to those outside the church, often through everyday kindness, is a fundamental way to communicate God’s love and character. We should pray that God will open up for us ways to show our love. Reaching out in the name of Jesus is much more about the everyday than it is the big event.

Paul urged every Christian to, ‘Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honour; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.’ ^{Romans 12:9-13} In this way we bear the master’s image.

Jesus words were not optional or advice, they were a clear instruction, ‘you also should do just as I have done to you.’

Are there serving attitudes you can ask God to help you develop?

The Servant King – Graham Kendrick