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You're listening to audio from Faith Church Indie. This summer, we're going through the Gospels, learning about how understanding the tougher sayings of Christ can lead to a deeper connection with Him. Now here's the teaching.

Our scripture reading today comes from the book of John, chapter 13, verses 31 through 35. Would you stand with me in honor of the reading of God's word? You can find on page 1070 of the Black Bibles in the seat in front of you if you have those. When He 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 glorify Him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

This is the word of the Lord. Good morning. Good morning.

We thank Julie and David and Jerry for leading us in worship. I feel kind of privileged because as a child, we sang Hiding in Thee over and over. It's a familiar song to me, and what a blessed thought to start with all hail the power of Jesus' name, and stand, sit before our Almighty God, and then recognize that He is our hiding place as well.

So thankful to gather together with you in worship this morning and remind ourselves of who we are and who it is we worship. Well, we come to another one of our hard sayings this morning. Jerry read it for us, the simple new commandment to love one another as I have loved you.

It's simple, but I think when we hear it, we realize that there's so much depth to it, and when we compare our love for each other to that of Christ, for us, it's pretty intimidating and humbling. Pastor Tom mentioned our own Don Carson last week, and I thought he had a helpful quote in his commentary on John, so I'll read that to you, we'll get it on the screen. D.A. Carson writes, the new command is simple enough for a toddler to memorize and appreciate, profound enough that the most mature believers are repeatedly embarrassed at how poorly they comprehend it and put it into practice.

Love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another. As life passes, I don't know your experience, but it seems like these holidays that we have each year come faster and faster. We have Easter in the spring, we celebrate 4th of July in the summer, in the late fall we celebrate Thanksgiving and recognize the bountiful plenty we have at God's hand, and then at Christmas we celebrate Christ's birth into our world.

It's a wonderful rhythm, I appreciate those holidays because they put kind of a rhythm of our Christian faith in front of us in our everyday life, and it's a wonderful time to gather with our families as well. The nation of Israel had that same kind of rhythm in their year as well. They had feast days or holidays that they worked through as they worked through the year and the seasons to remind them of their identity and their place in God.

Their spring holiday was, their spring festival was Passover, and the text that Jerry read for us, our text for today, comes in a Passover setting. The Passover was a festival that the Jews kept, they would through the Passover look back to God's deliverance from Egypt under Moses, but the Passover would also look forward to the coming Redeemer who would once again deliver Israel into a new covenant, blessings. So that's the setting of the saying that Jerry read for us, and it's a particularly important Passover.

We call it the Last Supper because it was the last meal that Jesus had with his disciples before he was betrayed and crucified. Now, I don't know what comes to your mind when you hear the phrase Last Supper, but for me, I think I tend to think of Leonardo da Vinci's rendering, beautiful rendering of the Last Supper. You're probably familiar with it, and I think there's a lot of richness in it as you look over each disciple and Jesus, and you kind of get a sense for what's communicated to us about that Last Supper in the various Gospels.

But unfortunately, this is not a very historically accurate rendering of the Last Supper, so I think it will help us to maybe get a little bit of a different picture of what this evening Jesus had with his disciples was like if we look at something that's a little bit more historically accurate. So hopefully there's a picture before this one. There is not.

All right, how do you like that? Yeah, the thing's kind of fell apart. There we go. There we go.

Thank you. And this rendering, we're looking at what the Greeks, or what we would refer to as a triclinium, and tri means three, of course, and clinium comes from the Greek word kline, which is the word for a bed or a couch. So this meal setup is a setup made up of three low tables with a set of mattresses, and the mats or cushions laid around each one.

And then the diners would recline. They would recline. Their head would be towards the table, and their feet would be extending away from it.

And as they ate, they would tend to lean on their left arm and reach for their food and eat with their right arm. So as we read through this account that we're going to be reading here in a few minutes, it will help us to understand a few things that happen. Now in this form of a meal, the head table, we might expect it to be the center table.

That would fit in our culture. But the head table was actually the table on the left, or the table that's the furthest away from us in this rendering. And the head, the host of the meal would be sitting in the center position of that left or far table in this screen.

So you can see a rendered, supposed rendering of Jesus sitting at that middle position as the host or the father figure in this meal. Now to the right of the host, typically some loved friend or family member would sit there in this place of privilege and honor. And as we read through the account, we'll see it's probable that the disciple John was sitting in that position.

And if you think about how they're reclining, the account's going to talk about how John leans back into Jesus and ask him a question. So you can kind of picture how that would happen when you understand this meal set up in this way. Now the left side of the host was considered the weak side.

And so on the left side, the host would choose a particularly trustworthy and honored guest that he was putting his confidence or she was putting her confidence in. And as we read this story, believe it or not, the person that seems to be sitting on the rest or reclining on the left side of Jesus is Judas. When we read the story, you'll also see that Peter motions to John to ask Jesus something.

And so Peter was probably sitting on that far table where he was in a position to see John. So you kind of get a feel there, did I ruin your life for Leonardo da Vinci? You know, this is probably a more accurate picture and it will fit what we're getting ready to read now. So now that we have that setting in place, I'd like to pull on three different threads that John develops in John chapter 13 in the passage before us.

The first thread is the awful darkness that is descending on Jesus and the disciples at this point. The second thread that John develops is the bursting forth of the glory of God, the glory of Jesus in the middle of that darkness. And then the third point I would like to make is how that glory of Christ, how that presence of Christ, that the word made flesh and dwelling amongst us, how that glory continues on earth after Jesus departs.

So first of all, let's look at the darkness that's settling in on this scene. And to see that, I'd like to go back a couple paragraphs in front of what Jerry read for us to John 13, 21. After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit and testified, truly, truly I say to you, one of you will betray me.

The disciples looked at one another uncertain of whom he spoke. One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus' side. So Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking.

So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, it is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it. So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. This action of picking out a select morsel and giving it to someone else at the dinner, when the host did that, that was a sign of affection, a sign of honor, a sign of invitation for friendship.

And so in this action, Jesus is offering to Judas one last opportunity to come and find rest and peace in him. But as we read on, we see the darkness descend. John 13, 27.

Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him and Jesus said to him, what you are doing, what you are going to do, do quickly. Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that because Judas had the money bag, Jesus was telling him, buy what you need for the feast or that he should give something to the poor.

So after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out and it was night. Now, just about everyone I read on this passage recognizes that statement that it was night is more than just a reference to the time of day. John seems to be portraying here the darkness that is descending on Jesus and his disciples as Jesus is just hours away from his betrayal and crucifixion.

So things seem to be unraveling at this last supper. And if we look a little bit beyond the passage that Jerry read for us in John 13, 36, we see things get even worse. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Jesus answered him, where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.

Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. Jesus answered, will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times. So here we are, more than three years into the ministry of Jesus with his disciples.

His disciples at this point are expecting a glorious victory. And instead we see this darkness descending on Jesus and them. And things are just unraveling.

One of his disciples, Judas, is going to betray him. Jesus is well aware of this, it's not a surprise. And the rest of the disciples, including Peter, their spokesman, their leader, will deny him before the sun rises again.

Have you ever, as you look back on life, do you see some dark periods in your life? When I was reading and thinking about this passage, I couldn't help but think about a period that Dawn and I went through in the sixth year of our marriage. I lost my job, we had no savings, we had no home, we had no future prospect. We had a year and a half old son, and I remember my sweet father-in-law showing up with a borrowed truck to move us back home.

That's kind of a humbling experience to go through. And I also remember the first night we spent there in Dawn's parents' basement, sleeping on a mattress on the floor. And it was a basement without windows, it was pitch black.

And when I woke up that next morning wondering what in the world had hit us, and how we were going to survive, what in the world we were going to do, that pitch black basement matched my mood. And I think that's what John is painting for us here. This isn't just a dark period for Jesus and his disciples.

John is showing us the darkness that we as the human race are trapped in. We're trapped in. If you think about the history of redemption, this little problem of sin springs up in the garden where Adam and Eve choose to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil after God commanded them not to.

And soon you see this problem of sin spread to their children and Cain kills Abel. And things just keep getting worse and worse and worse. It seems like all God's good creation, all God's intent for his image bearers, we human beings, is corrupted and destroyed.

And throughout this history of redemption, as we come to the point that we're reading about this morning in this account, we have this flickering candle of God's promise that he's going to address this problem of evil and suffering and sin and all the destruction that comes with it. But that candle just keeps flickering in the wind on the edge of being extinguished. We see it pass from Eve to Noah to Abraham.

We see it pass to Jacob and Judah and David. And finally we see this flickering flame pass to Jesus. The word become flesh to dwell among us.

And here we are at this moment where it seems like this flickering fire is in danger of being extinguished. It is indeed a dark, dark hour. But there's hope.

We know there's hope or we wouldn't be here worshiping God through Jesus Christ this morning. In my early 20s, I was farming in East Central Illinois. And the farm I had rented and the little house I lived in were on the very edge of the electrical grid.

And we just assumed that every now and then we're going to lose power for a day or two. I remember driving home to that farm on one stormy night. The power was out and I parked my pickup truck in the garage and had to feel my way out because it was so pitch black.

And I remember standing out in my side yard looking out over the vast prairie, the Illinois prairie, off this little glacial ridge that my farm was perched up on. And as I looked out over that scene, it was so odd because I could not find a single point of light. The clouds had blotted out the stars and the electrical grid was out.

And it was just dark, dark, dark like this scene in Jesus' life. But as I stood there a little bit reluctant to go into my unlit, you know, no electric power house, as I stood there just looking out over the prairie in the quiet of that late summer evening, all of a sudden a bolt of lightning just came out of the sky maybe a mile away and lit up that landscape. And the brightness, the glory of it just shattered the darkness and the night.

And I think that's the kind of picture John is giving us in this account. There is a dark darkness that has set in with Jesus' betrayal and crucifixion within hours. And yet as John peers into that darkness, he recognizes as we have in John 1, 5, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

Look at this statement, it's at the beginning of what Jerry read for us, John 13, 31. When he, that is 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 glorify him at once.

You see the immediacy of John's description here. Now is the Son of Man glorified. What is John talking about? Here Jesus is on the verge of his betrayal and crucifixion and John looks at it as a glorious bolt of lightning lighting up the darkness.

Why does John look at it this way? I can relate more to the way that Luke and Peter refer to this as the suffering followed by the glory. The suffering of the crucifixion followed by the glory of the resurrection and the ascension and the return of Jesus Christ. But John cuts all the way through that and he's looking at Jesus in this dark, dark hour and he sees Jesus glorified.

What does it mean to glorify God? What does it mean to be glorified through God? The thing that John sees here is that Jesus is giving glory to God by his obedience. God sent Jesus, his beloved Son, to earth for a purpose, to display his love, to provide his salvation for his creatures, for us. And in that obedience, obedience to the death in this dark, dark hour, Jesus Christ is glorifying God by obeying, at the cost of his life, the mission and the purpose for which God had sent him to earth.

When I retired a couple years ago, one of my co-workers made this pin for me. Every time I see it in my study, I'm reminded of the many good years we enjoyed working together. Now if I were to take this pin and start using it as an ice pick, or if I were to use this pin as some kind of pry bar, or if I needed a hammer, I don't know about you, a hammer is one of the most frequently needed tools I have in my life.

If I needed a hammer and I grabbed this and started beating on stuff with it, what kind of attitude would I be showing to the person that gave me this pin? I'd be disregarding, I'd be showing disrespect, dishonor, be degrading this gift and the one that gave it to me. But by recognizing the purpose for which this gift was given to me, I'm honoring the one that gave it to me. And by using it in the way that he designed it to be used and intended when he gave it to me, I'm experiencing the good, the glory of the pin for myself.

And this is the sort of thing that we see going on in Jesus' life here when John speaks of Jesus as being glorified. Jesus is not glorified by putting bumper stickers on his donkey or by wearing Christian jewelry or saying all the right phrases. The core thought here is that Jesus is glorifying God by his obedience, his obedience to the Father.

Does that make sense? We come to this and we can draw a personal application for ourselves from it as well. How do we glorify God? That brings us to my last point this morning, where we see that Jesus is departing. The one, the word made flesh who dwells among us, he's departing.

How will the presence of God be seen by the world? Once Jesus departs, we'll read on in our text for today. Jesus said to his disciples, little children, yet a little while while I'm with you, you will seek me. And just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come.

So there's the problem. Jesus called these disciples to follow him three years earlier. Follow me.

That's Peter's confusion. Why can't I keep following you, Jesus? Jesus is explaining to his disciples, I'm leaving. You can't come where I'm going.

So how will the presence of God, how will the glory of God continue to be seen on earth? What is, if Christ's obedience was obedience into death for our salvation, what is the command, the purpose, the intent of God for us? How do we glorify God? John 13, 34, a new command I give to you, 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.

What's God's intent for us? That we love one another as Christ loved us. Now Jesus calls us little children in this passage, and it's pretty appropriate. We, like little children, hear a simple command like this, and we got questions.

It's kind of like dealing with our kids and grandkids. You ask them to do something, and there's got to be a negotiation. There's questions.

And so we have questions. Jesus, what do you mean, a new command? This sounds like the same old command. Leviticus 19, 18.

Moses left the command of God with the people of God. Love your neighbor. Sounds like the same command.

Love one another. What's going on here? Well, I can tell you there's a lot of different perspectives on why Jesus calls this a new command. But as I was reading and trying to filter through them and wondering how I wouldn't bore you to death this morning, I began to recognize that there's kind of a core idea to all these answers.

Why does Jesus call it a new command? Because it's a new command for a new covenant reality. If you look back to the garden, there was one command. Don't eat the fruit of the tree.

And we enter into the new covenant reality made possible by the death of Jesus on our behalf, and we have a new command, a central command, a positive command to love one another. It's new in the sense that the Spirit, Jesus talks about over and over in this passage, this section of John, about the gift of the Spirit, the coming of the Spirit when He departs. So it's a new command that's empowered by a new presence, a new type of presence of the Holy Spirit.

And it's a new command in the sense or in the way that it's put against a new background. What does it mean to love our neighbor? What does it mean to love one another? Jesus puts it up against the background of His own sacrificial death that is just hours away as He's speaking to His disciples. How do we love one another? As He has loved us.

When we were new parents, I think our son was just a few weeks old, and I was having yet another one of those sleep deprived nights where I was stumbling around through the house. Our son was crying. It seemed like he was fed.

He was dry. He wasn't too hot. He wasn't too cold.

And yet no matter what we tried, he continued to cry. So once again, 2 a.m. in the morning, I'm walking through the little house trying to comfort our son. And all of a sudden, it dawned on me.

I'm pretty dense. I will admit that. But it dawned on me that at some point, my parents had done this for me.

I think up to that point, I just assumed that, you know, my parents were kind of lucky to have me. Good looking guy, smart guy, you know. What a great piece of honor for my family.

And here I am on the doorstep of decades of parental sacrifice. And for some reason, at that moment, it strikes me how much my parents had given for me. So I immediately called them.

I figured they'd want to know that. No, I did not call them. I did call them the next morning and thank them.

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