A new commandment

Second reading is from John 13, verses 18 to 38, and can be found on page 1045 in the Pew Bibles.

John 13:18–38

I'm not referring to all of you, I know those I have chosen, but this is to fulfil the scripture.

He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.

I'm telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am he.

I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me, and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.

After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified,

I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me.

His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant.

One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him.

Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, ask him which one he means.

Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, Lord, who is it?

Jesus answered, it is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.

Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon.

As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

What you are about to do, do quickly, Jesus told him.

But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.

Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the feast,

or to give something to the poor.

As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out, and it was night.

When he was gone, Jesus said,

Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.

If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

My children, I will be with you only a little longer.

You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now,

where I am going, you cannot come.

A new command I give you, love one another.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

By this, all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Simon Peter asked him,

Lord, where are you going?

Jesus replied,

Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.

Peter asked,

Lord, why can't I follow you now?

I will lay down my life for you.

Then Jesus answered,

Will you really lay down your life for me?

I tell you the truth.

Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.

Thanks, Adam.

Will you join me in prayer as we begin?

Gracious Lord and Father, we pray that by your Spirit,

you might bring your word alive in our hearts, in our minds, and in our lives,

so that you might be glorified amongst us.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

We'll be looking at John 13.

If you're taking notes, I'm going to be talking about four things.

First is the problem of invisibility.

Second is love, life, and death.

Thirdly, love and glory.

And lastly, Julian's problem.

Firstly, problem of invisibility.

Now, I think it's actually quite cool to be a geek nowadays.

So...

That's why I'm going to proudly make a reference to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Now, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

In this series, there's a thing called the SEP.

Can anyone tell me what it is?

It's called the Someone Else's Problem Field.

Okay?

So, if you want to hide something, right, to make it invisible,

what you do is you make it as gary and disgusting as possible,

even in the middle of a field.

You know, you paint something purple with, you know, stars and all that sort of stuff.

And what happens is the thing becomes protected from unwanted eyes.

And that's because it's somebody else's problem.

That's how you make something disappear.

You know, if you want to disappear, you know, pretend that you need something from someone.

And then suddenly, you're gone.

It's not so much become invisible, but unnoticed.

It's a really cheap way, you know, if our governments could figure out a way of putting that into military technology.

There you go, Adam.

S-E-P.

The reason why I mention that is because it's almost, I don't know, like,

we had a combined service today at Willoughby Council.

The Christian witness in Chesswood, I think, is almost like an S-E-P.

You know, how many people actually notice that we exist?

Like, how many people notice that St. Paul's meet here on a Sunday evening to worship God?

How many people actually care?

Well, I imagine this is kind of it.

We disappear.

We become unnoticed to the rest of our society.

What will take us to do to become noticeable?

You know, it's the opposite of S-E-P.

If there was an anti-S-E-P, how will we become visible?

How will we individually and corporately make an impact to the rest of the people around us?

Did you notice that this is the type of thing that Jesus is concerned about here in John 13?

Come with me to John 13, 34 and 35.

The passage that I'm sure you all know and love and are familiar with,

and this kind of becomes invisible to us sometimes.

Reading from the ESV,

Jesus says,

A new commandment I give to you,

that you love one another just as I have loved you.

You also are to love one another.

And notice what he says.

If you do this, this is what happens.

By this, all people will know that you are my disciples,

if you have love for one another.

To overcome invisibility, all you need is love, apparently, according to Jesus.

Before we turn to that, just very quickly, background.

We're spending the next few weeks on chapter 13,

I think on to 17 of John's Gospel.

I can't remember, I haven't checked the roster.

But to orient you, the first 12 chapters of John's Gospel

talks about the first three years of Jesus' life,

so three years,

and from 13 to about 17,

kind of the last few hours,

which is kind of disproportional to the rest,

and is essentially one single conversation.

So three, four chapters of John's Gospel,

as opposed to the rest,

just focus on one conversation,

which kind of suggests to you that that conversation must be really important.

Really important for John to spend so much ink recording it for our benefit.

And when you read it, it's kind of understandable.

You know, all through John's Gospel,

Jesus makes these amazing promises.

I am the bread of life.

If you come to me, you'll never hunger.

But when you get to the last few hours of Jesus' life,

he says to his disciples and us,

see you later.

I'm going.

And, well, if he's not going to be around anymore,

presumably, what he says is going to be quite significant

for the people who've invested their whole life into Jesus.

And we're in a similar situation.

We don't see Jesus face to face.

And he's invited us to invest our life into him.

So what he says to his disciples, I guess, are relevant to us.

Why should we keep investing our life into him?

What does it mean for us who have invested our life into Jesus to live in a time that he's absent from us?

Well, we'll come to that.

Love, life, and death.

A focus of the topic is the new commandment, a commandment of love.

But it's important for us to understand the context in which it appears.

Yes, it appears in a context of that one long conversation.

But it's a little bit more specific than that.

It's very odd.

The first, if you turn to it,

before he talks about the new command,

18 to 30,

is focused on the betrayal of Judas.

And I don't know what you think of it.

It sort of struck me as kind of like an odd logic to it.

Why is the commandment of love following what he was saying about Judas?

Well, let me make the first point that love,

the commandment of love,

appears in the context of life and death.

That's the context.

It's clearly a life and death situation for Jesus.

He was going to be betrayed by one of his own,

which lead eventually to his execution.

It's not an idea that is new in John's gospel.

Jesus spoke about it back in chapter 6, verse 71.

So back in those chapters ago,

he spoke about his betrayal.

And chapter 12, again,

he spoke repeatedly about his betrayal.

But there's something new that happens.

Again, there's a bit of a time reference throughout John's gospel.

Now is not the time.

Now is not the time.

But suddenly, in chapter 13,

there's this little reference that says,

now is the time.

Now is the time.

We sort of pass some point of no return.

When Judas made up his mind to betray Jesus

and he's gone out to get the enemies of Jesus,

that was it.

That was it for Jesus.

It would lead to, eventually, his arrest and execution.

The Rubicon had been crossed.

The die had been cast.

This is it for Jesus.

It was life and death for him.

But it's not just life and death for him.

It is life and death for you and for me.

I don't know whether you thought about this point.

Like all the talk of Judas,

what's the relevance of that to you?

What's the take-home message of that?

Well, if you come with me to verse 19 of chapter 13,

Jesus kind of explains why he was going on

about Judas betraying him.

Did you notice?

He says, I'm telling you this now,

before it takes place,

that when it does take place,

when it does take place, what happens?

Have a look at it.

That you may believe.

It's an odd sort of word.

He doesn't say, so that you may know.

He's that you may believe that I am he.

All the things that he's been talking about with Judas

is so that the disciples and us will come to believe

that Jesus is he, that he is to Christ.

Now, John used very similar language in chapter 20, verse 31.

If you flip forward a few chapters,

John chapter 20, verses 30 to 31,

John 20:30–31

kind of like a summary of what the whole book is about,

John says,

John says,

John says,

John's gospel,

John is, and this appeals to me and maybe to some of you,

John's been acting like a lawyer.

Geeks and lawyers.

And he's been trying to prove a point.

And what he does is he brings forward these witnesses

as lawyers do in court.

And these witnesses prove certain things.

That's what lawyers do.

They're called signs,

but another word for it in John's gospel is they're witnesses.

John brings out all these witnesses

to show, to demonstrate to you

that Jesus is the chosen,

special king of God

who can give you life.

It is in his hands that he holds your life

and he can give it to you.

That's what he's been seeking to prove.

Now, you might be thinking,

possibly,

well,

why do I need life from Jesus?

For I'm already alive.

I'm sitting there,

or you seem to be alive.

You know,

most of you aren't

because you're not laughing at my jokes.

But that's maybe more me than you.

Why do we need life from Jesus?

Well,

this week I went to a training thing

with a lady by the name of Elizabeth McKinnon.

She is an expert on aging.

And she reckons

that we live in a culture

that denies aging.

As in,

it doesn't happen,

or it doesn't happen to me,

or it's something that could be stopped.

You know,

there's certain things that you can do.

You know,

aging is a terrible thing,

but it sort of sets itself in a wider context.

Not only does our culture deny aging,

but we deny death.

Death doesn't happen.

It's sort of medicalized.

It's something that happens out there.

It doesn't happen in our midst.

It could never happen to me,

particularly if you're young.

But if you're older,

death is not something

that could happen to the people around you.

And so when it does happen,

it takes us completely by surprise.

My wife died.

My husband died.

My children died.

It's so unexpected.

And what McKinnon was saying

is that we need to accept

the reality that we will die.

That death is a reality.

In fact,

the reality is

we are as good as dead.

And she has this wonderful line.

She says that life is a terminal disease.

You know,

you don't need to be diagnosed with cancer

or anything else.

The day that you are born,

you are born to die.

I don't know if anyone's ever brought to you,

or you brought anyone,

like those beautiful flowers from the forest.

Gorgeous.

You know,

something I do for my wife

all the time.

And,

actually,

I don't,

because I think it's such a waste.

I mean,

how long do they last?

A week?

Like,

you know,

you prolong,

you put things in it,

whatever.

Why do they only last for a week?

Because they're dead.

By the time,

it leaves the shop

and goes in your,

they're already dead.

They're dead

because they've been cut off

from the source of their life.

And we are like those flowers,

beautiful for a season.

A really short time, in fact,

but we are ultimately cut off

from the source of our life,

and we are dead.

We are the walking dead.

And John says,

if you put your life

into Jesus' hands,

if you believe

that he is the Christ,

he will give you life

instead of death.

if not,

you are already dead.

See,

this is,

this is the context

of the command

to love,

and I'll show you

the link

between the two.

But,

just to assure you,

in case

you haven't heard this before,

Christianity

is not just

a touch of religion

and morality

in your life.

It's not just

about coming to church

on a Sunday night.

it is a matter

of life and death.

It is centered

on Jesus,

the one

who has power

to give you

life.

Love,

life,

and death.

Love,

and glory.

What's the link

between life,

and death,

and love?

Come with me

to verse 31,

to the sort of

immediate context

of the love

commandment.

The context

is this,

the context

is Judas

left,

verse 31,

is when

Judas

had left

that Jesus

gave the commandment.

The only

people who were left

were the disciples,

you know,

the one,

the pretend,

the fake one

had left,

the one

who looked

like a disciple

was no longer

there,

and Jesus

turned to

those who

are real

disciples

to give them

this direction,

to give them

this command.

The important

thing is,

in other words,

you are not

trying to love

in order

to be a disciple.

It's the other

way around.

You are a

disciple of Jesus,

that's why

you love.

you are not

trying to love

in order to

get life

out of Jesus,

it's the other

way around.

You love

because you

have experienced

life from

Jesus,

and so you

act like

someone who

is alive.

If you're like

everybody else,

then you act

like a dead

person.

if you've

experienced

life,

if you

receive life

from Jesus,

then you

act like

you are

alive.

And living

people

love.

Living

people love

because

God is

love.

The very

source of

our life

is love.

life.

And I

want to

show that

to you

from verses

31 and

32.

When Judas

had gone

out,

Jesus

says,

now is

the Son

of Man

glorified and

God is

glorified in

him.

If God

is glorified

in him,

God will

glorify him

in himself

and will

glorify him

at once.

One of the

words that gets

repeated,

and it's one of

those Sunday

school Bible

study things,

what do you

think that

verse is

about?

is the

word that

gets repeated

and it is

the word

glory.

Okay?

So glory,

you know,

but what's

glory?

What does

that mean?

It's,

in a

non-religious

way,

it kind of

means splendor

and majesty

and something

that's wonderful.

So to

demonstrate,

you know,

what is the

glory of

Sydney?

The

harbour.

I thought

you were

going to

say,

sing

pause,

but what

is the

glory of

Queensland?

I don't

know.

Yeah.

What is,

what is,

what is the

glory of

sing

pause?

Oh,

that's an

interesting one.

What is our

splendor?

What is,

hmm.

What about

you?

What would

you say

your glory

is?

What is the,

what is the

thing that

shows you

your splendor

that other

people from

around the

world would

go,

wow,

that's,

that's

amazing.

Is it

your house

that

demonstrates

and reveal

your tastefulness

and your

wealth

and your

cleverness?

Is it

your name,

your reputation,

that you have

a good name?

Or maybe,

for the parents,

maybe it's

your children.

they're

successful,

they achieve

a lot,

and they

are your

glory.

Here,

Jesus says,

God's glory,

the supreme

moment in

which he

shows the

universe,

his splendor,

is in

the death

of his

son.

not

success,

not

achievement,

but

humiliation,

shame,

and ultimately,

death.

Jesus is

very clear

that the

death of

Jesus

ultimately,

definitively,

most clearly,

show the

splendor

of God,

for at

the cross,

we see

that God

is

love.

Did you

notice what

Jesus says?

The

father

glorifies

whom?

The

son.

The

son

glorifies

himself?

No.

the

son

glorifies

the

father.

The

son's

concern

is that

the whole

universe

would know

what a

great

dad he

has.

The

father's

concern,

all-consuming

concern,

is that

all

universe

would

honour

the

son

as

they

honour

him.

God

eternally

and

forever

within

himself

is

utterly

other

person

centred.

He

doesn't

need

us.

He's

eternally

within

himself

sufficient

in

relationship

of

love.

That's

why

it is

not

surprising

in

verse

34

Jesus

says

what

does

he

say?

New

commandment

I give

to you

that you

love

one

another

just as

I have

loved

you.

And

by all

this

people

will

know

that

you

are

my

disciples

if

you

have

loved

one

for

another.

We

are

if

we

belong

to

God

if

we

have

experienced

life

from

God

this

is

what

characterise

us

as a

people.

We

are

what

he

is

like.

We

are

people

of

love.

We

love.

That's

what

the

children

of

God

do.

We

love.

But

there

is

one

problem

that

really

stumped

me

when

I

was

reading

this

during

the

week.

Verse

34.

I

don't

know

whether

you

noticed

it.

Anything

that

sort of

strikes

you

as

kind

of

odd?

A

little

adjective

in there

that

you

kind

of

think

doesn't

really

quite

belong.

New.

Why

is that

there?

I

mean

if

you

read

the

whole

of

the

Old

Testament

Deuteronomy

6.

5

Leviticus

19.

18

which

Jesus

quote

from

when

he

was

asked

what's

the

greatest

command

and

he

said

love

the

Lord

your

God

with

all

your

heart

and

love

your

neighbor

as

yourself.

There

it is

in the

Old

Testament.

So

what

is so

new

about

what

Jesus

is

saying

have

you

noticed?

That

really

got me

stumped.

I

mean

in

the

Old

Testament

love

your

neighbor

as

yourself

just

in

case

you

thought

that's

just

easy

to

do

because

I

don't

like

myself

so

I'm

just

going

to

treat

everybody

else

the

same.

Think

about

when

you're

hungry

what

do

you

do?

You

eat

you

feed

yourself

when

you're

tired

you

rest

when

you're

sick

you

don't

just

ignore

it

you

take

your

medicine

you

see

this

is

how

you

care

for

your

body

this

is

how

you

love

yourself

and

in

the

when

they

see

them

sick

they're

supposed

to

that's

the

Old

Testament

what

is

Jesus

saying

here

what

is

new

about

what

Jesus

says

does

Jesus

say

here

a new

commandment

I

give

to

you

love

your

neighbor

as

yourself

no

Jesus

says

love

one

another

as

I

have

loved

you

you

could

even

say

that

Jesus

is

someone

who

loves

his

neighbors

more

than

himself

if

he

loves

his

neighbor

he

loves

well

we're

not

his

neighbor

we

were

his

enemies

if

he

loves

himself

he

might

even

live

beyond

the

age

of

33

to

even

my

age

he

might

live

to

see

his

children

but

what

the

gospel

tells

us

is

that

he

loves

you

more

than

he

loves

himself

he

would

rather

go

hungry

so

that

you

can

be

fed

he

would

rather

absorb

God's

anger

so

that

you

can

be

saved

it's

a

I

think

it's

a

different

standard

it's

a

much

more

different

love

the

people

around

you

more

than

you

love

yourself

in fact

not

just

your

neighbors

love

people

who

hate

you

who

are

indifferent

who

are

proud

love

those

people

more

than

you

love

yourself

but

I

think

Jesus

gives

us

more

than

just

rules

because

it

sort

of

struck

me

that's

where's

the

first

greatest

command

where's

the

love

you

would

have

thought

Jesus

would

have

included

it

here

I

think

what

Jesus

gives

us

is

more

than

just

more

rules

and

if

you

think

about

it

that's

kind

of

you

know

if

you

can't

even

love

your

neighbor

as

yourself

how

do

you

hope

to

love

your

neighbors

more

than

yourself

so

kind

of

like

a

higher

standard

makes

it

even

I

think

what

Jesus

does

is

he

gives

us

more

or

a

new

power

to

do

that

which

we

cannot

do

to

do

a

godlike

thing

what

Jesus

does

is

he

invites

us

to

believe

that

he

is

to

Christ

and

in

doing

so

he

gives

us

life

he

gives

us

life

by

drawing

us

into

the

life

of

God

himself

and

when

we're

drawn

into

the

life

of

God

what

happens

is

he

changes

the

change

is

so

dramatic

that

in

in

John

chapter

four

he

calls

it

a

rebirth

it

is

almost

as

if

you

go

back

into

your

mother's

womb

and

you

come

out

again

but

this

time

as

a

completely

different

person

this

is

what

Jesus

does

for

you

and

me

he

takes

you

and

he

gets

rid

of

the

old

selfish

hateful

mean

spirit

you

and he

makes

you

into

him

who

loves

his

enemies

more

than

himself

it's

not

surprising

this is

why

Jesus

says

if you

love

like

that

people

will

know

you

are

my

disciples

people

will

know

God

love

because

you

are

being

God

like

why

don't

we

love

like

that

I

don't

know

do

you

feel

that

love

here

at

St.

Paul's

do

you

feel

that

love

in

your

family

do

you

think

you

are

doing

it

let

me

suggest

a couple

possibilities

it might

be

because

you

don't

know

that

love

that's

a

possibility

if

you've

never

been

loved

you

don't

know

how

to

show

love

if

you

haven't

been

loved

like

the

way

Jesus

loved

you

maybe

that's

why

you

can't

love

that's

possible

if

that's

you

if

you

don't

know

life

don't

know

love

then

maybe

tonight

is

the

time

to

change

that

it's

okay

even

if

you've

been

coming

here

to

church

for

a

long

time

but

what

about

through

those

of

us

who

are

disciples

of

Jesus

who

know

that

life

who

know

Jesus

let me

suggest

maybe

three

possibilities

one

thing

is

love

is

really

inconvenient

have

you ever

noticed

when people

ask for

help

they tend

to do

it at

the most

inconvenient

time

and in

the most

inconvenient

way

I had

this lady

asking me

to help

her pack

up and

move her

house

on Friday

and I

thought

that's

just really

inconsiderate

because

Friday is

my day

off

and on

Saturday

I'm

going

surfing

with

Ian

why

can't

she

move

in at

a

time

maybe

that's

why

we

don't

love

it's

too

inconvenient

maybe

we

don't

love

because

of

time

we

just

don't

have

time

to

love

people

you know

we're

all so

busy

do you

know

why

you're

so

busy

have

you

thought

about

it

it's

not

a

time

management

issue

I

reckon

the

reason

why

you

and

I

are

so

busy

because

we

are

really

important

people

that's

right

not

everyone

but

you

you're

important

I'm

important

other

people

aren't

and

that's

why

we

got to

spend

all

time

doing

our

really

important

stuff

because

that's

what

important

people

do

we

don't

have

time

on

trivial

things

with

well

unimportant

people

and

ministers

are great

at this

sort of

stuff

by the

way

because

we

look

really

busy

so

that

people

will

think

that

we

are

very

important

people

we've

got

busy

things

to

do

and we

like

to

maybe

that's

why

third

possible

reason

is

in order

for me

to love

you

unfortunately

it means

that you

need to

get to

know me

and that's

really bad

because I

spend a

lot of

time

and a

lot of

energy

cultivating

this

image

for you

that you

think

that I'm

a really

godly

smart

person

and if

you get

to know

me

like my

children

do

and you

come to

my house

you will

see that

yes I

do

shout at

my

kids

and at

times

I am

incredibly

inconsiderate

towards my

wife

and I

don't think

I'd like

you to

know that

but for

me to

love you

for you

to be

involved

in my

life

you will

know how

terrible

I am

maybe that's

why we

don't want

people to

know us

maybe it's

to do

with our

eyesight

you know

we don't

love because

we're

short sighted

our horizon

never goes

beyond our

retirement

or our

legacy

or next

weekend

or next

year

if that is

our horizon

then you

pretty much

don't need

love to

get there

in fact

love most

of the time

will slow

you down

if you

need to

go to

where you

want to

go

considering

other people

along the

way

is going

to stop

you

achieving

they might

even get

in your

way

but if

your

horizon

is beyond

that

into

heaven

into the

bosom

of your

father in

heaven

seeing the

people around

you being

loved by

him

then maybe

it's possible

that you

will feel

that love

you will

need love

like you

need oxygen

to breathe

couple of

reasons

well

SEP

the

invisibility

of us

and the

church

that wasn't

always the

case by the

way

Christians were

very well

known

at one

stage

not just

200 years

ago but

back a long

time

that was

a

this is the

conclusion

Julian's

problem

Julian was

an emperor

of Rome

he was

called the

apostate

the reason

was