Latest / The TakeAway / John 13:31-35 How Does God Make Himself Known?

Transcript

John 13:31-35 How Does God Make Himself Known? · The TakeAway

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: How does God make himself known?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Many people are waiting for God to prove himself through something unmistakable: a miracle, a sign, or a moment so powerful that doubt becomes impossible.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: The scripture reveals that God has never been silent.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: He has made himself known through creation, through his word, and most fully through Jesus Christ.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: In John chapter 13, Jesus begins preparing his disciples for a time when he will no longer be physically standing in front of them.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And what he reveals is that the glory of God, the revealing of who God is, will continue to be seen through the people he has redeemed, as they love one another by his grace.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: In this message, Pastor Harry invites us to consider whether God has already made himself known far more clearly than we realize, and whether the real question is not whether God is revealing himself, but whether we are willing to see him.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Here's Pastor Harry Barens with today's message.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, welcome again to the takeaway.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Pastor Harry Barens, and today we're going to be in John chapter 13, verses 31 through 35.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: But before we get into it, I want to talk about the way many of us walk with Jesus, the way we come to him and walk with him, believing that we are an instrumental part of Christ fulfilling his mission in this world and in our lives and in the lives of the people around us.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: And that in some way, shape, or form, he needs us to do certain things.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: For instance, I've heard many Christians say when I've asked them, what do you think the purpose of your life is?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: Why do you think God created you?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: And the answer is often something like this: He wants us to glorify him.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: He needs us to share the gospel.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: He desires us to love others and himself.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: Now, there is truth in every one of those statements, but all of them still revolve around the idea that we are the central point of God's purposes, that there is something of worth in us that Jesus selected or chose or formed to accomplish his purposes.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: But what we're going to learn today, and what the disciples in this upper room are still learning, is that Christ is the central point, that he is fulfilling and will fulfill the ultimate purpose of God's will and desire.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: And that he invites us into that to continue on what he started and he alone completed.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that is what makes this room we are walking into today so charged.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: As we saw last time, we ended with Judas walking out into the night.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I said that this was the moment that the page turns, even though nobody at that table could even see it turning.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: And now we have 11 men that are still sitting there, and they are holding the same picture that they have been following Jesus toward an end they themselves are a part of.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: But the door Judas just walked out of has barely closed when Jesus speaks.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: And the first words out of his mouth are about himself when he says, Now is the Son of Man glorified.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: And that word now that he uses sits underneath everything else he is about to tell them.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: And all of it says the same thing that this is about him and the mission that he alone came for.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then within a few sentences, he tells them that where he is going, they cannot come.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: And that lands on men who believe they were walking alongside of him toward that end.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Now, from this moment forward, everything in John's gospel will be headed in one direction, toward the cross, the empty tomb, and the ascension.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: And what we're about to read is the beginning of that end, which is why I believe this is the moment where this whole gospel turns.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the disciples are still struggling to understand him here, as we will see in these next few verses, when Jesus says things that shake what they thought they knew.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: And just like them, there are moments in our own walk with Christ that shake us the same exact way.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: When we were sure we were walking with Jesus toward one thing, and then we found out that was never his plan to begin with.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Now we're not alone in that thinking, as we're going to see in the coming episodes, where we're going to watch four different disciples respond in four different ways, and every one of them is still holding that same thought.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: And it's that thought that has led to one of the biggest misunderstandings in Christianom, which is that Jesus' ultimate mission was to come and die and save us from our sins, and that is the end of it.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: But the gospel is so much more than that.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus came first and foremost to glorify the Father.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: And we're going to hear him say it himself in these very verses today.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Now, we often think that our salvation is for our benefit, but it is for something far greater than our benefit.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: And the greater purpose is that we would be restored to reflect the glory we were made for, which is God's glory.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: Now, Paul says in Romans chapter 8, verse 29, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: What that means is that Jesus is the first of that restoration, and everyone God calls follows him into that.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that restoration starts with letting go of something.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus says earlier in chapter 12, verse 25, in the chapter we walk through back in episode 57, if you want to check it out, he says, Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: The life he is asking us to lay down is the picture we have built in our hearts and our minds, the vision we are chasing for our joy and our satisfaction, and ultimately for our own glory.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: He is saying we do not have to go looking for life to find purpose.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: We find purpose when we let go of the life we are trying to hold on to.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Let me say that one more time because this is so important for today's message.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: We do not have to go looking for life to find purpose.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: We find purpose when we let go of the life we are trying to hold on to.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: And that is often an image in our minds more so than a reality that is actually happening.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Now, that picture shows up everywhere.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: It shows up in our relationships, in our work, in our finances, vacations, in our landscaping, even in the color we paint the walls of our own house.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: Each one is an idea we have formed that we think will finally bring us joy and satisfaction.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: But none of them does, which is why nobody finds satisfaction in this world.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: Scripture tells us we were made for something different.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Isaiah says in chapter 43, verse 7, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus asks us to lay down the life we are chasing, he is asking us to lay down the glory we are seeking so that we can pursue the glory we were formed for.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: And that glory is his.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Now, before we read these verses, there are a few words we need to define clearly, along with the picture behind them, because that is the only way to catch what Jesus is actually saying here.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: And the ones I have in mind are glory, grace, and love.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: Now, we have unpacked these words before, but I have found, as I disciple people, that a word that doesn't get brought back to the surface often gets forgotten and the meaning goes with it.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: And as we bring these words back to the surface, we're gonna see a greater depth and purpose in the way God works.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: And seeing it lets us step into what Jesus says we can have, which is the purpose and the joy and the love we so desperately want.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus lays that out over the next three chapters, which are among my favorite chapters in the whole of the Bible.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Chapters 14, 15, and 16 are a sermon that he gives in a private setting to the men closest to him and no one else.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: And the verses we are reading today are the doorway into that particular teaching.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: They mark a transition, a realization that everything up to this point has been about what Jesus was building and performing and accomplishing for the glory of God.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: But before we dive in today, I have a quick reminder for you.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: Every episode we do has a text us link in the episode description.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you can use it to send me a question, an encouragement, or whatever's on your mind.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now, you have to understand this.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: It is a one-for-one exchange.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: So if you send me a message through the text us link, I can only send you one short message back.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's all the system allows me to do.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: But if you visit us at thetaway.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: So that's just a quick reminder that there's more help than just listening to what I teach on here today.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: So with that, let's get back into it.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: To get started, the first word we need to define is the one Jesus keeps coming back to in these verses.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: And that particular word is glory.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: Now, glory is one of those words I believe we should stop and redefine every time it comes up because it's the meaning and purpose of all things throughout all of Scripture.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: God created all things for his glory, and he's accomplishing all things for his glory.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: And if we carry the wrong picture of that word, we carry into every verse that uses it.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the best way to let scripture define it is to look at a moment when somebody asks to see it.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: In Exodus chapter 33, verse 18, Moses asks the Lord for exactly that.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: And here's how the Lord answers him in verse 19.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Moses said, Please show me your glory.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Now, what that means is that Moses asks to see glory, and God answers with his goodness, his name, his grace, and his mercy.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: So glory is God making his character known.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: And then he does exactly that in chapter 34, verse 5 and 7.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: It says, The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: The Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving inequity and transgression and sin.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: But who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Now look at what he does when he proclaims his name.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: We hear the word name and think of titles, and plenty of people go off and study all the different names for God.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: But what the Lord proclaims here is a description of who he is.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, forgiving iniquity, and yet by no means clearing the guilty.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: The name of God is the character of God.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's the same thing we find in Exodus chapter 3, verse 14, when Moses asks whom he should say has sent him, and God answers, I am who I am, because no single title can hold all of who he is, because the attributes of God are what define God.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: Everything that he's made reveals them.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: That includes creation and it includes us, if we're willing to sit and take it all in.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now, Paul says in Romans chapter 1, verse 20, for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power, power, and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: So before Christ, God could be known through the miracles, through the prophets, through Moses, and through creation itself, and all of it appointed to who he is.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this is where it gets interesting, because Moses never saw all of God's glory.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: In Exodus chapter 33, verse 23, the Lord tells him, Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: Then Moses stood in the cleft of the rock, covered by the hand of God, and watched glory pass by.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then John tells us what happened when God stopped covering his face in chapter one, verse 14.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: He said, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: And in verse 18, John adds, No one has ever seen God.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: God, the only Son, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: And the writer of Hebrews then puts it this way in chapter 1, verse 3.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: He says, He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 6, he says, For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: What that means is that glory has a face.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: The glory Moses couldn't look at, and the glory all of creation has been announcing, shows up in a person walking and talking and sitting at a table, and his name is Jesus.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: So here's the definition we're going to carry through every verse of this episode and through the rest of this series.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: Glory is the revealing of all of who God is, and it's the purpose of creation, the purpose of his son, and the purpose of us.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because God made us to make himself known in us and through us.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: We share in that work and we add nothing to God that he lacked.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: Paul tells us exactly where we fall short.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: In Romans chapter 3, verse 23, he says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: We were made to reveal it, but we fell short of it.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that sends us reaching for a glory of our own.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus says the Son of Man is glorified right now, with Judas barely out the door, he is saying that all of who God is has begun to be put on display.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: And the verses themselves show us how.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: So with that, let's look at verses 31 and 32, where John tells us when he had gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: Now, keep the scene in mind.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: Judas has just left the room.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: He took the morsel of bread Jesus dipped, Satan entered him, and he got up and walked out into the night.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: All of that was in Jesus' hands, and none of it caught him off guard.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: But the eleven who are still in the room watched it happen.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: And they're assuming Judas left because he held the money bag and Jesus was sending him to buy what they needed for the feast or to give something to the poor, it says.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: But remember also, it's still the week of the Passover, which we talked about last time.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where we're at right now, in the upper room with Jesus and the eleven disciples.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: Then comes these words Jesus speaks after Judas walks out, and he says, Now is the Son of Man glorified.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: Now, most of us, if we thought about it long enough, would point to the cross as the place he's glorified, or the resurrection or the ascension.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: But Jesus says, Now he is glorified.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: In this very room, before he's even been arrested, at the very moment Satan has entered Judas and Judas has gone out.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this word now has been a long time coming.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Way back at the wedding in Cana, in chapter 2, verse 4, Jesus tells his mother, My hour has not yet come.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: John tells us the same thing again in chapter 7, verse 30, and in chapter 8, verse 20, that no one laid a hand on him because his hour had not yet come.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Then in chapter 12, verse 23, the chapter we walk through in episode 57, he says, The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then a few verses later in verse 28, he prays, Father, glorify your name.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: Then a voice comes from heaven, and the father says, I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: So the hour goes from not yet to has come.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: And here Jesus says it's underway.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: John told us in chapter 13, verse 1, that Jesus knew his hour had come.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: And the moment Judas walked out of that very room is the moment it starts moving, which is why Jesus had just told him, What you are going to do, do quickly.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then look at how Jesus says it.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: In verse 31, the verbs are in the past tense in the Greek, the way you'd speak of something that's already underway.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then in verse 32, he turns forward.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: So the glorifying has begun, and Jesus says the rest of it follows at once.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: In these two verses, he says, glorified or glorified five times.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: And every one of them carries the definition we just talked about.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: So the question is here what starts being put on display right now?
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's all of it.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: Glory has been showing up all along.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: At the same wedding in Cana in chapter 2, verse 11, where John says Jesus did his first sign and manifested his glory.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: And with Lazarus in chapter 11, verse 4, where Jesus says, This illness does not lead to death.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: Those were pieces.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: But what Jesus announces in the upper room is the full display, the moment where all of who God is begins to come into view.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And it runs through the cross, the grave, the mourning, and the ascension.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: The cross is where it all converges.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: I talk about this in my book, Seeing Salvation from Heaven's Perspective, in chapter five.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: And there I talk about how Jesus displayed the attributes of God on the cross all at once: the mercy, the justice, the wrath, and the forgiveness.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's the same description the Lord gave Moses in Exodus chapter 34, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and yet by no means clearing the guilty.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: And both of those stand at once on the cross.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: So if you want to go deeper, I would encourage you to order the book.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: You can get it on our website at thetaway.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's a short, easy read.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's only six chapters long, written to help us understand the purpose and meaning of salvation beyond what it does just for us, and into what God's purpose was in everything he did in saving us.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now, all the way up to this point, Jesus has been showing us who he is.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: John the Baptist testified, the miracles testified, the Father testified, the scriptures testified, and Moses testified.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: The same five witnesses we met back in episode 20 in the courtroom of the sun in John chapter 5.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: The testimony is in.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus says God is glorified in him, he's telling us that everything needed to reveal who he is, and through him who the Father is has been set in motion, and nothing is going to stop it.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: Then verse 32 repeats it, and that carries the force that God is glorified in him.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: And since that's true, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: The Son is making the Father known here.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: The Father is making the Son known.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: And because we already know Jesus is God in the flesh, that's one work.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: In making each other known, they make the whole of God known.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: Now there's a side of God we can only know from his character, the invisible side.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's God making himself known in the flesh, so that we can see him and touch him and hear him, which is what John writes about in his first letter, chapter one, verse one and two.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: He says, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life, the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: Now, what could only be known before through miracles and prophets and creation can now be heard and seen and touched, because the Son stepped into the creation that was always meant to reveal God.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: He shows us in the flesh how creation was meant to reveal God, and how we who fall short of his glory were always meant to reveal it also.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: And because we fell short, he came to do what we were meant to do, and we can't.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the key to what we're saved from.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Now he's going to tell us what that work is later in John chapter 17, when he opens in prayer in verse one by saying, Father, the hour has come.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: Glorify your son, that the son may glorify you.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then in verse four and five, he says, I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: What that means is that the Son glorified the Father by finishing the work given to him, and that work redeems us and restores us to the place of our created purpose, so that we can once again live in a way that makes God known, which is to glorify him.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: The glory we fell short of is the glory we're being restored to.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: And right after he says all of this, Jesus turns to the men around the table, and the very first thing he calls them tells us how well he knows what they're about to carry.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: So, with that, let's look at verse 33, where Jesus says, Little children, yet a little while I am with you, you will seek me.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: And just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: Now listen to how he addresses them.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then he says something they've heard before, but not from him to them.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: Back in John chapter 7, verse 33 and 34, Jesus said to the crowd and the Pharisees, I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to him who sent me, you will seek me, and you will not find me.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: Where I am, you cannot come.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then again in chapter 8, verse 21, he says, I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: Where I am going, you cannot come.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: And in both of those moments it was a judgment, because a time was coming when they would seek him, and he wouldn't be available to them, and the light would no longer be shining.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: And now he says the same words to his own disciples.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: But the difference is how he starts.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: He opens with a term of endearment, because he knows the loss and the weight they're about to carry when he dies and goes away.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: They're going to feel defeated and overcome, and they're going to wonder whether they followed the right person and the right teachings all along, and whether the Pharisees and the crowds and the naysayers were actually right.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: And two of them can't let that sentence go.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: Peter asks it straight out in verse 36.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Lord, where are you going?
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: And Thomas in chapter 14, verse 5, says, Lord, we do not know where you are going.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: How can we know the way?
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus answers both of them.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_01: But we're going to let him do that when we get there.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: But for now, what he gives them is a command.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: So let's look at verse 34, where Jesus says, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: You also are to love one another.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this is the new commandment, the new standard, and it comes to men who've never been able to carry the old one, which is why it helps to remember what the old one was actually for.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: Now, in my book in chapter two, I talked about the commandment of God and what it was meant to do, that it was given to reveal the holiness of God and to show us how far short of it we actually fall.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: Paul says in Romans chapter 3, verse 20, for by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then in Galatians chapter 3, verse 24, he says, So then the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: What that means is that the law was always meant to show us our shortcomings and our inability, so that we'd be humbled and cry out for God to do the work.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: Now, there's a word that isn't in this verse, but sits underneath of it, because nobody can carry out this command without it.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_01: And that word is grace.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: We say we're saved by grace.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: And if I asked you what grace is, a lot of us would answer that it's what we're saved by or the free gift of God, which is true, but it's not complete.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, we should think of grace as the enabling work of God in Christ.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: What God did in Christ to make our salvation possible so that we could be restored for his glory.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: And it's also what keeps working in us so that we can live in what Christ completed.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, we're still imperfect people, and the enabling work in us is his.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_01: Paul says it this way in Titus chapter 2, verse 11 and 12.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: For the grace, which is what he's saying, the enabling work of God, has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce on godliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: So grace both brings the salvation and trains us in the living.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the enabling this new commandment requires.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: It also brings us to the two greatest commandments in Matthew chapter 22, verse 37 and 39, where Jesus says, And he said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: This is the great and first commandment.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: Now the first is loving the Father and loving the Son, a love that shows itself in wanting to know him and reveal him.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: The second, Jesus takes from Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18, he says, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: Now, on the surface, that looks like a much easier commandment than the Ten Commandments themselves, but it's still impossible.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: We can't love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind because our love for ourselves gets in the way of that.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now, we can desire to love him, but self-love keeps it from us.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_01: And the second commandment takes that same self-love and makes it the standard for how we love everyone else.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: Think about what happens when you transfer the love you have for yourself onto somebody else.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: You end up becoming a judge and you start saying, I love that person well.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: I did this for them.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: I did that for them.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: I sacrificed myself for them.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: And look at how they treat me because I don't get back the love I gave them.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: But we don't do that to ourselves, do we?
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: We love ourselves with unconditional forgiveness.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: We do goofy things to ourselves all the time that we never intended and that carry real ramifications.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then we take it and we move on and we forgive ourselves.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: So why can't we love others that way?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Jesus answers that in the verse itself, because he moves the standard past ourselves when he says, Just as I have loved you.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how he's loved us through all of our faults.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: Paul says in Romans chapter 5, verse 8, but God shows his love for us in that while we are still sinners, Christ died for us.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: And John says it in his first letter, chapter 4, verse 10 and 11.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: He says, In this is love.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: Beloved.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: What that means is that the standard moves from ourselves to Christ, and the love he asks of us is the love he's already given.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: What we see is that this new commandment, as simple as it sounds, requires grace.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: Both the work God completed for us and the work he keeps doing in us to accomplish what he desires.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: And what he desires is something the watching world is going to see, which brings us to verse 35.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: So let's look at verse 35 where Jesus says, By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now Jesus ties the world's knowing to our loving, because our love for one another is where people go on seeing Jesus after he's gone.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: We were made for God's glory.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: So when we love one another, we reveal that glory, which is his work in us, to somebody else.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: And when somebody loves us, we receive the love of Christ through them.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: When we forgive, when we lay down our lives, when we suffer for others, we are stepping into the death and the suffering and the giving that Jesus did for us.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_01: He says it again in John chapter 15, verses 12 and 13.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_01: Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: That love costs something.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it's the one thing the world doesn't see anywhere else.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: These are imperfect lives in a lot of ways, and Christ is the one we're meant to see underneath of them.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus says, all people will know we are his disciples by this, because it's so unusual.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: When we're surrounded by people who love us, we start to think that's normal.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: But if you slow down and look at the world, there isn't much love in it.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: People push other people aside.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: They take what they want, they take advantage.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: Here in the United States, we live inside one continual advertisement because corporations want your money and governments want your money.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: And the world we live in is designed to consume everything you do while we spend our days trying to consume everything it offers.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: And into that world, Jesus is saying, in effect, take in all of who I am and give all that I have given, and by this all people will know that you are my disciples.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I said at the start that four disciples are about to respond.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: And now that we've been through all five verses, we can see what each one is pressing on.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: Peter and Thomas are both reaching for verse 33, where Jesus says they can't come where he's going.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: Philip is reaching for the glory in verse 31 and 32, and Judas, not Iscariot, is reaching for the world in verse 35.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: Peter, right after asking where Jesus is going, says in verse 37, Lord, why can I not follow you now?
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: I will lay down my life for you.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: And then Philip says in chapter 14, verse 8, Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us, which echoes Moses' request from Exodus 33, show me your glory, asked again in this very room.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: And what Jesus says backlands right on everything we've said today about glory.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: And then Judas, not Iscariot, says in verse 22, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world?
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: Three of them ask questions and one makes a request.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: And every one of them is circling the glory we've been talking about while still holding a worldly picture of what Jesus is doing.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus answers each of them, and each answer takes us deeper into who he is and what we were made for.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_01: And we're going to walk through them one at a time in the coming episodes.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: But for today, here's the takeaway.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it starts with the fact that we never fully arrive at a destination.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: Something I say all the time is that the journey is the destination, because what we have here is the unfolding of the glory of God.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: God is fully glorified and fully revealed.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: And because he's an infinite God, he keeps unfolding who he is, never held back.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 18, and we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_01: What that means is that the journey we enter by faith is the trusting, the revealing of who God is in our lives.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the biggest misconceptions we carry is that we have to do something in order to receive.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's where the disciples kept falling short, because they grew up under a law that said, do this to get that.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus says, A new commandment I give to you.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_01: That new commandment upholds the law.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: And Paul says so in Romans chapter 3, verse 31.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: He says, Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: By no means.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: On the contrary, we uphold the law.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: So the law still stands and we work from a place where it's been fulfilled, standing on Christ who accomplished it.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: And standing there, we receive all of the revelation of who God is, which is what the law was always meant to give us, the character and person of God, fully revealed in the person of Christ.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now, something I get asked a lot, which is, How can I see God?
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: How can I know He's real?
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: And the answer is that God is manifest in His people, in this world and in Scripture.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_01: And all we have to do is receive it.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what believing is.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: John says in chapter 1, verse 12, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_01: Believing is trusting that all things were created for the glory of God, to manifest who he is and make him known, and then receiving it because it's in front of you right now, and you have all of it.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: But our problem is that we have formed an image in our minds that if God would just do this or show himself in a particular way, then we would understand and know for sure.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_01: But we have already been told that he has revealed himself and continues to reveal himself.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_01: We just reject it and therefore we don't see him.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: And if everything and everyone was created for his glory, then he is revealed continually in all of it.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: Scripture tells us what the real problem is and why we don't see what is so obvious to see.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_01: Paul says in Romans chapter 1, verses 21 through 23 says, For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened, claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: What that means is that we have traded the glory, aka the revealing of God for images of created things, and we have become dull of mind, of thinking.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: But when we receive the truth and see God and what he created, it produces praise.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because when you see God for who he is, it produces awe and reverence.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: And the only thing the human flesh can produce in response, the only thing that can come out of the mouth and the tongue is praise.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_01: Paul says it three times in a single chapter in Ephesians chapter one.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_01: In verse six, he says, to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has blessed us in the beloved.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: In verse 12, he says, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_01: And in verse 14, speaking of the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_01: What we receive is the work God has done in us, which is grace, and we praise him for it.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: And that praise gives him glory.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's the same refrain we landed on in episode 59 when Ephesians 1:5 through 6 showed us that love exists for the praise of his glory.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_01: We build and work from a place so that the work we do becomes praise, and the breath we take, and the words we speak, and the love we give others becomes praise also, because God is worthy and we have seen his worth.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's what the disciples are getting close to seeing, though they haven't fully taken it in yet.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: And it's what we need to see from here on out that all things are done for and from the glory of God, that Jesus has glorified the Father, and the Father has glorified Christ.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus says to the Father in John chapter 17, verse 3, and this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_01: Then in verse 22, the glory that you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_01: And in verse 24, he says, Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_01: What we see is that knowing comes from revelation, and the revelation is God's glory.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the disciples are going to struggle with these very words until Jesus finishes what he came to do, but we're reading them from the other side of that, which means everything Jesus says in that room has been completed, and we can receive what they could only watch coming.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_01: So as we step into the next three chapters and listen to the private message Jesus gives his inner circle, we can walk into that room with them and take in every word.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: And we can know that in chapter 17, he prays for us the way he prays for them.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: And we can live from the rest and the peace that he wants us to have, which brings him glory and brings our lives purpose and satisfaction and joy.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: So the question I want to leave you with today is this What's the picture of your life that you're still holding on to?
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_01: The one Jesus is asking you to lay down.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever it is, he asks you to lay it down so that you can receive what he has already placed in front of you.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because we work from the glory of God, and everything we do from that place becomes praise.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: Let me say that one more time because it's the reason behind all of this.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_01: We work from the glory of God, and everything we do from that place becomes praise.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_01: Father, thank you that you made yourself known in the face of Jesus Christ and that you came to us when we could never have found you.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: Teach us to love one another the way he has loved us, by your grace, so that the world would see him in us and where we still reach for a glory of our own.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_01: Forgive us in your mercy and let everything we do from this day become praise to you.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_01: We ask this in Jesus' name.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_01: Now I want to thank you again for joining us today, and I hope this message has helped you see the glory of God and what it means that we were made to reveal it.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if anything in this message resonated with you, if you have any questions or comments, please click on the text us link in the episode description, or you can visit us at thetaway.faith where you can send us an email as we would truly love to hear from you.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_01: Now, on our next episode, we're gonna begin with Peter, who asked Jesus where he is going and then says that he will lay down his life for him.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna find out exactly what Jesus says in return.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_01: God bless, and we'll see you next time on the takeaway.