Our text for this morning comes from the book of John, where we've been. We'll be looking at the 13th chapter, verses 31 through 35. Would you stand with me as we read this morning's passage? From John 13, And 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'll 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 also are to love one another. And by this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Will you pray with me? Holy Father, what a beautiful truth and message that we are called to love, and that we are called by love, and that you loved us so much. You did not leave us as we are, but came and died for us. Lord, would you send your spirit now into this place and into us to hear this truth and let it be a seed planted deep in us to know the love of our Father. We pray in your name, amen. Please be seated. It is a real pleasure to get to return to the pulpit. Oftentimes, when a pastor leaves town, they might schedule it a little bit for giving the hardest passage possible that they don't want to preach. Richard did the exact opposite. He gave me one of the best, easiest, greatest passages. It's kind of like Jesus at the wedding of Canaan. He saved the best passage for me. Richard has been a blessing in that way and in many others to us as we've moved here in these last two months. And I'm very thankful for it and for him. If you remember where we were last week when Richard was bringing John's gospel to us, we saw Christ and his disciples reclining at the table, having the last supper, and he drops the news that, just kind of casually in a conversation, oh yeah, by the way, one of you is about to betray me. And Judas went quickly about this deed. Our passage this morning starts right after him saying that. When he had gone out, as soon as Judas went, and once Judas left, Jesus knew the clock was ticking. His hour had come, and he was going to make sure that all the last things that he needed to say to his disciples were said. Three years of ministering with and to these 11 men, and all the truths that he told them, What did he want to wrap that up in at the end? What did he want them to hold on to? A message of love. As we look together at this message, we can see that message of love coming plain and simple, straight to us. A message that unfolds through the lens of glorifying God, of loving just as Christ has loved us, and of making his glory and his love known to the whole world. So let's turn and let's look at this passage together. And let's start with this message of Christ's glorious announcement. In verses 31 and 32, we read Jesus says that now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. And if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once. Remember that despite the fact that Jesus had been dropping some pretty obvious hints to his disciples this whole way, I'm going to be dying, I'm heading to Jerusalem for a reason, guys, that wasn't the expectation they had. They were not ready for him to die. They were expecting a bit more of an immediate revolution and coronation ceremony happening. So when they hear, now the Son of Man is glorified, they're thinking, all right, Let's get marching. Two swords, that's not enough. We're about to have a revolution. It's not a stretch of the imagination to think that's what they were prepared for when he said, the son of man is gonna be glorified. Yeah, Jesus is gonna take his throne. Well, he was. His throne wasn't on earth, it was much higher up. In fact, might be better than they could have ever thought. The exaltation of the living king. The son of man is going to be lifted up on high, enthroned in majesty. Now is the moment you've all been waiting for, guys. The kingdom has come. But they weren't ready for the kingdom to be ushered in by the death of the king. I mean, that's how a reign ends, not begins. We all know that. And scripture instead, flips everything upside down. It teaches us this whole motif of humiliation to exaltation. We even catechize that truth. Westminster Shorter Catechism tells us, wherein did Christ's humiliation consist? It is being born, that of a low estate made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross. Being buried and continuing under the power of death for a time. Christ came humbly. Christ's life was lived humbly, but that humiliation was leading to an exaltation. He humbled himself even to death, death on a cross. He took our sin, he took our shame, all so that we might know and share in his glory. that we who are dead in our sins might be lifted up to new life as well, to a new life in Him, because humiliation is not the end of the story. Christ is now and forever glorified. He is exalted. He rose from the grave. He ascended into heaven. He sits at the right hand of God the Father, and He is coming again, because He is King forever. And look where it tells us that he is glorified. He says he's not just glorified by the Father. The Father doesn't just offer words of praise saying, oh yeah, Jesus, he's a great God. He's a great guy. He's glorified literally in him. In everything that he does, in everything he says, in everything he is, there is glory. His very being gives glory. His every doing gives glory. He doesn't do this just to brag and say, look what I've done. It's an absolute truth that Jesus, being who he is, glorifies God the Father. And more than that, he's setting this up as an example to us. He's telling his disciples, and through them, he's telling all believers, this is the example I'm setting for you. It's not just an example, it is the example. It's not just a way, it is the way. We are called to this way, to glorify God, not just with our lips, but with our hands and with our hearts. that God be glorified, not just by us, but God be glorified in who we are because we are his. Glory is procured through the act of love. God loved the world so much he sent his son. The son loves the father so much that he did all the father asked, including dying on a cross. And together, the Father and the Son and the Spirit love us so much that they seal this love in us. They seal us for heaven. And Spirit guides us in His steps and in His way. Love is never idle. It acts. For a Christian, love is never optional. It's the entirety of who we are in Christ. Because God is love. We don't define God by what we think love is. Love is not God. God is love. He defines for us what love is, and apart from him, we can't understand the truth of it, nor can we hope to live it. He didn't save us so that we can love, so that he can love us. He loved us so much that he gave his life to save us. And so too do we follow Him, not to convince Him to love us, but because we are loved by Him. Because we are loved by Him, we can love Him too. The heart that gives glory is one that is rooted in love. And with that truth, it shouldn't be surprising that Christ's command to His disciples at His death was just that. Christ's command to His disciples was love. I'm going away, you won't see me for a while, I want you to hold on to one thing, love. And that can't be hard when the one thing means they have to watch their savior, their friend be taken away, beaten, and executed on a cross. And they're supposed to love? Now I think Peter's reaction with a sword might be a little more akin to what most of us would feel watching Christ on the cross. And Christ knew it would be hard, so he reminds them, I call you to love. Jesus tells them, he tells these 11, I've got a command for you, it's a new one. Really, it's more of a new old command. What makes it new is not the part about loving one another. We've heard that part a lot before. We've seen God command us to love one another. We see it in Leviticus. We see it when Christ summarizes the law in Mark 12 and quotes Leviticus saying, love one another, love your neighbor as yourself. The new part of this command that we're given here is not the loving portion. The newness that he's giving them, the refresher in how to love, is this condition that he adds on, love just as I love. We're to love others the way that Christ loves us. And how does he do that? He loves us perfectly, He loves us powerfully, He loves us sacrificially. This commandment is no small task. It's one we can't do without Him. And we don't have to. Now He prefaces this commandment with the announcement that the disciples aren't going to be able to follow Him in this next part of His life. The disciples really couldn't follow Him anyway. because only Christ was able to make this next sacrifice. Only he had that power, the you can't that's written here. It's literally you do not have the power and the strength to do what I'm about to do. Christ was our perfect once and for all sacrifice. No one of us can nor should try to be the savior of the world. We've got one of those. The position has been filled. The disciples couldn't follow right then, but they would follow. Peter's gonna lead the way in this passage, and in the weeks to come, we're gonna get to see Peter do the nice Peter thing and stick his foot in his mouth. Not know how to go where Jesus is, tell him, oh, I'm gonna follow you, Lord. You might say, I can't follow you, I'm going to follow you, even to death. No, you're gonna deny me three times. Peter's gonna follow, he's gonna lead the way, he's gonna show impatience and immaturity and ignorance, just as all the disciples will right at that moment. But they're not gonna stay that way because God loves us. And he loved them. And he did what he said he was about to do. So Peter will also lead the way in repentance, and humility and sacrificing his own life. God says, no, you can't come with me now, but yeah, you will. You'll follow. When you get it, when you understand how much I love you, you will. You'll love like that too. Oh, Peter, you are gonna love like that. You're gonna love so much. You lay down your life too. And that hope led Christ to the cross. the disciples would lay down their lives for Christ. The love that gave them lives worth laying down, He's given us lives worth living. Without Him, we can't love like Him. That's why in the next chapter, He's gonna promise that in that same love, He'll send the gift of the Holy Spirit who will be our strength, our teacher, our encourager, The Spirit works in us to make us holy, the work of our sanctification. For while we're not perfect, and we can't love perfectly as He loves, we can, through the renewing of His Spirit in our hearts, love all we can. And in love, repent when we don't, and love some more. Because even in this, we see how He is making us more and more like Him. more of a living example to the world. Christ spent three years leading up to his death, providing that example to his disciples, showing them every day the love that they needed to pass on. He showed us that this love comes through humility. We've already talked about his humiliation, his exaltation, but Paul is gonna learn this lesson from him, and Paul's gonna exhort us to say, love is not haughty, love is not proud. He'll tell us how Christ set the example, emptying himself. We know Christ emptied himself, made himself nothing. The love of Christ leads us to live humbly. And he showed us what love is when he showed us that love is gentle and true. He addresses his disciples here calling them little children. My dear ones. It's the only time we see in scriptures Jesus address his disciples with this title. Oh, my dear children. We know it really caught on because John uses this a lot. This is the way John will address the church, especially all throughout his first epistle, 1 John, we'll see him address the church. Oh, my little children, my dear children. There's an intimacy, a gentleness in the way he calls them and shows them that this love is tender, And there's patience in that love. And he knows his disciples lack the spiritual maturity to fully comprehend what's going on. But he's gonna love them just as they are, and he's gonna love them so much that he doesn't leave them that way. In his gentleness and his patience, he holds firmly to the truth, for he seeks to please and honor no one but his Father. We don't sacrifice truth, kowtowing to the affections of others. Neither do we enter into relationships with heavy boots stomping down on the necks of all of those who don't fit into our ideal of what is right. We love one another with gentleness, with patience, and with humility. We love as Christ loved us. Christ showed us how to love. He showed us who to love. We love one another, all of one another. We don't pick and choose. We love our neighbors as ourselves. We love our enemies. We pray for those who persecute us. Both ends of the spectrum, we're called to love. the ones that are easy and the ones that are really not easy. Too often we find it much easier just to give way to impatience, to anger, to bitterness, to defensiveness, to all the thieves of joy, the robber barons of love, the enemies of a Christ-like love. That is not how we have been loved. is not how we've been called to love. That is why the world struggles these days to see the body of Christ as a reflection of our head. When we answer the world with bitterness or defensiveness or anger or impatience, instead of with gentleness, still with truth, but humbly It need not be the case that the world doesn't recognize who Christ is in us anymore. We can love like Christ. We can soak in the love of the Lord and we will radiate with it. We'll become the light to the world that we were meant to be. When we sit at his feet, we grow accustomed to recognizing his footprints so that we can follow them too. then we can love the way that we are commanded. We can love with humility. We can love with patience and gentleness. We can love sacrificially. We can give up everything that we can't keep to gain what we can't lose. As Jim Elliott said, he's no fool who does that. He gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he can't lose. He never knew how true those words were going to be in his own life. He did. Eliot gave up everything he couldn't keep. And he did gain all he could not lose. And he did it for one reason. He was loved and called to love. And so were we. And so are we given the same spirit the same new hearts that all those saints before us have been given. We can love sacrificially. We can love our neighbors. We can love our enemies. We can when we are in Christ. We can love like Christ because of Christ. And then the world will know We follow him. And we love like him. Dane Ortlin in his work Gentle and Lowly reminds us that only as we drink down the kindness of the heart of Christ will we leave in our wake everywhere we go the aroma of heaven and die one day having startled the world with glimpses of a divine kindness too great to be boxed in by what we deserve. They will know we are Christians by our love. They will know Christ because of our love. A love that can wash over this world like the breaking of dawn and cast a golden glow to everything it touches, waking everyone to a new day. A new day dawning, the day of Christ's return. I love waking up here, I mean, in the wintertime and being able to see sunshine is just wonderful anyway, as compared to Ireland's grayness, but being able to wake up and go outside and see the golden rays coming up over these hills, lighting everything, giving that tint of golden to all the trees and hillsides, that's how we are awash in the love of Christ. That's what the world should see is that glow in us, covered in His love. If we're willing to shine with the light of His love. I had thought, I knew that all I wanna say about this passage would be probably a little shorter than I normally would want, because the truth is just plain and simple. God called us to a new commandment, love, just as He has. And I can say that over and over and over again, and I probably should pretty much any time I get up to preach, or any time anyone gets up to preach. And I probably should with anything that I do in my life. And as I thought how to bring this message to a close, how to summarize the simple statement of love like Jesus loved, I realized it wasn't my words that I needed. And the more I read Paul, the more I saw that his exhortation and his hymn of praise in Philippians 2 is pretty much the quintessential commentary of this verse. everything in our passage this morning that we could hope to look at and learn, Paul writes in his song of praise. So just in case I missed anything in our passage, look at Philippians and you'll see what was actually there. You'll hear it in a better way than I've ever attempted to try to do it this morning. But I want to draw us to a close by reading Paul's words So if you'd look at Philippians chapter two, verse one through 18, and hear how he perceived this new commandment. Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, and we have plenty of encouragement because we're in Christ, If you have any comfort from His love, we have every comfort because of His love. Because all the things that plague us here do not last, and His love never fails. If you have any common sharing in the Spirit, any tenderness and compassion, make my joy complete. by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind, the mind of Christ, the heart of Christ, the love of Christ. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. Love just as he did. Who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself by being obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him. gave him the highest place, gave him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my beloved, my dear children, As you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but also when I'm not even here, in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to the will and to the work for His good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among you whom shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I can be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I'm glad I rejoice with all of you, and likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me. Make my joy complete by loving as Christ has loved. Rejoice and be glad with me because we are loved and can love. Shine like lights in the world that the glory of the Lord be known, that the name that is above all names will be seen. Little children, let us love just as Christ has loved. Will you pray with me now? as we turn our attention to the table that he has given us to remember him by. Let's pray. Oh Father, we are your children, and we may squirm and wrestle in your arms, but Lord, you hold us in your arms, for you love us, You have called us and we are yours. Lord, would you strengthen us and teach us and lead us by your spirit to love as you have loved. For you pour your love into us so much that it would overflow. Lord, would you let this world know who you are, know your name and your love, May they look upon us, your children, and say, they are like Christ. There is love. We pray this in your son's name. Amen.