LATER

John 13:36-14:7

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

Where is Jesus going? Returning to the Father!

The Teacher knows the cross is waiting. Then a resurrection and a glorious ascension back to heaven!

He wants to prepare His students for His coming departure. And He wants them to know heaven will also be their ultimate destination – you will follow later.

He knows this hope will be of inestimable comfort to them in the days ahead. That’s why He assures them of a future reunion with Him.

Peter’s response? Lord, why can't I follow you now?

Who can blame Peter? For nearly three years he and the other students have followed Jesus everywhere. It must have been inconceivable to Peter that the close bond would be broken.

Peter is a thinking man. The Teacher had been talking about dying. Maybe that’s why we can’t follow Him.

So Peter expresses a willingness to follow Jesus even in death - I will lay down my life for you.

Peter, it is a noble thought and your intentions are great! But the Teacher knows you will not die with Him now, rather you will deny Him three times first.

And that’s ok too. For when Jesus’ work on earth is done, Peter and the others will have more work to do. They will carry the message of Jesus to the world. And some will die for Him!

But for them and for every student of Jesus there will be a time to follow the Teacher beyond this life into the next. Later…

I am going there to prepare a place for you and….I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

THE REAL THING

John 13:31-35

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

Here Jesus gives a surprising litmus test. A way to determine if one is truly a student of this Teacher.

It catches us off guard because the usual measure of a student’s attention to the teacher is knowledge. How much of what the teacher taught is remembered? And how did the student perform on the test?

Shouldn’t Jesus have said we know we are his students because we believe and teach exactly what He taught? This may be true, but it isn’t what Jesus singled out to distinguish His followers.

That’s because the truth of what Jesus taught is deeper than the words and concepts themselves. In fact, didn’t He say that He was truth?

There the Teacher stands. And what He teaches is the wonderful truth of God, how to come to God and live with God. But above and beyond the teaching is the Teacher Himself.

Why is He here? Why is He saying what He is saying, doing what we see Him doing? Why did He die?

Love is who He is, who God is. Love is the real thing, the ultimate reality that never fails. Neither in this life or the next!

Love is what happens in the heart of every student who receives this Teacher. Not just getting the teaching, but getting Him. Allowing God’s love in Jesus to transform the heart!

This love exhibited to one another is the only advertisement the world will trust. This is the Teacher’s plan to bring more students to His University.

Where the curriculum is spelled out in one word – Jesus! And all the courses lead to the development of one eternal ability – to live in love as He does.

JUDAS

John 13:18-30

Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, "I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me."

Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Matthew and Nathaniel! Names we know very well. Though almost 2,000 years have passed, parents are still naming their children after these apostles.

And we know the name of Judas too. Although we don’t know anyone with that name today! That’s because Judas betrayed his friend.

The name Judas evokes thoughts of deception, guile and fraud. His name is synonymous with traitor.

For three years Judas followed Jesus. He was one of the twelve in Jesus’ inner circle. Jesus even trusted him with the group’s money.

How could Judas hear all the wonderful words of Jesus, see all Jesus’ miracles and turn against Him in the end?

Many ideas have been advanced over the years to explain Judas’ treachery. Perhaps he became disillusioned when it became clear Jesus was not going to establish an earthly kingdom. Maybe Judas had faith in the beginning but lost it somewhere along the way.

It is possible Judas never really came to personal faith in Jesus at all.

Maybe what really scares us about Judas is that one so close to Jesus could turn from Him. How is that possible? And if it happened to him, could it possibly happen to us?

Could we lose our faith in Jesus?

However it happened, Judas drifted. Allowed his mind to turn from Jesus and in his distraction finally did what earlier might have seemed unthinkable to him.

All the more reason for students of Jesus not only to pay close attention to the Teacher, but also to guard their own hearts!

TEACHER AND LORD

John 13:1-17

You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am.

The word, ‘Lord,’ seems archaic and out of step with modern democratic standards. Do people really have to submit to Jesus as Lord? Can He rightfully claim to have authority over people?

Of course, if He is God. The One who created everything!

This fact alone naturally confers on Jesus the right to all power over the life of every human being on the earth.

What’s exceptional here is the kind of Lord Jesus is. A lord so gentle as to be described as a Teacher! Just how mild is understood when this Lord gets down on His knees and washes the dirty feet of His students.

It’s a pleasant thought. The one who is our Lord is also a meek and kind Teacher.

How misguided are those who think of God as a kind of cosmic policeman, watching to catch someone doing something wrong. On the contrary, our Lord comes to tenderly guide us in the path of goodness, mercy and love.

By the life He lived and the truths He shared, our Lord shows us how to live. This is what being a student of the Teacher is all about. Coming to know the wonderful character of our Lord!

And in this process, students of Jesus become more like Him!

Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

Everyone who acknowledges Jesus as Lord should also take Him as their every day Teacher. In His patient leading we find freedom to make mistakes and grow at our own pace.

And we find in Him power to change our lives.

GOD’S PRAISE

John 12:37-50

…for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.

Most people enjoy receiving praise when they feel it is deserved. And Jesus says it’s ok to love praise.

But from whom?

Here some people didn’t follow Jesus because they were afraid of what people would say about them and do to them. They loved the praise of people. God’s approval was not as important to them.

Many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue.

Is their fear understandable? How many of us even think about whether God is praising our lives or not? After all, it is people, not God, who are visible to us every day.

Not true. God is ever present with us. As certainly as the people we see with our own eyes every day. Jesus wants His students to understand that following Him daily brings the presence of God.

Then Jesus cried out, "When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me.

When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me.

The Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it…So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”

Knowing and sensing the Teacher’s presence in life brings a commensurate desire to please Him. Becoming more like our Teacher brings the praise of heaven.

And we learn to love the praise of God more than praise of man.

NOT THE END

John 12:30-36

“But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.

When the Teacher talks about being lifted up on a cross, it is natural that people would be confused. How could His death further any plan? Cause more people to follow Him?

We have heard from the Law that the Christ will remain forever, so how can you say, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up'?

This is completely counter-intuitive. Isn’t death the end?

Jesus says the cross is not the end, rather the beginning of something.

Not only for Jesus who will rise from the dead to become Lord of all, but the cross will also become the focal point of attraction for all people.

The cross! An unlikely triumph after all.

In fact, more people will become students of Jesus because of His death on the cross than ever followed Him during His earthly life.

What is the attraction of the cross?

Certainly not the cruelty of the nails that pierced His hands or even the rough wooden cross that suspended His body between earth and heaven!

Jesus knew people would look past the cruelty of the cross to see the love there. God's love in sending His Son to die for the sins of the world. The heart of Jesus so filled with the same love for all people!

The cross demonstrates God’s estimation of man’s worth and the extent to which He will go to bring us into fellowship with Him.

And the cross always reminds us of the open grave of Jesus. Not the end, but a new beginning.

DYING TO LIVE

John 12:20-29

The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

What is the Teacher saying? Why will hanging onto life result in its loss? And how does relinquishing life result in gaining everlasting life?

The Teacher provides an illustration:

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

A single seed is dormant and remains so until it undergoes a type of death. It is placed in the ground and changes; it grows into a plant which produces multiples of itself, many seeds.

Jesus will provide a living illustration of what this means. He will give up His life on the cross. This will lead to a resurrection for Him and create that possibility for many others.

If, however, He selfishly hangs on to His life, He will ultimately lose it anyway and remain alone.

The Teacher is talking about dying to live. And it is a principle He is willing to follow to the death and life to follow.

The Teacher puts His teaching to the test. He doesn’t seek to preserve His life. And so in dying He will find an everlasting resurrected life.

He says this principle isn’t just for Him. This is the way to eternal life for every student of Jesus. Also dying to self to live for God!

It isn’t one way for the Teacher and different way for His students.

He calls on all who believe to follow Him in this death to life journey. Giving up our own selfish and ultimately dead-end desires in order to serve God forever instead!

Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be.