Troubling Times Ahead
John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Today is Palm Sunday. It is the day when Jesus entered Jerusalem, and the people shouted,
They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!”
In our study of the gospel of John, we learned that shortly after this wonderful event, Jesus began to pull away from the crowd and send more and more times with disciples.
In our passage today, Jesus is continuing to teach his disciples. He is continuing to prepare them for what is about to happen—the Crucifixion.
If you were with us last week, you may remember that Jesus chose to identify his betrayer using a sign of honor. He dipped a piece of bread into the pot and gave it to Judas. But Judas wasn’t an honored guest, he was the one who would betray the Lord! Yet, even with Jesus telling them how they could identify the traitor, each one of them missed it!
We are going to pick up our reading in verse 31 of John chapter 13. So if you have your Bibles, I want to encourage you to turn with me to John 13:31
When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him.
A Message for Committed Disciples
A Message for Committed Disciples
When Judas was gone, Jesus was free to prepare his committed disciples for what was about to happen! (v. 31a)
The time has finally come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Jesus made no bones, that his glorification would begin with his arrest (cf. Jn. 12:23) (v. 31b).
When Jesus’ through his obedience is glorified, God (Himself) is glorified (v. 31c).
If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
As God is glorified by (in) the Son of Man, the Son will in turn be glorified by his own actions (v. 32a).
And God will immediately glorify the Son (v. 32b)
While this may sound strange to us, it actually is a way of demonstrating that Jesus and God are one in the same!
“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.
To make things perfectly clear to the disciples, Jesus tells them that he will only be with them a little bit longer (v. 33a).
He says they will look for him, but they won’t find him (v. 33b).
This is he same message that he gave the Jews (cf. Jn. 7:33-34) (v. 33c).
Finally, he tells the disciples that where he is going they cannot go!
A New Command!
A New Command!
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
Jesus now gives his disciples (and us) a new command (v. 34a).
The command is that we love one another (v. 34b). The word “love” that is used four times in this passage is the Greek word agapao which means to love unconditionally.
We are to follow the example that Jesus left us. We should unconditionally love each other, just like Jesus unconditionally loved us! (v. 34c).
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
In fact, the way people will know that we are followers of Jesus will be that we unconditionally love each other! (v. 35)
Don’t miss this thought. Every time a church or denomination or fellow Christians begin to fuss and feud we are not loving towards one another, and when we are not loving towards one another those around us, watching us, will not know (recognize) that we are followers of Jesus! Now that should be a huge problem for us.
Simon Peter Misses the Point!
Simon Peter Misses the Point!
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, missed the entire point. In passing, Jesus tells the disciples, again that he is headed to the cross, and ultimately back to the Father. It was not meant to be the focus of discussion. Rather, Jesus wants to focus on the disciples loving each other.
But Peter, askes Jesus, “Where are you going?” He misses the point altogether (v. 36a).
Jesus again replies, “Where I am going, you cannot follow. . .” at least not right now (v. 36b). They will rejoin him later (when they die!).
Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
Peter objects! And he is rather indignant about it! He wants to know why he can’t follow Jesus now (v. 37a).
After all, he believes that he is ready to lay down his life for Jesus (v. 37b)!
Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
Jesus challenges his willingness to lay down his life, and tells Peter that before the rooster crows in the morning, he will disown him three times! (v. 38).
There have been a bunch of times in my life when I was absolutely sure that I would be willing to give up my life for Jesus! I really believed this to be true, but honestly I have no way of knowing if I would really die for the cause of Christ! I don’t know but what I might deny him. Like Peter, I often believe I am ready to go all the way for Jesus, but in reality I cannot know until I am in that kind of situation!
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.
In the lasts verse of chapter 13, Peter was told that very night he would disown Jesus three times, and it would all happen before the rooster crowed to announce the morning. This could have signaled to the disciples that all that Jesus had been predicting some great crisis was about to occur.
This coupled with the fact that Jesus was deeply troubled, a condition that his disciples had probably not seen before. Look at John 13:21
After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.”
It seems that they were also feeling the gravity of the situation, even though they did not know all the details.
So, it seems strange that Jesus would make such a strange statement in verse 1, in light of all the turmoil that was so keenly present.
Do not let your hearts (your inner-self) be troubled (Gk. troubled, disturbed, stirred up, upset, unsettled, jumbled up, experience great mental distress).
I love it! After telling Peter that he is going to fail the test, Jesus tells ALL the disciples to keep their emotions (hearts) under control. And he gives them the way that they can do that!
What a great message for us today. No matter what is going on around us, and no matter what circumstances come my way, I should KEEP my HEARTS UNDER CONTROL!
You, believe (Gk. pisteuo; believe, trust, put faith in, rely on, entrust, have confidence in) in God; believe (pisteuo) also in Jesus.
NOTE: In this passage, pisteuo can be understood as being in either the indicative form (a statement of fact) or the imperative form (a command, and it is spelled exactly the same. To me the first believe seems to be in the indicative voice—factually they believed in God!
But the second believe appears to be in the imperative—a command to believe, trust, or rely on Jesus.
Since the disciples believed in God and God’s plan, they can also believe in Jesus and His ability to carryout God’s plan.
There is no doubt that all of us here believe in God. In fact, many of us believe that God can do EVERYTHING that is said in the Scriptures.
But the question that each of us must answer, is do we believe that God can do something great in our lives?
The disciples believed in the power of God.
The disciples believed in the power that Jesus possessed.
But the disciples are about to experience the greatest test of their lives. They will soon find out if they truly believe that God will use His power for them?
So What?
So What?
Today, each of us need to believe in God two ways.
We need to believe what the Bible says about God and what the Bible tells us about how God works!
Each of us need to believe that God will work in us, through us, and around us no matter what kind of circumstances we may find ourselves.
Now I have to be honest, I hate it when I’m preparing a message and God places me in the midst of a crisis of belief, by challenging if I really believe what I’m about to preach.
That is exactly what God did this week. On Friday, I had begun laying out my sermon (like I do most weeks). The study of the passage was complete, and now it was time to lay it out.
That’s when I received another challenge! God placed another obstacle in front me. Another challenge that for a moment sent me into a tailspin.
But then I realized that my study of God’s Word needed to be more than simply an academic exercise—It needed to be much more personal. Will I do more than just say I believe God has everything under control? God is not being mean when He places me in situations that tests me to see if I actually believe what I say I believe.
No, He’s not being mean!. God wants me to exercise my faith in Him.
So this morning I want to stand here before you all and say, I KNOW, or I BELIEVE God has EVERYTHING under His control!
And because of my belief, I will trust in Him NO MATTER WHAT!
That’s right, I will trust that my God will work on my behalf! This week, I am going to work at remembering (and living out) Proverbs 16:9.
In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.
That means God can do, and will do with me whatever He pleases, because I belong to Him!
Not only that, but as I go through life, I will keep Psalm 115:3 on my heart.
Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
God can and will do with me, whatever will accomplish His purposes and goals. And I am so thankful that He allows me to play a small part in His plan.
So, this morning I proclaim: I will Believe that God cares about me! I believe because of the evidence of Scripture!
Yet we need to remember that God’s plan will happen! Isaiah understood this, because God told him this in Isaiah 14:24.
The Lord Almighty has sworn, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen.
And Paul said that we could be confident in God's plan, as we said—even when it doesn’t make sense to us. That’s the message of Romans 8:28.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
So this morning, I will affirm four truths that I believe! And my prayer is that you might affirm these same three truths:
This morning I want to stand here before you all and say, I KNOW, or I BELIEVE God has EVERYTHING under His control!
This morning I proclaim: I will Believe that God cares about me! Because I believe because of the evidence of Scripture!
This morning I proclaim that I believe God WILL accomplish His purpose:
His purpose in me!
His purpose around me!
And His purpose through me!
And I proclaim that I believe God cares about me—even when I can’t see His care—because I am commanded to believe!
How about you? Can you proclaim these truths for your life? And if you can, WILL you proclaim them?
