04-02-06 Jesus' Farewell Discourse-Part 1-Love

There are 2 weeks before the greatest event in the Christian calendar—Resurrection Day (Easter).  Next Sunday is what we call Palm Sunday, and I understand the children are going to have something special for us.  Then we begin the final week of Jesus’ life leading up to Good Friday, which is when we celebrate the crucifixion of Jesus.  Traditionally, this is a time when we begin to focus on the cross and the last days of Christ on this earth.  For the next 2 weeks I’d like to look at the end of Jesus’ earthly life through the words He spoke to His disciples at what we call the Last Supper.  I call this passage Jesus’ Farewell Discourse or Farewell Address.

When a man knows he is going to die, he is often asked if he has any last words.  What kind of words are those that he chooses to speak?  Does he talk about the weather or who is going to win the next Super Bowl?  No, usually they are words about the ones he loves or is closest to.  He wants to leave them with a message to remember him by.  This is not a time for trivialities, but a time to discuss the most important things that are on your heart.  It is a time when things that had gone unsaid, are said.  It is a time for seriousness and lasting thoughts.

When Jesus came to what we call the Last Supper it was to celebrate the feast of the Passover (Luke 22:8).  In Luke 22:15, we find that Jesus says, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”  Jesus had celebrated the feast of Passover before with His disciples because this was an annual feast that all good Jews would celebrate.  So what made this Passover different?   It was because He knew this would be His last time together with them on the earth.  So as we look at what Jesus says at this Last Supper, we must understand that He is not talking about trivial things.  To Jesus these were the most important words He could speak to the 11 men (Judas Iscariot leaves before He begins) who were His most trusted followers and who would be the beginning of the church in the days ahead.  They are also most important to us, because this is what Jesus wanted His disciples (not only the 11 but those of us who would come in the future) to know and remember Him by.

John’s gospel gives us the words that Jesus spoke.  The other gospels simply tell us that they had communion, sang a hymn, and went to Mt Olives.  But John records for us these very important last words of Jesus.  This Farewell Discourse starts in John 13:31 and goes through the end of John 16.  That is a long passage of scripture, so let’s get an overview of it:

13:31-38 He tells them that He must leave them and Peter misunderstands and declares His undying loyalty to Jesus—Jesus reveals that Peter will deny Him 3 times before the rooster crows

14:1-31   Jesus addresses their concerns about His leaving and promises that the Holy Spirit will come to be their Comforter

15:1-11   Jesus gives them an example of union with Him through the vine and the branches

15:12-27  Jesus talks about their relationship to each other and the world—love

16: 1-4     Jesus warns them about persecution that is coming

16:5-15   Jesus talks more about the Holy Spirit who is coming to be their Comforter

16:16-33  Jesus tells them about His death and resurrection and promises that they will not be alone but have the ability to ask of the Father directly

Now that is a lot to say, but it can be boiled down to 2 major themes interwoven into one thought. 

1.     Love                                        “Keep My Commandments”

2.     Comforter (Holy Spirit)

Jesus told them that He was leaving them.

John 13:33 (NIV) “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.  

Then He says I have a new commandment for you that I want you to learn and do.

John 13:34-35 (NIV) “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

The very first theme He discusses is that we love one another.  How important it is that as disciples of Christ we love each other.   A commandment is “an order from God about which we have no choice.”  He did not say, “if you like each other, love each other.”  No, He said, God orders you to love one another.  He says that our witness to the world that we are Christ-followers (that’s what the word Christian literally means) is that we love one another.  For today, let’s just look at this one theme (commandment)—that we love one another.  How many problems in the church and the world would be solved if we simply followed this one commandment of the Lord.  

Now going to vs. 36-37 good old Peter gets upset because Jesus says He is leaving them.  Remember Peter was part of the inner circle with James & John and He had grown very close to Jesus.  Why, Peter even thinks he understands Jesus so well that he says to Jesus “everyone else will run, but I’ll die for you—that’s the kind of love you have taught us and I have it.”  Peter did understand the kind of love Jesus was talking about in his head, but He did not truly understand it in his heart.  Jesus corrects Peter and tells him that before the rooster crows, he will deny Jesus 3 times.  By the way, after the resurrection, Jesus goes to Peter and restores him (John 21:15-18)—that is love in action. 

Jesus called this a “new” commandment.  Yet, prior to this He stated that there are only 2 commandments:

Matt 22:37-40 (NIV) “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

He is not contradicting Himself, but telling them that LOVE (of God and each other) fulfills all the commandments of God.  By the word “new,” He is not talking about something that never existed (time), rather something that is fresh in terms of quality.  This is what we call the “agape” kind of love—the God kind of love.   It is a new kind of love in the sense that it had never been seen before by man that God would be willing to die for sinful creatures such as us.

In ch. 14:15 He says that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments.  Look at 14:21, 23-24 (NIV)

Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show Myself to him.”

23 . . . “If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me will not obey My teaching. These words you hear are not My own; they belong to the Father who sent Me.

Jesus says that if we keep His Word, The Father will love us and God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) will come and live with us.  To the disciples, this must have been a shocking statement.  They knew that sinful men could not approach a holy God without fear of being destroyed because of the sinful nature they had.  Yet, Jesus is telling them that God wants to come and live among them.  This helps us to understand better what our salvation really means.  We are blessed as God’s children to be able to boldly approach the throne of grace and receive grace and mercy in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16).  The greatest blessing that we can have is for the Holy Living God to come and dwell among us.  Do we want God’s blessing upon our life?  Then we must obey His Word.  He says very plainly in vs. 24 that if we do not obey His word, we do not love Him.

What is the test of our love for God according to Jesus?  It is that we keep His commands, and obey His Word.  How can we keep His commands if we don’t know what they are?  How can we obey the Word of God if we do not read or study it daily—feeding upon it for our very nourishment?  We have been blessed with the Word of God to lead and guide us in the situations we face in life.  Yet, so many times we don’t turn to it when times get hard.  We seek wisdom from others before we turn to the Word of God.  If we do not read and obey the Word of God can we truly say we love God? 

In ch 15:1-11 Jesus uses the example of the vine and the branches to illustrate the oneness that exists between Him and His followers.  We have looked at this passage before, but in the context of this message, notice that it is the love of Jesus that flows through Him, like the sap, into the branches (us—His disciples).  He has not laid down a commandment that is too hard for them (or us) to keep.  He is telling them and us that it is not hard for us to love one another when we stay vitally connected to Him.  But when we separate ourselves from Him and His Word, it is to our own harm.  We are worthless and must be gathered up like dead branches and burned.  The example that must have come to His mind was that of Judas, who at that very moment was betraying Him to the Pharisees and Scribes.  In vs. 10-11 he says that there is joy in keeping His commandments.  John said it this way in his later epistle:

1 John 5:3-4 (NIV) This is love for God: to obey His commands. And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

So that there is no confusion as to what it means to love one another, Jesus tells us in ch. 15:12-13 exactly what it means—sacrifice—putting someone else before yourself even to the point of death if necessary.

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus not only tells them to love each other, but He says I am going to show you what true love really is.  He says real love is the ability to give your life for someone else, and that is why He is going to leave them and go to the cross—because He loves them.  He says in vs. 14 that they are His friends, IF they keep His commandments. 

Do you see what was uppermost in Jesus’ mind as He spoke this last time to His disciples?  He so desperately wanted them to know that the kingdom that He was going to build through them must be based on love.  He wanted them to know that it was because of God’s love for them, and all men, that He was going to the cross to die for their sins.  He wanted them to see that it is LOVE that compelled Him to leave them.  He also wanted them to see that love is something that is not just talked about but something that must be put into action.

Do we truly understand the love of God today in our hearts?   If so, then there would be no division in the church.  Our marriages would be different.  Our homes would not be battlegrounds, but refuges.  Everywhere we go, we would be known by the love we have for one another.  Sadly, that is not what the church is known for today.  The very first words Jesus spoke in His final words, a commandment at that, we have missed completely.  How that must grieve the heart of God!  Let us commit today to become what Jesus wants us to be—those who love God and others.  Those who abide in Him and obey His Word.  A community of Christ-followers who love one another and the world!

Jesus is sensitive to the impact that His words have upon these men when they hear that He is leaving them.   In chapter 14:1-3 we have one of the most comforting passages of scripture.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

SECTION OUTLINE THIRTEEN (JOHN 13)

Jesus washes his disciples’ feet and predicts both Judas’s betrayal and Peter’s denial.

I.     The Washing by Jesus (13:1–17): He washes the feet of his disciples.

A.     The Passover feast (13:1)

B.     The plot (13:2) : Satan influences Judas to betray Jesus.

C.     The particulars (13:3–5)

1.     Jesus wraps a towel around his waist and pours water into a basin (12:3–5a).

2.     He begins washing their feet (12:5b).

D.     The protest (13:6–11)

1.     Peter (13:6–8a): “You will never wash my feet!”

2.     Jesus (13:8b): “If I don’t wash you, you won’t belong to me!”

3.     Peter (13:9) : “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!”

4.     Jesus (13:10–11): “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet.”

E.     The pattern (13:12–17): The disciples should do for others what he has just done for them.

II.     The Warning by Jesus (13:18–38): Jesus now makes three troubling predictions.

A.     In regard to Judas’s defection (13:18–30)

1.     The Scripture (13:18–25): Jesus quotes from Psalm 41:9, which predicts his betrayal.

2.     The sign (13:26–30): Jesus says the one sharing the bread with him is the traitor.

B.     In regard to Jesus’ departure (13:31–35)

1.     He must leave (13:31–33).

2.     They must love (13:34–35): He commands them to love one another as he has loved them.

C.     In regard to Peter’s denials (13:36–38): Jesus says that before the rooster crows, Peter will deny him three times!

SECTION OUTLINE FOURTEEN (JOHN 14)

Jesus speaks to the disciples.

I.     The Consolation He Gives to His Disciples (14:1–4)

A.     “I am going to prepare a place for you” (14:1–2).

B.     “When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am” (14:3–4).

II.     The Conversation He Has with His Disciples (14:5–31): Jesus answers three questions asked him by three disciples.

A.     Thomas and Jesus (14:5–7)

1.     Thomas’s question: “We haven’t any idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?” (14:5) .

2.     Jesus’ answer (14:6–7)

a.     “I am the way, the truth and the life” (14:6a).

b.     “No one can come to the Father except through me” (14:6b–7).

B.     Philip and Jesus (14:8–21)

1.     Philip’s question (14:8) : “Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied.”

2.     Jesus’ answer (14:9–21)

a.     He says anyone who has seen him has seen the Father (14:9) .

b.     He says that he is in the Father and that the Father is in him (14:10) .

c.     He says they will do greater things than he has done because he is going to the Father (14:11–14).

d.     He says he will ask the Father to send them the Holy Spirit (14:15–21).

C.     Judas (not Judas Iscariot) and Jesus (14:22–31)

1.     Judas’s question (14:22) : “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large?”

2.     Jesus’ answer (14:23–31)

a.     He says that he only reveals himself to those who love and obey him (14:23–24).

b.     He promises that the Holy Spirit will explain all this to them (14:25–26).

c.     He reminds them again of his departure and return (14:27–31).

SECTION OUTLINE FIFTEEN (JOHN 15)

Jesus speaks to his disciples about fruit bearing, loving, suffering, and witnessing.

I.     Fruit Bearing (15:1–8)

A.     The symbols (15:1, 5a–5b)

1.     The Son is the true vine (15:1a, 5a).

2.     The Father is the gardener (15:1b).

3.     The believer is the branch (15:5b).

B.     The steps (15:2–4, 5c–6)

1.     We must submit to pruning by the Father (15:2–3).

2.     We must abide in the Son (15:4, 5c–6).

C.     The success (15:7–8)

1.     It results in bountiful fruit (15:7–8a).

2.     It results in glorifying the Father (15:8b).

II.     Loving (15:9–17)

A.     The priority (15:9–12)

1.     The Father loves the Son (15:9b, 10b).

2.     The Son loves the believer (15:9a, 10a, 11).

3.     The believer is to love other believers (15:12) .

B.     The proof (15:13–15)

1.     What Jesus will do for his disciples (15:13) : He will lay down his life.

2.     What Jesus now does for his disciples (15:14–15): He calls them friends, not servants.

C.     The promises (15:16–17)

1.     Our branches will bear permanent fruit (15:16a).

2.     Our prayers will be answered (15:16b–17).

III.     Suffering (15:18–25)

A.     The facts (15:18–24)

1.     All Christians will be hated because Christ was hated (15:18–19).

2.     No servant is greater than his master (15:20–21).

3.     The reason for this hatred is Jesus’ fearless preaching against sin (15:22–24).

B.     The foretelling (15:25) : All this is predicted in Psalms 35:19 and 69:4.

IV.     Witnessing (15:26–27): Jesus speaks of a twofold witness.

A.     The Holy Spirit will soon witness to the disciples concerning the Savior (15:26) .

B.     The disciples should then witness to the world concerning the Savior (15:27) .

SECTION OUTLINE SIXTEEN (JOHN 16)

This chapter records three rounds of conversation between Jesus and his disciples.

I.     Round One (16:1–15)

A.     Jesus speaks of the conflict that will come to them from the world (16:1–4).

1.     The review of this persecution (16:1–2)

a.     They will be put out of the synagogue (16:1–2a).

b.     They will be killed (16:2b).

c.     They will be looked upon as enemies of God (16:2c).

2.     The reason for this persecution (16:3–4): Their persecutors do not love the Father or the Son.

B.     Jesus speaks of the Counselor (the Holy Spirit) that will come to them from the Father (16:5–15).

1.     The prerequisite (16:5–7): Jesus says unless he goes away, the Holy Spirit will not come.

2.     The purpose (16:8–15): He will come to accomplish a fourfold purpose.

a.     To convict sinners (16:8–10)

b.     To condemn Satan (16:11)

c.     To counsel saints (16:12–13)

d.     To champion the Savior (16:14–15)

II.     Round Two (16:16–28)

A.     The confusion (16:16–18): The disciples do not understand when Jesus says, “In just a little while I will be gone, and you won’t see me anymore. Then, just a little while after that, you will see me again” (16:16) .

B.     The clarification (16:19–22)

1.     His explanation (16:19)

a.     “You won’t see me anymore” (16:19a): A reference to his death, which will bring about great grief.

b.     “You will see me again” (16:19b): A reference to his resurrection, which will bring about great joy!

2.     His example (16:20–22): To illustrate the way their sorrow will turn to joy, Jesus refers to a woman giving birth.

C.     The comfort (16:23–28)

1.     Jesus says that the Father will give them all they need because of the Son (16:23) .

2.     Jesus says the Father loves them dearly (16:24–28).

III.     Round Three (16:29–33)

A.     The disciples speak (16:29–30).

1.     “At last you are speaking plainly” (16:29) .

2.     “We believe that you came from God” (16:30) .

B.     The Savior speaks (16:31–33).

1.     The bad news (16:31–33a): “You will have many trials and sorrows.”

2.     The glad news (16:33b): “Take heart, because I have overcome the world.”[i]

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[i]Willmington, H. L. (1999). The Outline Bible (Jn 13:36-38). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.