J O H N  13 v 22—36

 

There are many people who will not live in a house which is numbered 13, and some roads omit the number, going from 11 to 11a or 15a.  The superstition originated from the story in this Chapter, not because of the number of the Chapter, but from the story contained in it.

This morning I want to speak on the uniqueness of Christ. This I fear is something the wider Church is not preaching on as firmly as it might.  There seems reluctance to state positively what our message is; that Christ was uniquely born; that His birth is still, (and the only one) universally known 2000 years later; and time is calculated from His birth. No other faith can make the claims we can make and we should be proud to say so.

Jesus entered the room with His 12 Apostles for the Last Supper, so making a total of 13, and within hours of doing so both He and Judas would be dead.  Judas would commit the greatest betrayal in history as he left the room to ‘go out into the night’ (darkness) to sell out Jesus.

In the previous verses to this passage, Jesus has been with His Apostles at the Last Supper, from which the betrayer Judas left to meet the men to whom He was giving Jesus.  After the meal, Jesus then told the Apostles He would be leaving them, for He had to go to Jerusalem and the Cross.  He was calling on the men to love one another, and live peacefully.

The glory of Jesus was on the Cross, where He offered Himself as a sacrifice, to pay the penalty for the sins of all people who accepted Him as Savior.  I quote the Word of God at this point, from which the Apostle Paul wrote, for everyone has sinned and fallen short of God’s standards.

 I quote this, as there many people not Church members in addition to those who are, who are quite offended if it is suggested they have sinned.  This is partly due to the fact that sin is considered to be just immorality, when there are other actions, and some people think of their position in life being above such matters.

Sin is described in Galatians 5 as; .sexual immorality impurity, sensuality, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger ,rivalries, dissensions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, for such will not enter the Kingdom of God.

Jesus was going on a journey on which He had to go alone.  Until the last minute, Jesus was thinking of His Apostles, and wants then to love one another as He had loved them, which He did selflessly.  The love was sincere and gave happiness, and His desire was to give all He could for those He loved.  There was no limit, if it meant the Cross, He as prepared to go to the Cross.

Sometimes we all make mistake, and think Love is far from our thoughts, but love brings pain which we fail to see.  Jesus knew His Apostles, all their weaknesses, but still loved them.  He had spent three years with them and it must have been a big loss in departing from them.

We have to remember the paintings we see of the Cross, only show a man having a painful death, but what the Cross really means is that our sins were being paid for.  Jesus regarded His death as the most glorious part of His work on earth.  He does +not see death as a disgrace , punishment or humiliation, but a  glorious event, glorifying both Him and the Father. 

Jesus loved them forgivingly, despite the fact they all fled away in His hour of need; they were insensitive leaving him, but He had the women who remained with Him.

It is the end of a close relationship of three years and time to say goodbye. Jesus tells them He is leaving them, and they cannot go with Him, and that leaves them devastated.  They had only managed to stay together  through His unifying spirit, otherwise they would have parted.

He then gave them the command that they were to love one another, and by that He was calling on them to stay together and be faithful to each other, something all Christians should do; show an example to the world.  So often Christians are seen to be fighting with each other, due to some following a false line of teaching and not obeying Scripture, when they should be seen as a happy family.  This is a complete turn off to non- believers. 

 Enormous damage has been caused to Christianity by the behaviour in Northern Ireland, where Catholics and Protestants have murdered and maimed in the name of religion, too often with the support of clergy on both sides.  Nor does Christianity benefit from men and women who sing hymns in Church on Sunday and  act unworthily from Monday to  Saturday.  There is no excuse for the Irish bishops, they had a position of leadership in theirChurches, and should have met together; the Roman Catholics would have responded and the Protestants would have been forced to stop.

Peter professes undying devotion, but Jesus graciously tells him He is going where Peter cannot then go, but indeed would one day follow.  When Peter said he would lay down his life for Jesus, our Lord knew perfectly well the weakness Peter would show, and told him kindly what would happen.  Whilst Peter betrayed Jesus, unlike Judas it was in a moment of weakness rather than the cold blood action of Judas.

The betrayal Judas made was obviously worse than the action of The Jewish leaders, Pilate and Caiphas. Judas lived with the light of Jesus for three years and was well treated, but he went out knowing what was going to happen in the night, the darkness of which equated his action.

 Sometimes people let us down and hurt us and we get upset, perhaps even bitter.  If we could only remember, that we all act contrary to our better nature at times of stress, and many tragic breaches of relationships could be avoided if we could forgive.

At this time, we still have division in the Church when leaders abrogate their responsibility and adopt false doctrine.  The evangelical body cannot except that which is contrary to the Word of God, this as we are seeing is causing division right down to the parishes, where a parish priest has the burden of dealing with congregations in which beliefs vary.  There is the simple answer, that if all abided by what the Bible states; but in too many Churches by too many clergy who are more concerned with pleasing society rather than pleasing God.

 

We praise God for His Holy Word and Glorify His Holy Name.