John 13 - Loving The Unlovable

Main Idea: The love of Jesus empowers us to love the unlovable.

Vs. 1-3 — Jesus knew that He was going to die & rise again.
Vs. 4-11 — Jesus washes the feet of the disciples, despite objections.
Vs. 12-20 — Jesus explains that His followers must also serve humbly.
Vs. 21-30 — Jesus sends Judas Iscariot out to betray Him.
Vs. 31-38 — Jesus gives His disciples a command from His behavior.

• GOD’S CHARACTER IS THE CAUSE OF OUR LOVE

• JESUS’ SHAMEFUL HUMILITY IS THE MODEL FOR HOW WE LOVE

• GOD’S GLORIOUS KINGDOM IS THE GOAL OF OUR LOVE

Sermon Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

We are now concluding our series in John 11 through 13. The series, A Rejected Savior.

Looking at Jesus' last couple of weeks here on Earth, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, which was kind of the final straw that gave the Sanhedrin, kind of the Supreme Court of first century Israel, the reason why they were going to have Jesus

killed. And we saw in chapter 11, the raising of Lazarus, that some people believed as a result of seeing the miracle that God had done, and some people took it as an affront to the Pharisees.

And so they took the news to the Sanhedrin, the Sanhedrin convened, they issued amongst themselves that death warrant for Jesus, with even the prophecy by the high priest, that one man would die for the nation.

Then in chapter 12, we saw as Jesus goes back to the house of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, that Mary, in devotion to Jesus, she breaks the alabaster box, a very expensive perfume worth a year's wages, and she breaks it on the feet of Jesus.

And Jesus says that she has anointed him for his burial. Then we saw Jesus' triumphal entry, that Palm Sunday that we so often celebrate. And Jesus went into Jerusalem, gave his last message, that's what we heard last Sunday.

And then this evening, we begin Jesus' very last meal on earth before his crucifixion. Now, John spends a lot of time on the last supper. So John 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, even up until 18, all goes over just this one meal.

So we're actually going to be in the last supper for about eight or nine weeks or so. But this is the start of it right here in John 13. And today's message is entitled, Loving the Unlovable.

Loving the Unlovable. Now, even with a title like that, I'm sure many of you are thinking, Oh, I know the Unlovable. That's the person that comes to mind.

No, no, no, no. That is not the goal of this message or the sermon. It is not to help you identify necessarily.

This is the person I really dislike or that I really hate. Instead, Lord willing, as we look at God's word, we will be overcome by the love of Jesus for his imperfect disciples, for those that would betray him.

And we will be motivated towards adopting that same love for others within our own life. If you would, let's pray together and then we'll look at what God's word has for us. Dear Jesus, thank you for your incredible love.

Lord, though you are the one that is the creator of everything, though all of the earth one day will shower your praise, God, you are the one who humbly came to this earth. You took upon yourself the form of a servant, a slave.

And God, being found in that form, looking like one of us, you acted like all of us should act. God, we pray that you would be glorified even as we study your word today. We love you when we pray this in the name of Jesus.

Amen. We're going to begin in verse number one, as is customary. We're going to walk through this passage.

If you have your handout today, you can see kind of the breakdown of what the passage entails. But I want us to see a couple of things, because even as we look at this passage, the last meal of Jesus was a Passover meal.

That means there were specific habits and things that would happen during the course of that meal that don't normally happen at our meals. And so I want us to look at what that would have meant even here.

In verse number one, it says, Before the Passover festival, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world. He loved them to the end.

All the way back in John 2, if you guys remember back that far, Jesus' mother Mary had wanted him to show his full power and what he was able to do as the Messiah, as God incarnate, there at the wedding in Cain of Galilee.

And Jesus said something to her at that time. My hour has not yet come. But now, he did know.

The hour of Jesus' death had arrived. Now, death did not mean the cessation of Jesus' existence, just as when we die does not mean that we simply cease to exist. Jesus knew, I'm going to die, and I'm going to return to the Father.

Now as you think about your death, and if you knew the reason why you were dying, if you knew everyone that would be involved in your death, I don't know that this next sentence would describe you or I, having loved his own who were in the world.

He loved them to the end. Everything that we'll see today, everything that we will see through the remainder of John is done through the lens of Jesus' love for his disciples.

And not just the 12 that were there in the upper room that evening 2,000 years ago, but the disciples sitting in this room. He loved you to the very end.

Verse number 2 says this, Now, when it was time for supper, the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas, Simon Iscariot's son, to betray him.

Here, Judas, assumedly dissatisfied with the way that Jesus was going about becoming the king of all Israel, thought that he would jumpstart the process by making Jesus be arrested by the Sanhedrin and by the temple officials.

And here, Satan has already put this temptation into the heart of Judas. Now, this did not mean that Judas did not have any agency. Jesus was tempted three different times by Satan.

Just because Satan tempts you to do something doesn't mean you have to do it. It doesn't work in a court of law. You can't just say, the devil made me do it.

It doesn't work for God. It doesn't work for the US legal system. You can say no to temptation.

And then I love in verse 3, Jesus knew that the father had given everything into his hands, that he had come from God, and that he was going back to God.

Can I tell you, in your life, everything that you have comes from God, that you came by his special creation. You aren't an accident. Scripture says you were uniquely formed in your mother's womb to the glory of God.

You have come from God. Everything you have has been given to you by a gift from God, and one day you will be reunited with your Creator. Are you ready for that day?

Now, here with Jesus, knowing that we don't have everything given into our hands.

Like, I look at you, Roy, or I look at Bryon, and there's no, you know, you guys don't have, I don't think, Lamborghinis, you guys don't have giant yachts, you don't have $24 million mansions that you guys have.

And so you might say, well, I don't have everything. Jesus had everything. As we would hear even in the Great Commission, that Jesus says, all authority, everything has been given to me.

So go make disciples, baptizing them, teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you. And Jesus here, he knew everything that belonged to God, which is everything, belongs to Jesus.

Our response to that might be that we exercise some divine prerogative, and we might want the best possible meal for our last meal on earth.

If it's our last meal and we know that we have everything, we might want the finest clothes, or we might want to find painkillers or something so that the cross isn't as excruciating. But the very next word says so.

So he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel and tied it around himself.

Jesus, knowing he's in charge of everything that he was returning to God, he got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel and tied it around himself.

Now, what you need to know is in the Passover Festival, you have four different cups of wine that you would drink throughout the evening, and each of them were like the cup of deliverance, the cup of redemption, the cup of restoration.

And in between each of these cups and the different meals that you would eat during that time, one of the things that would happen would be the mother or daughter of one of the people at the meal at one point would come in and with a wash rag, she

would wash the hands of all of the men who were sitting at the table, and it was just something that was done to ennoble the men. It was a picture of God washing their hands that they are now clean.

Jesus here during this meal, he doesn't wash the disciples' hands instead. He washes the disciples' feet. Now, it says that he took off the outer clothing.

I didn't intentionally wear this as a picture of it. It works well though. You would have the outer one, the outer jacket if you will, that's more for warmth.

He took that off and then he had the towel and he began to wash the disciples' feet with water from a basin. This would have been incredibly weird. Now, this isn't something that was Jesus doing anything untoward.

This would have just been super, super weird. If you're used to, I get a hand washing after cup number two at the Passover meal. And after cup number two, I'm getting my feet washed by my rabbi, by the teacher, by the Messiah, the Lord.

What in the world is happening? And so in verse number six, Jesus came to Simon Peter, who asked him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? It's almost a no, you are the one that's in charge, you're important.

And so I should be the one that is washing your feet. Jesus answered him, what I'm doing, you don't realize now, but afterward you will understand. You will never wash my feet, Peter said, Jesus replied, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me.

Now, is Jesus talking about like Peter's literal feet, that if he doesn't wash Peter's feet, then Peter doesn't have a relationship with God. Is that what he's talking? No, he's talking about a spiritual truth using a physical picture.

And he says, Peter, you need to be cleansed by God. So Simon Peter said to him, Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and my head. He says, if my salvation, if my walk in relationship with God rides on this, then don't just do my feet.

I need to make sure all of me is clean. One who has bathed, Jesus told him, doesn't need to wash anything except his feet. But he is completely clean.

You are clean, but not all of you. Now, again, back to first century Israel. They did not have private baths or showers like we have today.

There was a public bath house. And so you would go there, you would get clean, and then you would be clean, and you'd walk back to your house.

Now, when you got back to your house, there was just one part of you that was no longer clean that you had cleaned at the bath house. It would be your feet.

And so here, Jesus says, there is, if you will, using the picture that Jesus has here, you have experienced salvation.

And day to day, we get some of that dust on our feet, and we need that constant going back to the Lord, reminding us of what we experienced in our salvation.

Or as Jesus tells us to pray in the Lord's Prayer, forgive us our debts, as we also forgive those who trespass against us. And so as Jesus here washes, he says, I don't have to clean all of you. You are clean, but not all of you.

For he knew who would betray him. This is why he said, not all of you are clean. Jesus' betrayal and death was not something that took him by surprise.

It was something that he knew all along was going to happen.

13:03

Example of Service and Betrayal

When Jesus had washed their feet and put on his outer clothing, he reclined again. As I mentioned before, everyone, when they're eating the meals, they all lay down. I don't know if the camera will still see you, but that's okay.

So everyone's doing like this number, and you eat the food. And so everyone's in a giant circle. This seems a little less than ideal.

It's not that people's feet were there. The feet would be kind of like behind that direction. But I still feel like it would be a very unhygienic way to eat.

So Jesus reclines again, and he says to them, Do you know what I have done for you? And of course, the answer is more than simply washing their feet. He says, You call me teacher and lord, and you are speaking rightly, since that is what I am.

So if I, your lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I've given you an example that you also should do just as I have done for you.

Truly, I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I'm not speaking about all of you.

I know those I have chosen, but the scripture must be fulfilled. The one who eats my bread has raised his heel against me. Can everyone say, Hi, Bryon?

Hey, bud. Go ahead and take a seat. Here, Jesus tells the people.

Now, I know that some churches throughout the past two millennia have taken this as an additional, what would be called a sacrament or ordinance.

So like we observe baptism and the Lord's Supper or communion together, they would also say feet washing is another one of these things. Now, what Jesus is doing here is not instituting a regular habit of feet washing.

He's instituting a regular habit of service, of humility and serving others.

Now, as Jesus is talking about the blessing that comes on those that follow in Jesus' example, he says, I'm the important one, I'm the teacher, I'm the Lord, and if I wash feet, if you guys are going to be Jesus' followers, then you need to be

serving others just as I have served them. And then he says this, I'm not speaking about everyone. There's 12 other guys that are there at the Last Supper. And he says, I know those I have chosen, but the scripture must be fulfilled.

The one who eats my bread has raised his heel against me.

So when you see like heel language in scripture, it should always make you think of what God said to the serpent, that there would be the descendant of Eve, the seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent, that the heel is raised

against. It's kind of that stomping on image. And so here it was prophesied that one would raise his heel, that someone would rise to crush or to kill the Messiah.

He says, I'm telling you now, before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe that I am he. He says, I'm letting you guys know that I'm going to be betrayed and killed. That's something that's important for you to know.

It says, truly, I tell you, whoever receives anyone I send, receives me. And the one who receives me, receives him who sent me. So just very practical, here's what this means.

When Jesus sends us pastors, teachers, those that would speak God's word into our life, and we receive those people, we receive the instruction that comes from God through the hand of someone else, it is receiving the words of Jesus.

Lord willing, as you guys are here at Tabernacle, you aren't just listening to a person, because Bryon's not all that great. He doesn't have all that many great thoughts.

But the word of God is an important thing, and the word of God has the most important thoughts. And as you receive what the word of God says, you are receiving the words of Jesus.

And here, those that receive the words of Jesus are receiving the words of the Father, that to accept that truth is ultimately to accept what God has said.

When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in his spirit and testified, truly I tell you, one of you will betray me. Just as a side note, I love that even Jesus gets like, I'll use a couple words because I want to do it justice.

Jesus gets agitated, he gets unsettled, even within his own spirit. As he thinks about his death, it causes him some consternation. I don't know if I, if, got into my head if someone was like, define consternation, Bryon.

I don't know that I'd be able to tell you the answer for that, but I'm pretty sure it's an accurate word for it. Jesus has this concern. And he says, one of you will betray me.

The disciples started looking at one another, uncertain which one he was speaking about. I know, given what I've read about John and James, the sons of Zebedee, they were looking over at Peter going, Peter said some dumb stuff before.

I remember when Jesus said, get behind me, Satan, to Peter. So it might be Peter that's doing the betraying.

Maybe they were thinking about just a few days before, when Thomas had said, okay, well, Jesus wants us to go back to Bethany, two miles from Jerusalem. Let's all go so that we can die with him. Maybe Thomas is the one that will betray us.

But they did not know. Jesus knew the entire time that Judas was going to be the one that betrayed him. The way that Jesus treated Judas gave no indication to the disciples that Judas was the one that would betray Jesus to death.

We do not often afford those that we are at enmity with, those that we are better against, those that we are bitter against. We do not afford them that same kindness. For many of us, everyone knows who Brian hates.

Everyone knows who Amy dislikes. Jesus was going to be betrayed for the price of a slave, 30 pieces of silver. He would be crucified and the sin of all humanity would be placed on him within the next 24 to 36 hours of this happening.

And the way that Jesus treated Judas gave no indication of hatred, malice, or bitterness. One of his disciples, the one Jesus loved, this is John the apostle. This is the first time that he mentions himself in the narrative.

All the rest of this time, he's just been recording what everyone else said and did, and now John inserts himself. He in humility doesn't even mention his own name. We would know that it is John from the rest of the Gospels.

But here, John writing this account, the one Jesus loved was reclining close beside Jesus. Simon Peter motioned to him to find out who it was he was talking about. So Jesus says, one of you is going to betray me.

Everyone's going, man, who in the world is it? Simon's like way over here. He sees John is like laying reclining next to where Jesus is.

And he goes, hey, let's go figure out who's the one that's going to betray you. And so he leaned back against Jesus and asked him, Lord, who is it? Jesus replied, he's the one I give the piece of bread to after I have dipped it.

When he had dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas, Simon Iscariot's son. Now, here's what's crazy about this. So without being a Jewish individual myself, I had to do some reading to figure out, all right, what's going on here?

The first bread that was dipped into the whole collection of delicious smelling and tasting oils and fragrances and spices and things. The first bit of bread was given to the guest of honor. Now, if you're like, is that really what was happening?

Read the very next verse. Or, sorry, it's a couple of verses later. After Judas ate the piece of bread, Satan entered him.

So Jesus told him, what you're doing, do it quick. None of those reclining at the table knew why he said this to him. Jesus did not say it bitterly.

He didn't shout at him. He wasn't yelling curses at him while this was going down.

In fact, verse 29 tells us, since Judas kept the money back, some thought that Jesus was telling him, buy what we need for the festival, or that he should give something to the poor.

The way that Jesus treated his literal enemies was with kindness, so much so that the others had no idea what was going to transpire that evening.

22:29

Judas Departs and New Command

After receiving the piece of bread, he immediately left and it was night. When he had left, Jesus said, Now, the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him.

If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. If you will, this is the final countdown. Now is the time when Jesus is lifted up, the sins of the world are atoned for.

Jesus is reunited with the Father. Those that were condemned and outside of the ability to be with God forever, have now been purchased by the blood of the Lamb, that they have a home in heaven now, all because of what Jesus would do here.

Verse 33, Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so now I tell you where I am going, you cannot come.

So here is the final instruction from Jesus to his disciples, because he's going to die, because they cannot follow him into the grave where he is going. I give you a new command. Love one another.

Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. It was already a law, a rule, that people were to love others. We can all think of the golden rule, love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus here brings it to the next degree. He doesn't say, Shelly, you need to love other people as much as you love Shelly. Now he gives the command, Shelly, love others as much as Jesus has loved you.

Verse 35, he says, By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. Lord, Simon Peter said to him, Where are you going? Jesus answered, Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me later.

He says, You're not going to Golgotha, you're not going to Calvary with me, you're not going to die right now. Eventually, Peter would give his life as a martyr for the cause of Christ, but it was not at this time.

Lord, Peter asked, Why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. Jesus replied, Will you lay down your life for me?

Truly, I tell you, a rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times. He says, But I love your energy.

I love the faith that you have in yourself at this point, but actually before about four or six a.m., you are going to deny even knowing me three times.

25:22

Godʼs Love: Basis, Model, and Goal

So what do we do with this? Here's Jesus' incredible love, his service, what he did for others, but how does this affect us? First, the basis for our love.

Why would we love? How can we even give love to others? God's character is the cause of our love.

Jesus was able to love the disciples and love Judas due to the character of God. You can think back to verses number one and three, that he knew he was going from this world to the Father, and so he could love those that were in the world to the end.

And that because God had given everything to him, he had come from God and he was going back to God. He could love these people.

For you and I, knowing what God thinks about us, that he calls us adopted children, that he says that we are chosen, that he says that we are his beloved ones, that we are inseparable from him, knowing what God thinks about us means that whatever

others think about us, we are secure in him. If you think that God doesn't love you, that you are not safe with him, that you don't have a secure future, then it will be hard, if not impossible, for you to love the unlovable.

You need a safe place, if you will, to land. B was up here right at the front earlier. And if B wants to jump down here, well, he's a little foolhardy.

He'd probably do it all by himself. But when there's a safe place to land, if I'm standing there, then he's going to jump with all of his might because he's not scared about falling because he knows that there is a safe place to land.

And for your acts of love and for your heart posture towards thinking well of others and thinking kindly of others, you have to have a safe place to land because people will let you down.

There will be people that do not reciprocate the love that you are showing to them. There will be people that take advantage of the love that you show to them.

And so when you jump out in love towards others, it requires that you know what your God thinks about you. It requires that you know that you are saved, that you know that you are on your way to heaven.

You know that God will make all things right in time. Paul gives the same rationale in his letters to the churches at Ephesus and Colossi, that the basis for our forgiveness and love and patience with unlovable people is God's love for us.

And John, in his letter to the churches, 1 John, he tells us that God is love, and those that have become part of God's family are known by loving like him. Like, you can look at me or you can look at Ev.

I know some people have said, man, I see Evelyn's cheeks and it looks just like your cheeks, Bryon, and it's identifiable. We look the same. And scripture tells us we are to look like our God in how we love.

You can love in your life unrequited, unappreciated, with evil returned for your love, and you will be fine, seen, loved, appreciated, and rewarded by Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

You can love the unlovable because your God loves you, because your God will make all things right. So God's character is the cause of our love. Jesus' shameful humility is the model for how we love.

Jesus, in this passage, he does the work of a woman during that time period, in that patriarchal culture, he does the work that a wife or a daughter would do.

And even more than that, he did the work that a slave would do in cleaning the feet of his disciples. He washed the filthy mud and manure-encrusted feet of the one who would sell him to the Sanhedrin within the next two hours.

He washed the 24 feet that would run away from him when he was arrested. Can I ask you, what is too much for you to serve someone else? Most of us would never consider cleaning poop off of each other's feet, but that's what our God did.

How can we call ourselves followers of Jesus when we don't follow him into shameful humility and service for others?

For many of us, we view serving God or serving others as finding the task or ministry that aligns perfectly with our comfort zone, our hobbies, and our preferred time slot.

May we demolish our gods of comfort and ease, and instead pursue a humility that says, I am a slave of Christ Jesus, and whatever task he has for me, and whatever needs he shows me, I will serve humbly and wholeheartedly like he did.

Can I ask you, when was the last time that you served in a ministry, or did something for someone else that wasn't your ideal situation? What is an area of service too low for you to serve Jesus in? So God's character is the cause of our love.

Jesus' shameful humility is the model for how we love. And then lastly, God's glorious kingdom is the goal of our love. Why do we love and serve?

Well, from verse number 35, by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. We love and serve so that others may experience and see the love of God.

Do you want our area, our towns, our cities, to come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior? Jesus says that others will know that we are truly his disciples by our love for each other.

Many, many people today love the widows and the orphans and the poor. Not everyone, which is sad, but loving the disenfranchised isn't a weird, outside-the-norm practice in our world today.

But can I tell you, loving the obnoxious lower-middle-class person across the aisle from you? That is a supernatural action that comes from God's presence living in you, through you, to do things that you would never do on your own.

32:06

Challenge: Love Unlovable

We talk about loving others, and we mean we smile and say hi and give a hug to someone at church. Well, that's being friendly, but that's not showing love in the way that Jesus showed love in this chapter.

Truly loving other Christians means that when the other person was mean to you, when they did something that really aggravated you, when they betrayed you, you still choose kindness, grace, forgiveness, and patience in your interactions with them, in

how you talk about them to others, and in how you think about them inwardly. Who are you bitter against? Either at Tabernacle or someone that used to be at Tabernacle. Who do you not want to talk with?

Who do you hope doesn't show up at a small group or at an event or at a service? That is the person that Jesus wants you to sacrificially, shamefully love so that the people that know you know that you are truly a Jesus follower.

The love of Jesus empowers us to love the unlovable. Jesus loved Judas, betraying him. Jesus loved the disciples that in just a few short hours, they would all abandon him and turn tail.

Jesus washed their feet and he gave us the command to love one another as he has loved us. He has given us the model for what it looks like to love and to serve others. God's character is the cause of our love.

Jesus' shameful humility is the model for how we love. And God's glorious kingdom is the goal of our love. Today are you loving the unlovable?

If not, I want to encourage you. Bring it to your father. Bring it to this Jesus who forgives the unforgivable.

And find out that he can make you new. That through his Holy Spirit, working in your heart and in your life, you can forgive people that you never thought you could forgive.

You can serve in ways that you never thought you would or could or could even imagine. Because the goal is that we show each other, that we show a watching world, that we worship the God who made himself lowly and humble for our sake, for our souls.

Let's take a moment in prayer. God has spoken to you. I want to encourage you to respond to Him.

After we take a moment in prayer, we'll sing one last song this evening.