The essence of true discipleship is loving one another just as He has loved us (vv. 34-35).
Who can be the disciples of Jesus? Those who have love for one another.
The good shepherd who leaves behind ninety nine sheep to go in search of the one lost sheep did not go after Judas. In fact, he even “encourages” him to do his act quickly. How do we know when to go after and when to let go? We will never, with our “self”. We need to deny our self to let God work in us.
13: 34-35 The new command is NOT just love one another, but it is love one another as I have loved you and from that everyone will know that you are my disciples. Jesus loves us to extent that he gave his life for us. Are we loving others to that extent, to the extent that we would be able to do anything for them.
*(v30) “Judas went out and it was night”: Judas left the light(Jesus) and went into the darkness. When we are in light(with Jesus) we will not do any bad thing.
* Peter denied Jesus because of his weakness(we need to be very careful that our weakness should not overtake us)
* (v27)Satan entered into Judas, — Satan will change the love into hatred.
* (v34) ” Gods love is unconditional and unchanging” We may be able to show this same kind of love to our family and maybe to our friends, but are we able to show this same love to our neighbors or to the ones who oppose us???
“He must increase and I must decrease” Only then, I can show this same kind of love to everyone!!!!!
1. Disown
-Peter said to Jesus “Lord, I will lay down my life for you” (v37). Jesus answered “…Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!” (v38).
-Peter denied and disowned Jesus three times due to fear. Some of us (preachers/ministers/members) disown Him by refusing to do the duties for Him, and some even simply walk away for personal reason or pride. This literally brings shame to Him!
2. Destiny
-Jesus said “Where I am going, you can not follow now, but you WILL follow later” (v36).
-He give us the assurance! Only if we walk on his foot steps, we can reach Him!
3. Disciple of Jesus
-As disciple of Jesus, we should love one another as He loved us. If we do so, everyone will know His love and we are His disciples. So, they could come towards Him (v34,35).
Jesus tells Peter about his denial but at the same time in V36) Jesus assures Peter of the eternal life.Jesus does everything in his own time.
Peter wants to follow Jesus now but Jesus says later.
We should not betray/deny Jesus at anytime. We should cling to Jesus and be his disciple by loving one another.
We should not deny Jesus. Peter made a mistake of denying Jesus.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
Jesus gave the disciples heads up but the disciples didn’t understand what Jesus was trying to say. We should not be like the disciples instead we should understand what God is trying to say to us.
Satan entered into Judas heart second time to harden his heart and betray Jesus. It all happened in the darkness. God will not oppose the will of evil man, so Jesus said to Judas “Do Quickly”To avoid the satan entry into our heart we need to put on the Armor of God. ( stay tuned for eight weeks sermon series on Armor of God )
Like the disciples sometimes we might not have a clear understanding of things happening around or even complete understanding of the scripture, Inspite of that, we should always follow HIM all the time. Even though Peter didn’t understand what Jesus was talking he continued to follow Jesus
36 Simon Peter,..you cannot follow Me now , but you shall follow Me afterward….Jesus wanted Peter to lead the ministry after His death and resurrection. This was the reason Jesus said you cannot follow me (die) now. If Peter did not deny Jesus, he would have died with Jesus that time. Peter was not yet born in spirit either. Peter was totally a different person after Act 2. We can’t find him deny Jesus after that.
– we all live because His purpose to be fulfilled by us. He has a plan for everyone of us.
Jesus teaches and shows love at all times. Though He knew Judas was going to betray Him, He didn’t treat Him differently. He showed love by washing his feet’s similar to the other disciples and He also gave him the bread.
Jesus asks us to love one another, but sometimes we are in a scenario which makes it hard to love our enemies. So I think if we are true followers of Him, he would give us the strength to forgive and forget those who did things against us and teach us to love them.
13:21: When Jesus said, one of you will betray me, other disciples were not able to guess who he was. Even when Judas departed V: 29 they were not able to suspect his action. This explains how Jesus treated Judas exactly the same as other disciples (including money resposibility) even though he knew him already.
13: 32. Jesus is Glorified as he will be caught soon by Judas’s betrayal (V 30,31), Father GOD will be Glorified as his Son will be killed soon by obeying HIS will. So Glorification comes not by singing Glory! Glory!! Glory!!! but by fulfilling sacrificially, the will of God which may not be a pleasant experience.
