Second reading is from John 13, verses 18 to 38, and can be found on page 1045 in the Pew Bibles.
I'm not referring to all of you, I know those I have chosen, but this is to fulfil the scripture.
He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.
I'm telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am he.
I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me, and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.
After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified,
I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me.
His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant.
One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him.
Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, ask him which one he means.
Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, Lord, who is it?
Jesus answered, it is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.
Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon.
As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.
What you are about to do, do quickly, Jesus told him.
But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him.
Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the feast,
or to give something to the poor.
As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out, and it was night.
When he was gone, Jesus said,
Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
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.
A new command I give you, love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
By this, all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
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 asked,
Lord, why can't I follow you now?
I will lay down my life for you.
Then Jesus answered,
Will you really lay down your life for me?
I tell you the truth.
Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.
Thanks, Adam.
Will you join me in prayer as we begin?
Gracious Lord and Father, we pray that by your Spirit,
you might bring your word alive in our hearts, in our minds, and in our lives,
so that you might be glorified amongst us.
We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
We'll be looking at John 13.
If you're taking notes, I'm going to be talking about four things.
First is the problem of invisibility.
Second is love, life, and death.
Thirdly, love and glory.
And lastly, Julian's problem.
Firstly, problem of invisibility.
Now, I think it's actually quite cool to be a geek nowadays.
So...
That's why I'm going to proudly make a reference to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Now, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
In this series, there's a thing called the SEP.
Can anyone tell me what it is?
It's called the Someone Else's Problem Field.
Okay?
So, if you want to hide something, right, to make it invisible,
what you do is you make it as gary and disgusting as possible,
even in the middle of a field.
You know, you paint something purple with, you know, stars and all that sort of stuff.
And what happens is the thing becomes protected from unwanted eyes.
And that's because it's somebody else's problem.
That's how you make something disappear.
You know, if you want to disappear, you know, pretend that you need something from someone.
And then suddenly, you're gone.
It's not so much become invisible, but unnoticed.
It's a really cheap way, you know, if our governments could figure out a way of putting that into military technology.
There you go, Adam.
S-E-P.
The reason why I mention that is because it's almost, I don't know, like,
we had a combined service today at Willoughby Council.
The Christian witness in Chesswood, I think, is almost like an S-E-P.
You know, how many people actually notice that we exist?
Like, how many people notice that St. Paul's meet here on a Sunday evening to worship God?
How many people actually care?
Well, I imagine this is kind of it.
We disappear.
We become unnoticed to the rest of our society.
What will take us to do to become noticeable?
You know, it's the opposite of S-E-P.
If there was an anti-S-E-P, how will we become visible?
How will we individually and corporately make an impact to the rest of the people around us?
Did you notice that this is the type of thing that Jesus is concerned about here in John 13?
Come with me to John 13, 34 and 35.
The passage that I'm sure you all know and love and are familiar with,
and this kind of becomes invisible to us sometimes.
Reading from the ESV,
Jesus says,
A new commandment I give to you,
that you love one another just as I have loved you.
You also are to love one another.
And notice what he says.
If you do this, this is what happens.
By this, all people will know that you are my disciples,
if you have love for one another.
To overcome invisibility, all you need is love, apparently, according to Jesus.
Before we turn to that, just very quickly, background.
We're spending the next few weeks on chapter 13,
I think on to 17 of John's Gospel.
I can't remember, I haven't checked the roster.
But to orient you, the first 12 chapters of John's Gospel
talks about the first three years of Jesus' life,
so three years,
and from 13 to about 17,
kind of the last few hours,
which is kind of disproportional to the rest,
and is essentially one single conversation.
So three, four chapters of John's Gospel,
as opposed to the rest,
just focus on one conversation,
which kind of suggests to you that that conversation must be really important.
Really important for John to spend so much ink recording it for our benefit.
And when you read it, it's kind of understandable.
You know, all through John's Gospel,
Jesus makes these amazing promises.
I am the bread of life.
If you come to me, you'll never hunger.
But when you get to the last few hours of Jesus' life,
he says to his disciples and us,
see you later.
I'm going.
And, well, if he's not going to be around anymore,
presumably, what he says is going to be quite significant
for the people who've invested their whole life into Jesus.
And we're in a similar situation.
We don't see Jesus face to face.
And he's invited us to invest our life into him.
So what he says to his disciples, I guess, are relevant to us.
Why should we keep investing our life into him?
What does it mean for us who have invested our life into Jesus to live in a time that he's absent from us?
Well, we'll come to that.
Love, life, and death.
A focus of the topic is the new commandment, a commandment of love.
But it's important for us to understand the context in which it appears.
Yes, it appears in a context of that one long conversation.
But it's a little bit more specific than that.
It's very odd.
The first, if you turn to it,
before he talks about the new command,
18 to 30,
is focused on the betrayal of Judas.
And I don't know what you think of it.
It sort of struck me as kind of like an odd logic to it.
Why is the commandment of love following what he was saying about Judas?
Well, let me make the first point that love,
the commandment of love,
appears in the context of life and death.
That's the context.
It's clearly a life and death situation for Jesus.
He was going to be betrayed by one of his own,
which lead eventually to his execution.
It's not an idea that is new in John's gospel.
Jesus spoke about it back in chapter 6, verse 71.
So back in those chapters ago,
he spoke about his betrayal.
And chapter 12, again,
he spoke repeatedly about his betrayal.
But there's something new that happens.
Again, there's a bit of a time reference throughout John's gospel.
Now is not the time.
But suddenly, in chapter 13,
there's this little reference that says,
now is the time.
Now is the time.
We sort of pass some point of no return.
When Judas made up his mind to betray Jesus
and he's gone out to get the enemies of Jesus,
that was it.
That was it for Jesus.
It would lead to, eventually, his arrest and execution.
The Rubicon had been crossed.
The die had been cast.
This is it for Jesus.
It was life and death for him.
But it's not just life and death for him.
It is life and death for you and for me.
I don't know whether you thought about this point.
Like all the talk of Judas,
what's the relevance of that to you?
What's the take-home message of that?
Well, if you come with me to verse 19 of chapter 13,
Jesus kind of explains why he was going on
about Judas betraying him.
Did you notice?
He says, I'm telling you this now,
before it takes place,
that when it does take place,
when it does take place, what happens?
Have a look at it.
That you may believe.
It's an odd sort of word.
He doesn't say, so that you may know.
He's that you may believe that I am he.
All the things that he's been talking about with Judas
is so that the disciples and us will come to believe
that Jesus is he, that he is to Christ.
Now, John used very similar language in chapter 20, verse 31.
If you flip forward a few chapters,
John chapter 20, verses 30 to 31,
kind of like a summary of what the whole book is about,
John says,
John's gospel,
John is, and this appeals to me and maybe to some of you,
John's been acting like a lawyer.
Geeks and lawyers.
And he's been trying to prove a point.
And what he does is he brings forward these witnesses
as lawyers do in court.
And these witnesses prove certain things.
That's what lawyers do.
They're called signs,
but another word for it in John's gospel is they're witnesses.
John brings out all these witnesses
to show, to demonstrate to you
that Jesus is the chosen,
special king of God
who can give you life.
It is in his hands that he holds your life
and he can give it to you.
That's what he's been seeking to prove.
Now, you might be thinking,
possibly,
well,
why do I need life from Jesus?
For I'm already alive.
I'm sitting there,
or you seem to be alive.
You know,
most of you aren't
because you're not laughing at my jokes.
But that's maybe more me than you.
Why do we need life from Jesus?
Well,
this week I went to a training thing
with a lady by the name of Elizabeth McKinnon.
She is an expert on aging.
And she reckons
that we live in a culture
that denies aging.
As in,
it doesn't happen,
or it doesn't happen to me,
or it's something that could be stopped.
You know,
there's certain things that you can do.
You know,
aging is a terrible thing,
but it sort of sets itself in a wider context.
Not only does our culture deny aging,
but we deny death.
Death doesn't happen.
It's sort of medicalized.
It's something that happens out there.
It doesn't happen in our midst.
It could never happen to me,
particularly if you're young.
But if you're older,
death is not something
that could happen to the people around you.
And so when it does happen,
it takes us completely by surprise.
My wife died.
My husband died.
My children died.
It's so unexpected.
And what McKinnon was saying
is that we need to accept
the reality that we will die.
That death is a reality.
In fact,
the reality is
we are as good as dead.
And she has this wonderful line.
She says that life is a terminal disease.
You know,
you don't need to be diagnosed with cancer
or anything else.
The day that you are born,
you are born to die.
I don't know if anyone's ever brought to you,
or you brought anyone,
like those beautiful flowers from the forest.
Gorgeous.
You know,
something I do for my wife
all the time.
And,
actually,
I don't,
because I think it's such a waste.
I mean,
how long do they last?
A week?
Like,
you know,
you prolong,
you put things in it,
whatever.
Why do they only last for a week?
Because they're dead.
By the time,
it leaves the shop
and goes in your,
they're already dead.
They're dead
because they've been cut off
from the source of their life.
And we are like those flowers,
beautiful for a season.
A really short time, in fact,
but we are ultimately cut off
from the source of our life,
and we are dead.
We are the walking dead.
And John says,
if you put your life
into Jesus' hands,
if you believe
that he is the Christ,
he will give you life
instead of death.
if not,
you are already dead.
See,
this is,
this is the context
of the command
to love,
and I'll show you
the link
between the two.
But,
just to assure you,
in case
you haven't heard this before,
Christianity
is not just
a touch of religion
and morality
in your life.
It's not just
about coming to church
on a Sunday night.
it is a matter
of life and death.
It is centered
on Jesus,
the one
who has power
to give you
life.
Love,
life,
and death.
Love,
and glory.
What's the link
between life,
and death,
and love?
Come with me
to verse 31,
to the sort of
immediate context
of the love
commandment.
The context
is this,
the context
is Judas
left,
verse 31,
is when
Judas
had left
that Jesus
gave the commandment.
The only
people who were left
were the disciples,
you know,
the one,
the pretend,
the fake one
had left,
the one
who looked
like a disciple
was no longer
there,
and Jesus
turned to
those who
are real
disciples
to give them
this direction,
to give them
this command.
The important
thing is,
in other words,
you are not
trying to love
in order
to be a disciple.
It's the other
way around.
You are a
disciple of Jesus,
that's why
you love.
you are not
trying to love
in order to
get life
out of Jesus,
it's the other
way around.
You love
because you
have experienced
life from
Jesus,
and so you
act like
someone who
is alive.
If you're like
everybody else,
then you act
like a dead
person.
if you've
experienced
life,
if you
receive life
from Jesus,
then you
act like
you are
alive.
And living
people
love.
Living
people love
because
God is
love.
The very
source of
our life
is love.
life.
And I
want to
show that
to you
from verses
31 and
32.
When Judas
had gone
out,
Jesus
says,
now is
the Son
of Man
glorified and
God is
glorified in
him.
If God
is glorified
in him,
God will
glorify him
in himself
and will
glorify him
at once.
One of the
words that gets
repeated,
and it's one of
those Sunday
school Bible
study things,
what do you
think that
verse is
about?
is the
word that
gets repeated
and it is
the word
glory.
Okay?
So glory,
you know,
but what's
glory?
What does
that mean?
It's,
in a
non-religious
way,
it kind of
means splendor
and majesty
and something
that's wonderful.
So to
demonstrate,
you know,
what is the
glory of
Sydney?
The
harbour.
I thought
you were
going to
say,
sing
pause,
but what
is the
glory of
Queensland?
I don't
know.
Yeah.
What is,
what is,
what is the
glory of
sing
pause?
Oh,
that's an
interesting one.
What is our
splendor?
What is,
hmm.
What about
you?
What would
you say
your glory
is?
What is the,
what is the
thing that
shows you
your splendor
that other
people from
around the
world would
go,
wow,
that's,
that's
amazing.
Is it
your house
that
demonstrates
and reveal
your tastefulness
and your
wealth
and your
cleverness?
Is it
your name,
your reputation,
that you have
a good name?
Or maybe,
for the parents,
maybe it's
your children.
they're
successful,
they achieve
a lot,
and they
are your
glory.
Here,
Jesus says,
God's glory,
the supreme
moment in
which he
shows the
universe,
his splendor,
is in
the death
of his
son.
not
success,
not
achievement,
but
humiliation,
shame,
and ultimately,
death.
Jesus is
very clear
that the
death of
Jesus
ultimately,
definitively,
most clearly,
show the
splendor
of God,
for at
the cross,
we see
that God
is
love.
Did you
notice what
Jesus says?
The
father
glorifies
whom?
The
son.
The
son
glorifies
himself?
No.
the
son
glorifies
the
father.
The
son's
concern
is that
the whole
universe
would know
what a
great
dad he
has.
The
father's
concern,
all-consuming
concern,
is that
all
universe
would
honour
the
son
as
they
honour
him.
God
eternally
and
forever
within
himself
is
utterly
other
person
centred.
He
doesn't
need
us.
He's
eternally
within
himself
sufficient
in
relationship
of
love.
That's
why
it is
not
surprising
in
verse
34
Jesus
says
what
does
he
say?
New
commandment
I give
to you
that you
love
one
another
just as
I have
loved
you.
And
by all
this
people
will
know
that
you
are
my
disciples
if
you
have
loved
one
for
another.
We
are
if
we
belong
to
God
if
we
have
experienced
life
from
God
this
is
what
characterise
us
as a
people.
We
are
what
he
is
like.
We
are
people
of
love.
We
love.
That's
what
the
children
of
God
do.
We
love.
But
there
is
one
problem
that
really
stumped
me
when
I
was
reading
this
during
the
week.
Verse
34.
I
don't
know
whether
you
noticed
it.
Anything
that
sort of
strikes
you
as
kind
of
odd?
A
little
adjective
in there
that
you
kind
of
think
doesn't
really
quite
belong.
New.
Why
is that
there?
I
mean
if
you
read
the
whole
of
the
Old
Testament
Deuteronomy
6.
5
Leviticus
19.
18
which
Jesus
quote
from
when
he
was
asked
what's
the
greatest
command
and
he
said
love
the
Lord
your
God
with
all
your
heart
and
love
your
neighbor
as
yourself.
There
it is
in the
Old
Testament.
So
what
is so
new
about
what
Jesus
is
saying
have
you
noticed?
That
really
got me
stumped.
I
mean
in
the
Old
Testament
love
your
neighbor
as
yourself
just
in
case
you
thought
that's
just
easy
to
do
because
I
don't
like
myself
so
I'm
just
going
to
treat
everybody
else
the
same.
Think
about
when
you're
hungry
what
do
you
do?
You
eat
you
feed
yourself
when
you're
tired
you
rest
when
you're
sick
you
don't
just
ignore
it
you
take
your
medicine
you
see
this
is
how
you
care
for
your
body
this
is
how
you
love
yourself
and
in
the
when
they
see
them
sick
they're
supposed
to
that's
the
Old
Testament
what
is
Jesus
saying
here
what
is
new
about
what
Jesus
says
does
Jesus
say
here
a new
commandment
I
give
to
you
love
your
neighbor
as
yourself
no
Jesus
says
love
one
another
as
I
have
loved
you
could
even
say
that
Jesus
is
someone
who
loves
his
neighbors
more
than
himself
if
he
loves
his
neighbor
he
loves
well
we're
not
his
neighbor
we
were
his
enemies
if
he
loves
himself
he
might
even
live
beyond
the
age
of
33
to
even
my
age
he
might
live
to
see
his
children
but
what
the
gospel
tells
us
is
that
he
loves
you
more
than
he
loves
himself
he
would
rather
go
hungry
so
that
you
can
be
fed
he
would
rather
absorb
God's
anger
so
that
you
can
be
saved
it's
a
I
think
it's
a
different
standard
it's
a
much
more
different
love
the
people
around
you
more
than
you
love
yourself
in fact
not
just
your
neighbors
love
people
who
hate
you
who
are
indifferent
who
are
proud
love
those
people
more
than
you
love
yourself
but
I
think
Jesus
gives
us
more
than
just
rules
because
it
sort
of
struck
me
that's
where's
the
first
greatest
command
where's
the
love
you
would
have
thought
Jesus
would
have
included
it
here
I
think
what
Jesus
gives
us
is
more
than
just
more
rules
and
if
you
think
about
it
that's
kind
of
you
know
if
you
can't
even
love
your
neighbor
as
yourself
how
do
you
hope
to
love
your
neighbors
more
than
yourself
so
kind
of
like
a
higher
standard
makes
it
even
I
think
what
Jesus
does
is
he
gives
us
more
or
a
new
power
to
do
that
which
we
cannot
do
to
do
a
godlike
thing
what
Jesus
does
is
he
invites
us
to
believe
that
he
is
to
Christ
and
in
doing
so
he
gives
us
life
he
gives
us
life
by
drawing
us
into
the
life
of
God
himself
and
when
we're
drawn
into
the
life
of
God
what
happens
is
he
changes
the
change
is
so
dramatic
that
in
John
chapter
four
he
calls
it
a
rebirth
it
is
almost
as
if
you
go
back
into
your
mother's
womb
and
you
come
out
again
but
this
time
as
a
completely
different
person
this
is
what
Jesus
does
for
you
and
me
he
takes
you
and
he
gets
rid
of
the
old
selfish
hateful
mean
spirit
you
and he
makes
you
into
him
who
loves
his
enemies
more
than
himself
it's
not
surprising
this is
why
Jesus
says
if you
love
like
that
people
will
know
you
are
my
disciples
people
will
know
God
love
because
you
are
being
God
like
why
don't
we
love
like
that
I
don't
know
do
you
feel
that
love
here
at
St.
Paul's
do
you
feel
that
love
in
your
family
do
you
think
you
are
doing
it
let
me
suggest
a couple
possibilities
it might
be
because
you
don't
know
that
love
that's
a
possibility
if
you've
never
been
loved
you
don't
know
how
to
show
love
if
you
haven't
been
loved
like
the
way
Jesus
loved
you
maybe
that's
why
you
can't
love
that's
possible
if
that's
you
if
you
don't
know
life
don't
know
love
then
maybe
tonight
is
the
time
to
change
that
it's
okay
even
if
you've
been
coming
here
to
church
for
a
long
time
but
what
about
through
those
of
us
who
are
disciples
of
Jesus
who
know
that
life
who
know
Jesus
let me
suggest
maybe
three
possibilities
one
thing
is
love
is
really
inconvenient
have
you ever
noticed
when people
ask for
help
they tend
to do
it at
the most
inconvenient
time
and in
the most
inconvenient
way
I had
this lady
asking me
to help
her pack
up and
move her
house
on Friday
and I
thought
that's
just really
inconsiderate
because
Friday is
my day
off
and on
Saturday
I'm
going
surfing
with
Ian
why
can't
she
move
in at
a
time
maybe
that's
why
we
don't
love
it's
too
inconvenient
maybe
we
don't
love
because
of
time
we
just
don't
have
time
to
love
people
you know
we're
all so
busy
do you
know
why
you're
so
busy
have
you
thought
about
it
it's
not
a
time
management
issue
I
reckon
the
reason
why
you
and
I
are
so
busy
because
we
are
really
important
people
that's
right
not
everyone
but
you
you're
important
I'm
important
other
people
aren't
and
that's
why
we
got to
spend
all
time
doing
our
really
important
stuff
because
that's
what
important
people
do
we
don't
have
time
on
trivial
things
with
well
unimportant
people
and
ministers
are great
at this
sort of
stuff
by the
way
because
we
look
really
busy
so
that
people
will
think
that
we
are
very
important
people
we've
got
busy
things
to
do
and we
like
to
maybe
that's
why
third
possible
reason
is
in order
for me
to love
you
unfortunately
it means
that you
need to
get to
know me
and that's
really bad
because I
spend a
lot of
time
and a
lot of
energy
cultivating
this
image
for you
that you
think
that I'm
a really
godly
smart
person
and if
you get
to know
me
like my
children
do
and you
come to
my house
you will
see that
yes I
do
shout at
my
kids
and at
times
I am
incredibly
inconsiderate
towards my
wife
and I
don't think
I'd like
you to
know that
but for
me to
love you
for you
to be
involved
in my
life
you will
know how
terrible
I am
maybe that's
why we
don't want
people to
know us
maybe it's
to do
with our
eyesight
you know
we don't
love because
we're
short sighted
our horizon
never goes
beyond our
retirement
or our
legacy
or next
weekend
or next
year
if that is
our horizon
then you
pretty much
don't need
love to
get there
in fact
love most
of the time
will slow
you down
if you
need to
go to
where you
want to
go
considering
other people
along the
way
is going
to stop
you
achieving
they might
even get
in your
way
but if
your
horizon
is beyond
that
into
heaven
into the
bosom
of your
father in
heaven
seeing the
people around
you being
loved by
him
then maybe
it's possible
that you
will feel
that love
you will
need love
like you
need oxygen
to breathe
couple of
reasons
well
SEP
the
invisibility
of us
and the
church
that wasn't
always the
case by the
way
Christians were
very well
known
at one
stage
not just
200 years
ago but
back a long
time
that was
a
this is the
conclusion
Julian's
problem
Julian was
an emperor
of Rome
he was
called the
apostate
the reason
was
Constantine
in the
fourth
fifth century
was supposed
to have been
converted
the whole
empire became
Christian because
of him
supposedly
and one of
his successes
this guy
called Julian
decided
I'm going
to be a
pagan
and I'm
going to
get the
whole empire
to become
pagan once
again
except he's
really smart
because he's a
student of
history and
he saw
that the
problem with
Christians is
that they're
like cockroaches
you can't get
rid of them
so you can't
spray them
you can't
persecute them
you can't
do violence
to them
in fact the
more violence
you do to
Christians
the more
the gospel
spreads
so he
wrote this
letter to
one of these
pagan priests
to try to
do what
the Christians
do and
this is what
he said
why do we
not observe
that it is
there that is
the Christians
benevolence to
strangers
they care for
the grace of
the dead
and the
pretended
holiness of
their lives
that have
done much
to increase
atheism
atheism that
is unbelief
in the pagan
gods
ironic
we're
atheists
there you
go
for it is
disgraceful
that when
no Jew
ever has
to beg
and the
impious
Galileans
that is
Christians
support not
only their
own poor
but ours
as well
all men
see that
our people
lack aid
from us
teach those
of the
Hellenic faith
to contribute
to public
service of
this sort
he's saying
do what the
Christians do
and paganism
will flourish
he is a
pagan
emperor
trying to
snuff out
the gospel
in the
empire
the world
around us
keep changing
the values
they want to
change the
laws
and we want
to fight
them
in the
schools
in the
parliament
but what
was it
that stopped
the empire
reverting back
to paganism
it was
love
wasn't it
love
that commands
the truth
of the gospel
I wonder
whether
if the glory
of our
church
is the
love of
Christ
whether we
will be
shining so
bright
that not
even a
bushel
can hide
us
a new
commandment
I give
to you
that you
love one
another
just as
I have
loved you
you also
are to
love one
another
but as
all people
will know
that you
are my
disciples
if you
have love
for one
another
what
do
to
do
before
i
see that
would
do
break
this
here
I
oh
what
do