Believe, Ask, Love (John 13:31-14:14) Series

This morning we continue our series in the Gospel of John. And we are one of the many points in the book, where I'm not sure how I should try to teach it. Really, chapters 13-17 work as one giant section, and we are supposed to grab them in their entirety, and hear them in one setting. It's the kind of section, where the best approach, is to find yourself a nice place out in the sun, on a warm day, and sit down with your Bible and your iced tea until you're read it all. And you read that same section, once a day for maybe a week until it grabs you. Some days, it's an iced tea on the back patio. Other days, it's a pot of coffee in your arm chair.

But this approach doesn't really work for teaching, sadly. What I'm going to do, I think, is take a spiral approach to it. Every week, I'll reread the passage from the week before, and then I'll push forward. This is not going to be a perfect approach. We are still quite likely going to lose some sense of the whole if I do it this way. And some weeks, like today, we are going to break at an awkward spot. But this is probably the best I can do. And what I'm trying to say, I think, is that if you really want to understand this part of John, you're going to have to read chapters 13-17 in their entirety, maybe once a week before we get together on Sundays.

So let's reread John 13:21-30, where Jesus is troubled by his knowledge that one of them will betray him:

(21) These things, (after) saying, Jesus was troubled in his spirit,

and he testified,

and he said,

"Truly, truly, I say to you,

that one from you will betray/hand over me."

(22) They were looking at one another-- the disciples--

being uncertain about whom he is speaking.

(23) There was reclining-- one of his disciples-- in the bosom/chest of Jesus, whom Jesus loved.

(24) Then, Simon Peter gestured to this one to inquire who it was about whom he is speaking.

(25) Leaning back-- that one--, thus, against the chest of Jesus, he says to him,

"Lord/master, who is it?"

(26) He answered-- Jesus--

"That one it is,

to whom I will dip the piece of bread,

and I will give [it] to him.

Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gives it to Judas of Simon Iscariot,

(27) and after the piece of bread, then, he entered into him-- Satan.

Then, he says to him-- Jesus--

"What you are doing, do quickly."

(28) Now, this, no one knew of the ones reclining, why he said to him.

(29) For some were thinking/considering,

since the money box Judas had, that Jesus is saying to him,

"Buy the things, need, we have, for the feast,

or to the poor, that something he should give.

(30) Then, taking the piece of bread, that one went out immediately.

Now, it was night.

New stuff. Verse 31-32:

(31) Then, when he had gone out, he says-- Jesus--

"Now the Son of Man was glorified,

and God was glorified in him.

If God was glorified in him, also, God will glorify him in himself,

and immediately/at once He will glorify him.

Throughout the entirety of the gospel of John, Jesus has been talking about "his hour." This started all the way back in chapter 2, when Jesus turned water into wine. Jesus had told his mother, when she brought up the need, that his hour was not yet come.

What is Jesus' hour? It's that point in time when God will be glorified by Jesus, and when Jesus will be glorified by God. Verses 31-32 are "sort of" complicated. But Jesus is saying that his hour is here. It's started; the Father and the Son have already been glorified. And it's soon. They will be glorified.

And Judas' exit from the room marks the turning point in all of this. Judas gets up, and goes outside, and closes the door behind him, and the second you hear that "click," you know that this is the moment of Jesus' glory, and the Father's glory (H/T Michael Philiber). This is the hour.

Verse 33:

(33) Little children, yet a little time with you, I am.

You will seek me,

and just as I said to the Judeans,

that where I am going, you aren't able to come,

also to you I say now.

Jesus is not a Judean. Jesus' disciples are not Judeans. Judeans are people who have rejected Jesus, and rejected the Father. And that's not his disciples. So what are they, then? What are we?

We are "little children."

Let's read John 1:11-12: