“Therefore when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; 32 if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately. 33 “Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” 36 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, where are You going?” Jesus answered, “Where I go, you cannot follow Me now; but you will follow later.” 37 Peter said to Him, “Lord, why can I not follow You right now? I will lay down my life for You.” 38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times. 1 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. 4 “And you know the way where I am going.”
When we come to these particular verses that make up today’s text, and especially verses 31 and 32 of chapter 13, we have reached another crucial pivotal point in the Gospel narrative.
When Jesus said “Now is the Son of Man glorified” He was announcing the beginning of the endgame of the Divine plan made before the beginning of the world.
The essential purpose in Creation was to glorify God. Nothing exists apart from Him – all things are caused by Him – and everything is for His glory.
This is a difficult concept to put into words and a difficult one to get our minds around. Let me offer this as an illustration of what I’m saying to you. I went to my books on Systematic Theology to find out what they said about ‘glory’ or ‘God’s glory’. In none of them did I find that word in the entire table of contents, with the exception of a one page doctrinal statement in the last volume of a 5-volume set on Systematic Theology by Lewis Sperry Chafer.
Now I didn’t exhaust every existing volume on Systematic Theology; I only have a few in my library. But here is the conclusion I drew from this notable absence in this very thorough and scholarly work of Chafer’s.
I think it is because God’s glory is, or should be, a given for us. Everything that God has revealed of Himself to man – every truth upon which all our theological knowledge is based – comes out of His glory, is revealed to establish His glory, is given to aid man in recognizing and acknowledging His glory.
Here is just one paragraph from that one-page doctrinal statement of Chafer’s to which I referred a moment ago:
“As for that glory which is called intrinsic or essential, it may be observed that, regardless of any recognition of it on the part of creatures, God is Himself a glorious being. Glory belongs to Him as light and heat belong to the sun. It therefore becomes a misrepresentation of infinite proportions to withhold from God a worth acknowledgment of His glory. An injustice is forced upon Him if the entire universe of created beings does not ascribe to Him that essential glory. To fail to do so is to ‘lie, and do not the truth’ (1 Jn 1:6).” Systematic Theology, Volume VII, Doctrinal Summarization, Lewis Sperry Chafer, Dallas Seminary Press, Dallas, TX, pg 172-173 [Italics mine for emphasis]
JUDAS HAS JUST GONE OUT
Now our text today began at verse 31 but it is essential that we glance back to see what has just happened and thus understand better the significance of the words of Jesus in our text.
Judas has just gone out. Between verses 21 and 30 we have some of the saddest words of the Bible. Jesus, troubled in spirit, plainly testifies to His disciples that one of them is going to betray Him.
Don’t move on too quickly! Jesus is troubled in spirit. He has just taught them the indispensable lesson that began with an action, when He washed their feet, and continued with oral instruction as He told them that as His disciples they must follow His example and serve one another with the selfless service He, their Master, had demonstrated in His service to them.
Remember; Jesus washed all their feet; even Judas’ feet. But as He ends this short discourse on loving service – the last lesson Judas would ever hear from the mouth of Jesus – Jesus becomes troubled in His spirit. And this is apparently something John was able to see with his own eyes. He must have seen an expression of profound sadness come over the face of his Master; perhaps a slight slumping of the shoulders; for he is writing as an eyewitness, remember, and as he sees this sudden change in demeanor in his Lord, Jesus says, ‘Amen, amen I say to you, that one of you will betray Me’.
And at that moment their Passover celebration was over.
The discussion among the disciples is now completely focused on trying to understand what Jesus just said and who it might be who would betray Him. Then Peter puts John up to asking Jesus privately who the traitor was to be and Jesus tells him it will be the one to whom He gives the sop.
Now pause right there for a moment. I know these verses are not our main text today and I don’t want to stay here long but let’s not miss this.
One of the main elements of the Passover meal was the bitter herbs. This was part of God’s instruction given directly to Moses in Exodus 12:8 and repeated by Moses to the people in Numbers 9:11.
This consisted of several herbs that were crushed and made into a thin sauce in which they would dip a piece of the unleavened bread and eat. It was to remind them of the bitterness of their ancestors who were in bondage in Egypt and the trials they underwent during their slavery. Morally, the bitter herbs serve as a reminder to God’s people of the trials they are subject to because of sin.
This is what Jesus dipped at the same time as Judas to show John the answer to his question, but don’t miss the significance of both Jesus and Judas partaking of the bitter sop just before Jesus looks Judas in the eye and says, ‘What you do, do quickly’.
And Judas went out. How sad. And as we return to our text let’s go in with the last four words of verse 30. “…and it was night”. It was night.
Darkness had descended on the land, darkness had descended in the heart of Judas, darkness had descended on any opportunity he had to repent and relent of what he had planned already to do. The night had finally come, as Jesus had predicted, and brought with it the hour of His enemies and the hour of the power of darkness.
Then in sharp contrast to this sadness, this darkness, this loss, Jesus’ demeanor changes sharply again and with a tone of triumph He declares, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately.”
THE GLORY OF FATHER AND SON
Now let me point out right here that from here to the end of chapter 16 every word Jesus says is to His true followers – true believers – and by that I mean His eleven disciples and to every true believer in the world until now and until He comes. Judas has gone out from among them and Jesus will be only with His true followers until chapter 18 when He is arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. So we need to be on our toes now and absorb this, and ask the Holy Spirit to teach our hearts through the things we will be studying in these upcoming chapters, Lord willing.
That is not to say that the rest of the Bible isn’t important or isn’t as important for us to learn; I just want to highlight the fact for you, that this is the last couple of hours Jesus has with these men He Has been with for over three years, and He knows exactly what’s coming before this night is over, and He is alone with them – He is alone with you and me, believer – so let’s be attentive students as we go through these chapters.
What does Jesus mean with this declaration of victory that comes from him immediately following the sound of the closing door?
He means that the die is cast, and the thing that the Trinity has decreed from eternity past is about to be carried out in history and the final ball is rolling, so to speak. The next time He sees Judas the man will be escorting a large envoy of Jesus’ enemies and he will betray his Master with a kiss.
So listen. What is the primary topic on Jesus’ mind? What would it be for you or me or anyone else? I think it would be, ‘Well, there he goes to betray me and they’ll be coming soon to arrest me and then I will suffer greatly and be executed.’ Wouldn’t it? Sure!
Not Jesus. He looks past all that, knowing even the details of what is to come over the ending hours of the night and the following day, He looks past it all, past the grave, and says ‘It’s time to go back home!’
How would we see it? Pain! Humiliation! Injustice! Death!
Jesus sees glory! He’s not anticipating an end. He is anticipating a beginning on the one hand, and a returning on the other.
He is going to be glorified by the events of this day, and the Father will be glorified also, because all they have planned together from eternity is coming to pass exactly as they decreed and choreographed it to be!
Sin is about to be judged. God’s wrath is about to be appeased – propitiated – forever. The redemption of all God’s chosen ones is about to be accomplished, and forever and forever nothing can ever change that or turn it back.
And so certain is the completion of this work, Jesus is speaking of it in the past tense. Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him!
It is to be the beginning of redemption for all who repent and believe, and it is going to be a returning for Jesus, having accomplished all that the Father sent Him to do, and He is going back to the Father’s right hand.
Jesus refers to glorification 5 times in these 2 verses. What is He saying? He is saying that through the coming events of this night He and His Father will receive glory, and in verse 32 He is referring to the immediate glory the Father will bestow upon the Son in His resurrection and ascension, also referred to as His exaltation.
“Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,” Phil 2:8-9
So glorification is the primary focus of Jesus here, and truly, the glory of God has always been His focus because as I said in the beginning, the glory of God is what everything has always been about.
Christians, our primary concern, as those who have His life from above and the Holy Spirit in us, should always be the glory of God.
This is fundamentally what Jesus has been teaching them all this time; all the years He has been with them.
The underlying truth in every act Jesus has performed, every sermon He has preached, every discourse He has had with His students, even every confrontation He has had with the conniving Jews, is that He glorifies the Father through His obedience to the Father’s will, and that following His example we should glorify God in obedience to His commands.
GOD GLORIFIED IN THE NEW COMMANDMENT
This has been the theme of this night together, hasn’t it? The foot-washing, the exhortation to love and serve one another; and now He begins this final discourse with this 5-fold declaration of glory and honor within the Godhead.
Now Jesus is not breaking stride and introducing some new topic as He says ‘Little children’ in verse 33. He has just demonstrated in His words that the glory of God is the primary and everlasting concern within the Trinity and in light of the Divine example He is now going to issue a new commandment for His little children to follow and thus glorify God in their obedience.
Let me show you how I make this connection. Listen again to verses 33-35
“Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Just a word about verse 33… Isn’t this amazing? All the suffering Jesus is about to endure; suffering He has already demonstrated He knows every detail of and it is just hours away, and He talks to them like a Dad going on a business trip. See how much He loves us?
Kids, I’m going to be gone for a while and you can’t come with me, so I am leaving you some special instruction and it is vitally important that you listen and obey.
Love one another. And yes, the Greek word He used was agape; a totally self-giving, sacrificing love which He Himself has demonstrated for them.
See the phrase? “even as I have loved you”, and in saying that He was including not only the past agape He had demonstrated for them but the agape He would demonstrate for them and for us in His scourging and humiliation and crucifixion. Love one another even as I have loved you.
Now here is how I tie this command to the concept of God’s glory. It’s in verse 35.
“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Now we know that there is a love that mankind shows for mankind. It is not often demonstrated to the point of sacrifice and therefore when it is it is considered worthy of note. It is even awarded with ribbons and medals and plaques.
But for a love to be of a kind that makes the world say “These are followers of Jesus”, it must be a very unusual and unworldly kind of love.
It must be a love that demands nothing in return but puts others, always, before self. It must be a love that is demonstrated in action or others would not be able to see it. It must be an active, demonstrative sort of love that is so different, so astounding, so foreign to the world, that it marks people as though branded on their forehead, that they belong to Christ; and THAT, my friends, glorifies God!
Just a brief word before we move on, about that word ‘new’ in verse 34.
It isn’t new in the sense of replacing the old. You may remember that Jesus confirmed to the young man in Luke 10 that he was correct in saying that the essence of the Law was to love the Lord your God with your whole soul strength and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. Well the same word was used there. So it’s not new in that sense.
The word has to do with being fresh and unused. This commandment is fresh and unused in that the power to obey it would come with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. They were not at this moment capable of loving in the sense that Jesus was commanding them to do, but again He was anticipating the near future and the power they would receive from above because He was going to the Father.
The point is, we have that indwelling Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of Christ in us, and He expects us to obey His commandments in that power. He expects it and He enables the obedient believer because this kind of love for one another glorifies God.
GOD GLORIFIED IN THE SON’S FOREKNOWLEDGE
Another demonstration of the glory of God in this portion we’re studying is in the foreknowledge of Jesus. This is something He has demonstrated all through His ministry, of course, but here on His last night with the disciples He demonstrates very clearly His divine knowledge of the details.
The first evidence is just in the fact that when Judas went out the door Jesus said ‘Now is the Son of Man glorified’. He had to have detailed foreknowledge in order to be aware that Judas’ going out was directly connected to His impending suffering and glorification.
Then it is demonstrated in His knowledge that He was going where they could not follow. He had already told the unbelieving Jews that, but in a very different sense. When He said it to His enemies He meant they weren’t going at all. When He said the disciples couldn’t come He only meant for the moment. Happily, in verse 36 He was able to say, ‘but you shall follow later’…which again demonstrates His foreknowledge.
But the portion of this record that impresses me with His knowledge of the minute details, is Jesus’ response to Peter when the Apostle declares, “I will lay down my life for you.”
And by the way – just a parenthetical thought here – this may be an indication that at least Peter, if not the others, was beginning to understand that Jesus was talking about His death when He said where He was going they couldn’t come now. Because he asks, “Lord, why can’t I follow You right now? I will lay down my life for you”
It strikes me that he must have been catching on that following Jesus right now would involve laying down his life right now.
In any case, look at the response of Jesus, and remember those last four words of verse 30 ‘and it was night’. It’s already dark out, as Jesus says, “Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly I say to you, a cock will not crow, until you deny Me three times.”
May I paraphrase that for emphasis? Before the sun rises on a new day, Peter, you’ll deny even knowing Me … and, remembering what I said about knowing the details listen to this … three times!
A careful study of a blending of the Gospels reveals something that isn’t readily detectible when reading them individually. Peter actually openly denied knowing Jesus at least 6 times during the beatings and mock trials of Jesus. Therefore several of those denials must have come in the early morning after the sun was up and before Jesus was led off to be crucified. But before the rooster heralded a new day Peter had denied his Lord three times, and Jesus knew that he would.
And God is glorified in the foreknowledge of Jesus who by His every word, even this one to Peter, was proved to be The Prophet speaking the Word of God in absolute truth and accuracy.
GOD GLORIFIED IN A PROMISE OF CERTAIN HOPE
In that same vein of Jesus being the Prophet of God promised by Moses, who would, as the woman at the well said, tell us all things, the glory of God is also demonstrated in the promise Jesus gives here of a certain hope for the disciples’ future and for the eternal future of all who are His ‘little children’.
First let me suggest to you that you just forget the chapter division. Because it is important for us to see that Jesus has just said a true but hurtful thing to the well-meaning Peter, but being a loving and gracious and gentle Savior He immediately offers comfort and hope. And by the way, this might have been truly an encouragement to Peter if he had thought about the immediate implications for himself. Listen.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, a cock shall not crow, until you deny Me three times. Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.”
That phrase that is translated ‘Let not your heart be troubled’, or ‘Do not let your heart be troubled’ depending on your translation, literally would be more accurately rendered, ‘Cease letting your heart be troubled’.
What I want you to see is that He says ‘heart’, singular, not ‘hearts’. Jesus has been addressing the eleven, but He has just had to pop Peter’s bubble with the prophetic utterance that before breakfast time Peter would deny even knowing Him, and I believe that in John 14:1 Jesus is still speaking directly to Peter.
“Stop letting your heart be troubled”. There’s nothing unusual about that word ‘troubled’. You know intuitively what that means. It means stirred, agitated, distressed; it is the same word used of Jesus back in 13:21 when He was about to announce that one of them was a traitor.
Peter, you’re not going to defend Me, you’re not going to die with Me, you’re going to desert Me. Now, stop letting your heart be distressed within you. You believe in God don’t you? Believe in Me also!
That’s the essence of it. You wouldn’t correct God, Peter. You wouldn’t argue with God, you wouldn’t cast doubt on God’s words. Well, I’m God! When I say you can’t follow now I mean you cannot follow. When I say you will come later I mean you will follow later. Believe the things I’ve been telling you Peter and believe the things I’ve been saying about what is going to happen to me, and believe Me enough to obey my commandments.
And here is this wonderful promise of a certain hope and future glory, and Christians, remember that the promise is for you and all who are His little children.
“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. 4 “And you know the way where I am going.”
Ok, let’s look at the snapshot and then zoom in for detail. Jesus has just encouraged Peter to attribute the attributes of deity to Him the same as he would for God, because after all, He is God.
In the same way you believe in God, believe in Me. By that He declared Himself equal with God. So then follows the promise.
In My Father’s house are many dwelling places, and My going, the one I just told you about where you cannot follow yet, My going is to prepare a place for you. Therefore, if I am preparing a place for you it only stands to reason that I won’t leave you here; I will come back for you and take you there because I want us to be together there and we will be.
That’s the big picture. Now let’s unpack this a little bit.
I wish two things. I wish the King James translators had not used the word ‘Mansions’ in verse 2, and I wish people who came later hadn’t written dumb songs perpetuating the misunderstanding that the use of that word establishes.
Y’know what? We’re going to be glorified and we’re not going to each have our own big mansion and live in some gigantic eternal subdivision. And Jesus isn’t in Heaven swinging a hammer and snapping a plumb line and sawing 2x4s and madly trying to finish up before the Father says it’s time to call us up.
So what does this mean? Well, first of all, back up and notice that Jesus says ‘In My Father’s house’…which is another reason it is ridiculous to translate the other word ‘mansions’. No one builds a mansion inside an existing house.
The disciples would have had a very clear picture of what Jesus was conveying to them. In that time and culture the patriarch of a family owned a house and much property for future building. As his sons grew and married a home for the new married couple and their future family would be built on as an extension of the original. So if a man was fortunate enough to have numerous children, as they grew up and married and new dwelling places were added on to the complex, they would eventually form a large enclosure with a common courtyard in the center.
If you’ve ever watched the movie “Ben-Hur” you might remember seeing that kind of structure portrayed as the home of Judah Ben-Hur.
Jesus is speaking symbolically and what He is saying is that in Heaven, which is His Father’s house, since the Father is Spirit, everyone of His chosen ones has a permanent abode as a member of God’s eternal family.
There is room for everyone, no one will be left behind, and no one will be cast out. The glory of God is demonstrated in this promise, as it comes from the lips of the One who in a few short hours will seal that promise with His own blood and will, through the perfection of His sufferings, bring many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10).
YOU KNOW THE WAY TO GLORY
Now I’m going to conclude and Jesus concludes His initial statements here with a declaration that draws more questions from the eleven. But it belongs to the end of this promise He has just made as much as it belongs to the question of doubt that Thomas raises and we’re not going there today.
So let’s look at it in the spirit in which Jesus said it.
“And you know the way where I am going”.
You’ve heard this from me in the not-too-distant past, but let me repeat here that the word ‘way’, when He says ‘you know the way’, is the word for a path or a road. Remember He has just minutes before said that He is going and they cannot come now but they will follow later. So He is now encouraging them that they won’t be lost or go astray by accident when the time comes, because they know the road.
As I pointed out and you can see in verse 5 it does confuse them, but they needn’t have been confused if they truly understood because in fact they were already on the road. They just didn’t know it yet.
Because, you see – and I’m going to cheat just a little bit and jump down to verse 6 for a second – Jesus is the road. He is the Way and the Truth and the Life, and He says there that no one comes to the Father but through Him, so the positive message in that statement is that all who come through Him do come to the Father.
So God is glorified in this entire account and He will be glorified again. He is glorified in the atoning death of His sinless Son and the Father in turn glorifies the Son in His resurrection and exaltation.
God is glorified in the obedience of His children whom He has given the Holy Spirit and the injunction to love one another with the sort of love that will extract from even worldly witnesses the testimony that they must belong to Jesus. That glorifies God.
God is glorified in the expressed and demonstrated foreknowledge of Jesus who knew every detail of His sufferings and revealed much before they were accomplished by Him; and also in His comforting and encouraging promise of a certain hope for all who believe in Him…the hope of glory in the Father’s house.
Are you on the road? If you don’t know then you probably are not. You know, the most pressing concern of the ancient Jews was how to get to heaven. They thought that they would stay right with God through the keeping of the Law of Moses, but they didn’t connect that religious righteousness with eternal life. So they always asked, “how do I attain to eternal life?’ Many religious people ask that question and many even who are not religious still wonder from time to time if there is anything after this life.
Well, Jesus has the answer to the question. Jesus is the answer to the question. He is the road…the way.
If you haven’t found that road you get on it through turning from sin to worship the true and living God, and believing in the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and the redemption of your soul and the eventual glorification of your body. I encourage you – I plead with you today, get on the road.
If you are one of His ‘little children’ and you know you have His Spirit dwelling in you then let me assure you today that you already know the way. You needn’t ever let your heart be troubled. If you’ve come to Jesus then you are on the road and nothing can lead you astray or send you back.
There is a place prepared and preserved for you forever where you will continue and never cease, and that place is sometimes called ‘Glory’; called thus because that is where the Glorious God is.
“For me, Lord Jesus, Thou hast died,
And I have died in Thee;
Thou’rt risen; my bonds are all untied,
And now Thou liv’st in me.
When purified, made white, and tried,
Thy Glory then for me!”
-L.S. Chafer
