Chapter 13 Verses 31 – 32

• It is intriguing to me that Jesus would make this statement now.  At His baptism, the dove descended and God spoke from heaven saying “this is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  Yet Jesus does not point to that as the moment of His glorification.
• At the mount of transfiguration when Jesus shined with unapproachable light and God again spoke from heaven saying, “this is My beloved Son, hear Him.”  Yet again, Jesus does not point to that as the moment of His glory.  He chooses this moment to speak these words…when the deepest shame lay before Him, the most severe suffering, the most grotesque accusations, insults, agony, lonliness…How is it now that in these circumstances Jesus would say, “Now is the Son of Man glorified?”
• Understand that at the cross of Calvary, Jesus performed the greatest work that the whole history of the entire universe ever witnessed, or ever will witness.  For it generations waited…and to it generations look back.  Why?  Because there, through what Jesus accomplished, was the utter reversal of sin > the overturning of the conduct of the first man.  The first Adam failed.  He was disobedient unto death.  The last Adam did not fail and He was obedient unto death, even death on the cross.  Ok pocket that just for a moment…
• Because I want you to also understand that the glory of man is to glorify God.  Man has no glory in and of himself…the only glory man has at all…ever…is to reflect the radiance of the Creator…to glorify God.  And never was God more glorified than when His own Son laid down His life in obedience, submission, trust and love for His Father.  And also, never was mankind so glorified as when the Son of Man so vehemently glorified God the Father!
• So the greatest work and the greatest glory intersect at the cross!  And so as painful as the cross, as absolutely and unequivocally disastrous as His immediate future, this is indeed the moment of greatest glory…in that through His suffering, God’s will is ultimately accomplished! 
• Man we so often miss the opportunity to bring glory to the Father!  We face trials and we enter into hard times and we groan against God and we groan against others.  Yet all the while God has promised that His thoughts towards us are thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give us a future and a hope…and we don’t trust Him.  We shake our fists and demand a purpose and a sign showing truly how void of faith we are…we lose love and kindness towards others because we are circumstantial friends and really just using others for our own pleasure.  And in all of that, the enemy and his minions mock the Father.  The Father of love, the Father of order, the Father of glory! 
• Not Jesus.  Jesus secured for God and for Himself eternal, immesurable glory and victory through what?  Through selflessness!  At the cross He would accomplish what none other in all the realm of creation could do…bring us back to Dad who longs for us and loves us so so much!  And without shaking His fist or indifference towards His friends.  How easy to look upon even His disciples and say “it is because of you sinful man that I must suffer!”  No, by His actions He says something very different.  He looked up His disciples, His friends, His family, even His most treacherous enemies and said, “it is because of My love and My Father’s desperate love for you sinful man, that I willfully and readily and immediately embrace this suffering.” 
• The price…He paid cheerfully.  He was led, not driven to the cross.  Led by His broken heart…led by our need…led by His weeping Father.  He endured to the end and did not allow His life to slip from His flesh until offended justice and a broken righteous law was fully satisfied.
• And so the glorification of Jesus the Savior…not in the raising of the dead, not in the healing of the lame, not in the miracles and wonders, not in the Father’s audible affirmation…but at the alter of our salvation…at the temple of our restored eternal family…in that He defeated death and sin and out of supreme love escorted mankind back into fellowship with our Creator and Father!
• But also, Jesus mentions here that God is glorified in Him!  Why?  What does He mean by that?  Well understand that at the cross and what was accomplished by Jesus there…every attribute of God was magnified!
• The power of God was exceedingly glorified at the cross.  There the kings of the earth did their worst against God and against His Christ.  There the hopelessly wicked carnal mind and sinfulness of the human heart did their worst.  There the fiendish evil of Satan was put forth to its full extent…yet none were able to take the life of the Savior…as it was Jesus who gave up the ghost and breathed His last.  It was Jesus who had the power to lay down His life and later take it up again.  After man and Satan had done their worst, the Lord Jesus remained complete Master.  There is no match for God…He is utterly higher than all other principality or power.  His power was exceedingly glorified at the cross.
• The justice of God was exceedingly glorified at the cross.  2 Thessalonians 1:6 says that “God is just” and in that, sin is condemned.  Sin cannot be simply looked over or allowed by a just God.  A sentence must be dealt.  <> Look, if you were to go to court after being rear ended in traffic and your car destroyed and you don’t have the means to replace or repair your car, and the judge looked down at the person that hit you and said, “you know what, just go on your way, case dismissed…” that judge would be what?  A bad judge!  Why?  Because justice was not served you see.  A just judge, a good judge administers justice…a just judge declares both the innocent and the guilty based on truth and when the Lord Jesus took upon Himself our sentence, paid the price for our sins, justice was eternally enforced. 
• And so how does that glorify God, Matt?  Well check this out…two roads…two just options…one…all men from all time, all in hell, for all time…OR…one Man, perfect and sinless, accepting the entire sentence of the entirety of mankind.  You see God was more illustriously glorified by the propitiation which was made by the Lord Jesus than if every member of the human race were to suffer in Hell forever. 
• What’s more is that the holiness of God was exceedingly glorified at the cross!  Check this out, Habakkuk 1:13 says that “God is of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on wickedness” and so when Jesus was “made a curse for us” (Gal 3:13) the Father turned His head.  And Jesus cried out in utter agony “Why Father have You forsaken Me?”  You see God is so utterly holy that no sacrifice offering, no act of obedience, no goodness of man could ever honor God’s absolute perfection in holiness.  Yet at the cross of Calvary every demand of God’s holiness was fully met and therefore we glimpse its measure.  How glorious!
• Notice still, the faithfulness of God was exceedingly glorified at the Cross.  God had made it known very clearly through His Word that His Son, the Savior, would be led as a lamb to the slaughter, that His hands and feet would be pierced, that He would be numbered with the transgressors, that He would be wounded for our transgressions…and that He would rescue us!  At the Cross, with the highest price ever paid, God displayed His glorious faithfulness!
• Finally, the love of God was exceedingly glorified at the Cross.  John 3:16 says that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.”  You know, the brightness of the sun is always the same but it shines the brightest at noon.  The Cross of Jesus was the noontide of everlasting and unstoppable love!  You ever wonder how much God loves you, consider the cross.
• So God…exceedingly glorified at the Cross.  His power, His justice, His holiness, His Faithfulness, and His love…

Chapter 13 Verse 33 - 35

• It’s interesting that here is the only instance that John records where we see Jesus use this intimate and Fatherly term for His disciples as He calls them little children.  And notice that Judas has already gone out.
• This apparently has a HUGE impact upon John.  Only 9 times does this term “Teknion” or “Little Children” appear in the New Testament.  Once in John by Jesus, once in Galatians (4:19) by Paul, and then 7 times by John himself in 1 John.  John found something on this day…He found his place…his home…he found utter refuge and life quaking truth in that God called him His little one…and that is what Jesus meant, that is what Jesus was after when He said to them that day with that kiddo on His lap, “unless you become as this little one, you will by no means enter into the Kingdom.”  For when we realize that we are as lost without Him as our little ones are without us…we stick close…and love, security, and acceptance fills us completely!  And we’re free!  Free to what?  Love….
• And so Jesus introduces a new commandment…a new concept to His disciples…love each other as Jesus has loved them.  Unconditionally…not based upon quid pro quo or business or gain…but simply love them because they are His.  Love because that is now your very nature…and so by that unconditional love, that radical love which is always VERY noticeable, all will know that you are a disciple of Jesus…a true disciple!  We shouldn’t need people to ask for forgiveness…we shouldn’t need people to rub us the right way…we shouldn’t need people to always do right by us…if we are disciples of Jesus, we will love ‘em anyway.
• Our love is a sign to others but I want you to see that it also becomes a sign even to us.  John would later write in 1 John 3:18, “little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.  And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him.”  We will surge with strength having living proof of our inheritance in heaven!!!  And so all will know, including ourselves, all will know that we are true disciples of Jesus by our love!

Chapter 13 Verses 36 – 37

• I don’t doubt at all that Peter was sincere here…his problem was not that he loved the Lord with all of his strength…the problem was his strength…he didn’t have any yet.  But he will.  Later, the Holy Spirit will come upon him and he will preach boldly and he will indeed follow Jesus unto his death…but without the power of the Holy Spirit…well, he has quite a few failures yet to endure…
• And what’s more here…Peter doesn’t yet know himself.  It appears to me that he is for real with Jesus here, Jesus doesn’t rebuke him…he’s going to educate him.  And you know what?  We don’t know ourselves either until we are put to the test.  “Oh Lord I will lay down my life for Your sake!” and Jesus would say, “yes, I know that is your hearts desire…and through testing, revelation, failure and submission…you’ll get there!
• You want to be on fire?  You want to be bold and powerful and effective?  Then understand the tests and the trials are not provided so that you will have something to complain about…but rather they are allowed by the Father to bring you fullness of joy and to continue to add to your faith!  Turn with me over to 2 Peter chapter 1 and look at verses 1 – 7.  (by the way, what’s the destination…love!!)  Look over at Romans 5: 1 – 5…you see it is through trials that we learn…it is through failures, lessons, truth and then triumph that we begin to see clearly…that love is the most excellent way and that truly the power to overcome is found in simple submission to the Lord!
• What do you mean submission, Matt?  Well, just like Peter, we are so apt to think most highly of ourselves…of our love, of our wisdom, of our moral courage, and really every other good quality…and we least know and judge ourselves.  Just as we see here in Peter; impatient of the instructions already given by the Lord breaks out in self confidence, “Lord Why?  I will do as I desire!” And therefore Peter must learn, as we also, by painful experience, what he might have understood even better by subjection of heart, in faith, to the Lord’s words.

Chapter 13 Verse 38

• Jesus knows it even before it happens.  To the detail.  Not just that Peter would be tested and that he would fail and that he would grow but specifically, exactly how he would fail.  Why?  Because God is omniscient.  He already knows every test you will face and He already sees and knows every way that you will fall short…and that gives us a glimpse of just how much He loves us. That even while knowing all this…today, this minute, He desires to fellowship with you.  To hold you…to protect you…to fill you with joy and life…
• He knew that that very night Peter would not lay down his life for Him but rather he’d try to save his own…by a cowardly denial.  And yet here we see the Lord wash his feet, love him, call him His little one…you see He loved Peter to the uttermost and even after His resurrection He seeks Peter out in order to restore him.  Such love passes knowledge. 
• This love passes offense, leaves fear in the dust and casts self down to the ground!  THIS is the very love that marks the disciple of Him that authored it there on the cross of Calvary!