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There are 2 weeks before the greatest event in the Christian calendar—Resurrection Day (Easter).
Next Sunday is what we call Palm Sunday, and I understand the children are going to have something special for us.
Then we begin the final week of Jesus’ life leading up to Good Friday, which is when we celebrate the crucifixion of Jesus.
Traditionally, this is a time when we begin to focus on the cross and the last days of Christ on this earth.
For the next 2 weeks I’d like to look at the end of Jesus’ earthly life through the words He spoke to His disciples at what we call the Last Supper.
I call this passage Jesus’ Farewell Discourse or Farewell Address.
When a man knows he is going to die, he is often asked if he has any last words.
What kind of words are those that he chooses to speak?
Does he talk about the weather or who is going to win the next Super Bowl? No, usually they are words about the ones he loves or is closest to.
He wants to leave them with a message to remember him by.
This is not a time for trivialities, but a time to discuss the most important things that are on your heart.
It is a time when things that had gone unsaid, are said.
It is a time for seriousness and lasting thoughts.
When Jesus came to what we call the Last Supper it was to celebrate the feast of the Passover (Luke 22:8).
In Luke 22:15, we find that Jesus says, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”
Jesus had celebrated the feast of Passover before with His disciples because this was an annual feast that all good Jews would celebrate.
So what made this Passover different?
It was because He knew this would be His last time together with them on the earth.
So as we look at what Jesus says at this Last Supper, we must understand that He is not talking about trivial things.
To Jesus these were the most important words He could speak to the 11 men (Judas Iscariot leaves before He begins) who were His most trusted followers and who would be the beginning of the church in the days ahead.
They are also most important to us, because this is what Jesus wanted His disciples (not only the 11 but those of us who would come in the future) to know and remember Him by.
John’s gospel gives us the words that Jesus spoke.
The other gospels simply tell us that they had communion, sang a hymn, and went to Mt Olives.
But John records for us these very important last words of Jesus.
This Farewell Discourse starts in John 13:31 and goes through the end of John 16.
That is a long passage of scripture, so let’s get an overview of it:
13:31-38 He tells them that He must leave them and Peter misunderstands and declares His undying loyalty to Jesus—Jesus reveals that Peter will deny Him 3 times before the rooster crows
14:1-31 Jesus addresses their concerns about His leaving and promises that the Holy Spirit will come to be their Comforter
15:1-11 Jesus gives them an example of union with Him through the vine and the branches
15:12-27 Jesus talks about their relationship to each other and the world—love
16: 1-4 Jesus warns them about persecution that is coming
16:5-15 Jesus talks more about the Holy Spirit who is coming to be their Comforter
16:16-33 Jesus tells them about His death and resurrection and promises that they will not be alone but have the ability to ask of the Father directly
Now that is a lot to say, but it can be boiled down to 2 major themes interwoven into one thought.
1.
Love “Keep My Commandments”
2. Comforter (Holy Spirit)
Jesus told them that He was leaving them.
John 13:33 (NIV) “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.
Then He says I have a new commandment for you that I want you to learn and do.
John 13:34-35 (NIV) “A new command I give you: *Love one another*.
As I have loved you, so you must *love one another*.
35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you *love one another.*”
The very first theme He discusses is that we *love one another*.
How important it is that as disciples of Christ we love each other.
A commandment is “an order from God about which we have no choice.”
He did not say, “if you like each other, love each other.”
No, He said, God orders you to love one another.
He says that our witness to the world that we are Christ-followers (that’s what the word Christian literally means) is that we *love one another*.
For today, let’s just look at this one theme (commandment)—that we *love one another*.
How many problems in the church and the world would be solved if we simply followed this one commandment of the Lord.
Now going to vs. 36-37 good old Peter gets upset because Jesus says He is leaving them.
Remember Peter was part of the inner circle with James & John and He had grown very close to Jesus.
Why, Peter even thinks he understands Jesus so well that he says to Jesus “everyone else will run, but I’ll die for you—that’s the kind of love you have taught us and I have it.”
Peter did understand the kind of love Jesus was talking about in his head, but He did not truly understand it in his heart.
Jesus corrects Peter and tells him that before the rooster crows, he will deny Jesus 3 times.
By the way, after the resurrection, Jesus goes to Peter and restores him (John 21:15-18)—that is love in action.
Jesus called this a “new” commandment.
Yet, prior to this He stated that there are only 2 commandments:
Matt 22:37-40 (NIV) “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
He is not contradicting Himself, but telling them that *LOVE* (of God and each other) fulfills all the commandments of God.
By the word “new,” He is not talking about something that never existed (time), rather something that is fresh in terms of quality.
This is what we call the “agape” kind of love—the God kind of love.
It is a new kind of love in the sense that it had never been seen before by man that God would be willing to die for sinful creatures such as us.
In ch.
14:15 He says that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments.
Look at 14:21, 23-24 (NIV)
Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me.
He who loves Me will be *loved by My Father*, and *I too will love him* and show Myself to him.”
23 . . .
“If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching.
*My Father will love him*, and *We will come to him and make Our home with him*.
24 He who does not love Me will not obey My teaching.
These words you hear are not My own; they belong to the Father who sent Me.
Jesus says that if we keep His Word, The Father will love us and God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) will come and live with us.
To the disciples, this must have been a shocking statement.
They knew that sinful men could not approach a holy God without fear of being destroyed because of the sinful nature they had.
Yet, Jesus is telling them that God wants to come and live among them.
This helps us to understand better what our salvation really means.
We are blessed as God’s children to be able to boldly approach the throne of grace and receive grace and mercy in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16).
The greatest blessing that we can have is for the Holy Living God to come and dwell among us.
Do we want God’s blessing upon our life?
Then we must obey His Word.
He says very plainly in vs. 24 that if we do not obey His word, we do not love Him.
What is the test of our love for God according to Jesus?
It is that we keep His commands, and obey His Word.
How can we keep His commands if we don’t know what they are?
How can we obey the Word of God if we do not read or study it daily—feeding upon it for our very nourishment?
We have been blessed with the Word of God to lead and guide us in the situations we face in life.
Yet, so many times we don’t turn to it when times get hard.
We seek wisdom from others before we turn to the Word of God.
If we do not read and obey the Word of God can we truly say we love God?
In ch 15:1-11 Jesus uses the example of the vine and the branches to illustrate the oneness that exists between Him and His followers.
We have looked at this passage before, but in the context of this message, notice that it is the love of Jesus that flows through Him, like the sap, into the branches (us—His disciples).
He has not laid down a commandment that is too hard for them (or us) to keep.
He is telling them and us that it is not hard for us to *love one another* when we stay vitally connected to Him.
But when we separate ourselves from Him and His Word, it is to our own harm.
We are worthless and must be gathered up like dead branches and burned.
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