Loved to Love Part 3 - The Dignity of Being Christ's Slave - John 13:18-20

0:40One of the things that's going on in the disciples' mind at this juncture is the issue of personal greatness. They've been talking about it on the way up to Jerusalem. They're even in the upper room where we are in John 13. They are talking about who's going to be the greatest. And their concept of personal greatness is seeing themselves elevated above their peers. That's the concept of greatness. That if they can be lifted up and served by others, that that is their understanding of greatness, which is very different than the way Jesus views greatness. And so, what you have in verses 2 through 11 is that Jesus Their Lord and their teacher washes their feet.

1:36He puts his love on display for them. And it's a love that acts for the well-being of someone else. It's a love that serves, is willing to take the position of humility to offer real needed service. It is his love that cleanses. It's a love that leads people in a right relationship with God. It's clean, it's pure, and its desire is communion. As he, Jesus told Peter, you know, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me. The idea is communion.

2:16What Jesus is pursuing is not that I want to be elevated so that you grovel at my feet, but I am coming as one who seeks communion with you. And yes, he is the great one. He is the Lord. He is the teacher, and he makes that very clear. And so, as being such, he wants them to understand that greatness isn't about elevating yourself among your peers. It's about bringing yourself down and serving, seeking communion. It's kind of the idea. And he is their master and teacher. That makes them slaves and students.

3:06And so, as he is relating to them as their Lord and teacher and referring to them, setting them in their place as slaves and as students, he promises that such kind of service, such kind of slavery to him, is the blessed way of life. He promised that there will be joy in such. And this is what verse 17 is about: joy, blessed are those, happy are those who do what I say. And then we pick up our text this morning in verse 18. He goes on to describe that not only is there joy in being Christ's slave, but there is dignity in Christ in being Christ's slave. And there is a dignity that transcends anything we could imagine in this passage this morning. And so that's what I want to talk to you about this morning: is the dignity that goes with being a slave of Christ. And I want you to understand this dignity so that you will never ever aspire to being anything else than Christ's slave. Let's read the text. Beginning in verse 17, Verse 18. I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen. But it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled. He who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me. From now on, I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me.

5:03So the dignity of being a slave of Christ, first of all, begins in verse 18, and we note that they are chosen. They are chosen. Look at verse 18. I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen. Now, as he says that, I do not speak of all of you. Look back at what is said in verse 13. You call me teacher and lord. And you are right, for so I am. But I do not speak of all of you. Not all of you, calling me teacher and Lord, at least to the capacity of the other 11. Look at verse 17. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. But I do not speak of all of you in verse 18. There is an exclusion here because there's one who is not clean, and one who is not going to do these, one who is not going to be blessed in the carrying out of these, because And Judas has no part with them.

6:06But what he goes on to say is, he says, I know the ones I have chosen. And then the idea of chosen is a personal selection. I have given thought. I have selected out of among others, I have chosen, and I know the ones I have chosen. Now he's speaking of all 12. He says, I know who I am. I know you all. I know you all better than yourself. I know you. You see, Jesus chose 12 of them, but not all of them would experience the joy and dignity of being a slave of Christ. Because one of them is going to experience the horror and shame of being a betrayer. But it's Jesus who had chosen him for this task. Now, it's important to understand that Judas is not a poor, helpless victim here. He is a person who is all too willing to play the role of the traitor. So you can't say, well, Jesus chose him, therefore, what this is saying is that Judas had no choice. He has no responsibility in this matter. No, it's kind of like this.

7:23He's all too willing to play the part. Shame on him. You know, if you have a need for a plumber or electrician in your house, what do you do? You pick up the phone, right? And if you call somebody, and if you want to pay their fee, they'll come and provide the service, right? And there's any number of individuals out there who would be willing to do that for a fee. Same is true with Judas. There were many people who could have and could have filled Judas' role because many people had the same heart disposition towards Judas, but, I mean, as Judas. So he's not innocent. He's guilty. The treachery is in his heart.

8:15But as Jesus makes it clear that even treachery has its place in the unfolding glory of God, Jesus is just as sovereign over the ungodly as the godly. And he's working all this to the glory of his name. You can understand that at the time of this writing, as John is writing, there's several things going on in the church. There's some arguments against Jesus being the Messiah, and a couple of the grounds were: look, his own people rejected him.

9:00Number two, one of his disciples rejected him. That's evidence that Jesus is not the Messiah. And so this is circulating around, going around, and the early church, they had to answer this. And so John is giving them a good apologetic, an explanation. And so Judas's defection and betrayal is not a testimony to the illegitimacy of Jesus' claim to Messiah, but it's a testimony to the veracity of Scripture. And that's what Jesus himself is going to state here in the next verse, or in this verse. Look back at verse 18. I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen. I know what's going on here. I know what's going on in your heart. But it is that the scriptures may be fulfilled. He who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me. He said, the scriptures must be fulfilled. Scriptures must have an ultimate expression of what this treachery looks like.

10:16So Judas's betrayal is not something that caught Jesus off guard. It was expected. Scripture expected it. It doesn't prove that. Jesus' mission had gone wrong because Scripture itself foresaw that Jesus would be attacked by an insider, that he would be betrayed and experience the pain of such betrayal. And so the road to the cross inevitably involved betrayal. That was all part of the road to the cross. And the scripture that Jesus quoted is found in Psalm 41. And I want to take a couple of moments, and I want to look at chapter 41 of Psalms. And I also want to take a couple of moments to give you a little bit of the historical background, which is going to come out of 2 Samuel. So we're going to spend a little time looking at the Old Testament. And I want to do this so that you will get a feel for the pain and sorrow that our Lord went through over Judas. It's there. The pain and the agony is written out for us, that we can vicariously, through David and what David went through, get a glimpse into what our Lord went through over the betrayal of Judas. And I believe that Jesus really loved Judas. Look at the emotion that's expressed in chapter in John 13. And I'll just read it, verse 21, right after Jesus had said this, he became troubled in spirit and testified, saying, Truly, truly, I say to you, that one of you will betray me.

12:13And so Jesus had to deal with this humanity proving unfaithful. And I think if you live any kind of time on this planet earth, you'll understand the betrayal of a friend, right? And well, Jesus did on a difficult level to grasp. And that's what I want to do. Take a few moments. The background for Psalm 41, at least many Jewish rabbis ascribe the background of Psalm 41 to the conspiracy of Absalom against his father David. And it fits. It certainly fits, maybe short of saying yes for sure, but I could say that it all fits. And certainly, as you're reading Psalm 1, the incident of Absalom should be on your mind because it gives you a window into what's going on in David's heart. And certainly at a time when he did experience a conspiracy against him and even called him. Cold-blooded betrayal. Because you see, what Absalom needed in order to overthrow the king, his father David, he needed counsel. He needed to take counsel from one of David's inner circle. He needed somebody close to David, one of David's closest friends and trusted friends. And he found him, Ahithophel. Probably heard him, Ahithophel. And to get an idea of just how much David trusted Ahithophel, listen to this. In 2 Samuel 16, verse 23, the advice of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as if one inquired of the word of God. So was all the advice of Ahithophel regarded by both David and Absalom. So there was complete trust. But listen, and Ahithophel's treachery involves the worst of its kind, certainly that you see in Scripture. And listen to Ahithophel's advice to Absalom in 1621 of 2 Samuel. Ahithophel said to Absalom, Go into your father's concubines, whom he has left to keep the house. Then all of Israel will hear that you have made yourself odious to your father. The hands of all who are with you will be strengthened. So they pitched. A tent for Absalom on the roof, and Absalom went into his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel. That was Ahithophel's advice. And then look at chapter 17, verse 1, right after he says this. Furthermore, Ahithophel said to Absalom, Please let me choose 12,000 men that I may arise and pursue David tonight. I will come upon him while he is weary and exhausted and terrify him, so that all the people who are with him will flee. Then I will strike down the king alone.

15:35This is a friend that sat at David's table. And so, with that as a background, a very likely background to Psalm 41, I want to walk through Psalm 41 very quickly and give you an idea of where the high point is in this Psalm and what David is going through. So here's David. I'll just read it in verse 41. I read it a minute ago. First of all, he speaks about the blessed state of the one who has compassion upon the helpless. Listen to this. How blessed is he who considers the helpless. Okay, so here's David talking about the one who's blessed is one who considers the helpless. This is what he says the Lord will do for him. The Lord will deliver him in a day of trouble, protect him, and keep him alive. He shall be called. Blessed upon the earth, and do not give him over to the desires of his enemies. The Lord will sustain him upon his sickness. In his illness, you restore him to health. So there's a blessedness on the one who considers the helpless. Now, certainly David sees himself as one who had considered the helpless. Maybe it was Shimmai. You remember him? Shimmai, who was cursing David, and he's good as dead, and David spared his life. But certainly, in the greater picture, there is no one who considers the helpless estate and looks upon the helpless more than our Lord Christ.

17:11But as you go through this, you start getting the idea that David is going into some deep, deep sorrow. And so then in the next few verses, verses 4 through 9, 4 through 10, or 4 through 9, he starts speaking about his helplessness. David's talking about the helplessness, the helpless situation that he finds himself in. First of all, in verse 4, David is helpless because of his own sin. He says, As for me, I said, O Lord, be gracious to me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you. So there you are, right there, helpless because of sin. And then he goes on in verse 5 through 8 and speaks about the helplessness because of his enemies. He says, My enemies speak evil against me. When will he die? And his name perish. That's what they're saying about me, about me. And when he comes to see me, my enemy, he speaks falsehood. His heart gathers wickedness to itself, and when he goes outside, he tells it. All who hate me whisper together against me. Against me, they devise my hurt, saying, A wicked thing, literally, a thing of Belial, is poured out upon him, that when he lies down, he will not rise up again. So help me, Lord. I am helpless because of my enemies. And then in verse 9, he says this: Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. So he's helpless because of his sin, because of his enemies. But then, this high point, or I should say, the low point of what's going on in David's heart is: even my trusted friend, this is my low point of despair, has raised up his heel against me.

19:11You know, talk about a wedding day gone bad. This is about one of the top that I've heard of, that I've known, personally knew the people involved. But wedding day comes. The young bride goes out to take care of a horse. Of course, you know, that only would happen in Texas, right? Wedding day, got to go take care of the horse. She goes out to take care of the horse, and the horse is a little agitated that day. I guess didn't want her getting married to this guy. I don't know what it was, but he was upset, knew he was being supplanted, or whatever. I don't know what, but he was a little agitated that day, so she was taking care of him, lent down to take care of one of his hind legs, and the horse lifted up his heel. And just as she looked up, she saw that heel cocked and ready to go. And sure enough, pow, right in the kisser.

20:13Probably knocked her out, knocked out all her front teeth, and broke a lot of the teeth, what didn't fully knock out, broke off a bunch. So her teeth were all a bunch of jagged edges, what was left. Her mouth was, of course, very swollen, bleeding. And she comes back in the house to finish planning the day for her wedding. Now, the good news of this, it does have a happy ending in the sense that they did get married that day. The wedding went on as planned. And last I heard, they were living happily ever after. But the idea of a heel being raised against someone, that's the picture here. That's the picture.

21:01Of someone who's raised their heel. In fact, you see this even in many Arab cultures today, if you show your heel at a person, it can be interpreted as offensive, like as a hostile act. And so you have this situation that David experienced, where he's looking at his trusted friend who has lifted up his heel against him to do him in, to crush him, to injure him. And this is somebody who was his trusted friend. And I want to make sure we understand this. This is unnatural. It is unnatural. I mean, there's fallen humanity, but then there's even that which is unnatural to fallen humanity. And betraying a friend like this is unnatural. I mean, there's thieves among honor, right? Even thieves, even murderers expect loyalty, right? Some level of, this is a breach. You just don't betray someone like that. There's something fundamentally wrong with that. And so that's what is going on. It is a very despicable.

22:30Action. And so the psalmist ends his psalmist, David, and says, But Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up, that I may repay them. By this I know that you are pleased with me, because my enemy does not shout in triumph over me. In other words, the enemy is not going to get the last word. As for you, you hold me in my integrity, and you set me in your presence forever. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. And certainly, certainly, you get the sense that Jesus experienced somewhat of the same. Jesus himself refers to this verse: Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. And he's saying to his disciples, Look, not all of you, not all of you. Go back to John 13, verse 18, not all of you. I know who I have chosen, but it is that scripture may be fulfilled: he who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me.

23:44But David's confidence at the end of the Psalm 41 is that neither the enemies nor the betrayer is going to triumph. And obviously, these thoughts would have certainly been alive. In Jesus' mind, he understood this psalm. But what the point of all this, when you come back to John 13, 18, is that Jesus was in control of the situation. Scripture was telling the events ahead of time. The disciples were about to get run over. Their visions of grandeur, their visions of greatness was about to just get plowed over. They were going to get run over. They were going to lose confidence in themselves, lose confidence in Christ, lose confidence in each other. You know, there is real pain when someone betrays the brotherhood, right? The trust. Many of us have experienced that when we see a pastor that we love or somebody that we are very familiar with in ministry that falls, right? That falls or abandons the faith. That can be discouraging to those left behind, right?

25:07A couple of weeks ago, I don't know if I told you this or not, but I was in a convenience store and there was a Texas pastor that was worth $7 million. And I can't really remember the name off the top of my head, but you just do any kind of research, you'll find him. And it was all on the front page about how all this had come out. Guy is worth $700 million. And the store cashier holds up the front page of the paper and he says, look at this. This has set Christianity back 20 years.

25:45Did I tell you this? Okay. And my response is, no, no, no, you know, this only proves the veracity of Scripture. It doesn't set Christianity back. Scripture tells us that there are going to be so many so-called preachers, so many charlatans dancing around, taking the way of Balaam, and being very good at it with hearts trained in greed. This doesn't set Christianity back at all. This has been this way since the church began. Hearts trained in greed.

26:24And so what Jesus is doing here is he's affirming the chosen status of the 11, and he is giving them a way to deal with the alarm over Judas's defection. Judas's defection was inside of God's plan, not outside it. And Judas is fully responsible for his sin. And yet God can use sin to bring glory to his name by the way he deals with it. So it should not undermine their confidence in him or in scripture, but strengthen it. This great defection, and what Jesus is doing is wanting to undergird their confidence in Scripture. This should not take away your confidence that there are apostates, there are those who bring shame upon the name of Christ. That should not shake our confidence at all, but strengthen it because the scripture says it's going to happen.

27:34So, what Jesus is basically saying is, I know all 12 of you, I know you very well, and one of you, only one of you, is going to betray me. You have been selected. I know who I've chosen. And that's the dignity of being Christ's slave, is that Christ personally has chosen. He has selected, he has singled out from among others. And so, the first dignity of being a Christ's slave is that we are chosen, chosen by him.

28:21Second dignity of being Christ's slave is who has chosen us. Are chosen by I am. We are chosen by the I am himself. Look at verse 19. From now on, I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he. So Jesus makes this prediction, and he's making the prediction in order to accomplish something. He wanted them to know that he could predict the future. Why? Well, look back at the text. so that they would believe him. So that they would believe him in all other matters that he spoke about. He predicted something so that they would accept him as a true prophet and accept what else he has to say. And this is what Moses said would happen, that God would raise up a prophet like himself. And there's been much comparison in John already between Jesus and Moses. In Deuteronomy 18, 15, the Lord said, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your countrymen. You shall listen to him. Again, I will raise up a prophet, verse 18, from among their countrymen, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I commanded him. And he goes on to say that, and then he gives them a test to how to determine if a prophet is from the Lord or if he's. From the earth. When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken presumptuously. So the test between presumptuous prophets and the true prophets is going to be: do they speak? And when they speak, does what they say come true? And if it comes true, listen to what they have to say. And certainly that's true about the prophets in general, but certainly about the one prophet, like Moses, speaking of Christ. And so he tells them in advance: I'm going to tell you this ahead of time, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am.

30:46There is no he in the Greek here. You see that italicized in your text. But you may believe that I am he, but it's literally that you may believe I am. And so, what Jesus wants him to believe, he wants them to believe that he is I am, the I am, that great name that speaks of the continual existence of God, that ongoing existence that never changes. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, does not change.

31:31And so, what the Jews rejected, Jesus wants to make sure his disciples get. We need to make sure we understand this. Remember in John 5:17, 5:18, for this reason, therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because he was not only breaking the Sabbath, but he was calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God. Remember in John 8:58, truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Therefore, they picked up stones to throw them at him.

32:0710, 30, I and the Father and one. The Jews picked up stones again to kill, to stone him. And then a little bit later in John 14, 9, he's going to say, Philip, he who has seen me has seen the Father. So Jesus didn't want his disciples to miss who he was. He is the I am. In fact, the revelation of God's name, giving himself the name I am, happens in Exodus 3. And you remember the account. Moses gets drawn in to see the burning bush, and he gets called by God to come and says, Go, I've seen my people in Israel. I want you to go to them, and I want you to deliver them. He says, but if I go to them, who should I say sent me?

32:59What Is his name? What shall I say to them? And then God said in 3.14 of Exodus, I am who I am. And he said, Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you. So just as the I am spoke to Moses and commissioned him to accomplish a task, so Jesus wanted his disciples to know that the I am, the same I am, had chosen them as well. I mean, if you got a call right now from the President of the United States, you would be honored. Even if you're really, I'm not sure you really think a whole lot about him personally, you would certainly be honored by the office giving you a call, right?

33:53And would you just, no, no, I'm going to take that call later, right? No, you'd be honored. Well, the same is true here. If the I am has chosen you to be his slave, what a dignity there is in that. And so here's Jesus in the upper room claiming this title as for himself. I am. So the dignity of the slave is seen in that they are chosen by the I am. And third, to represent him. They're chosen by the highest for the highest task, and that is to represent him. Look at verse 20. Truly remarkable words. Verse 20: Truly, truly I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. Do you see the link here? The Father since Jesus, Jesus sends his slaves, and the three are an unbreakable union. To receive one is to receive the other. Do you see that?

35:17And so, and think about as you go through the Gospel of John, there is a dignity that Jesus ascribes to himself throughout. And what is that dignity? To see Jesus is to see the Father. Remember in John 12:44, he stands up and he cries and he says, He who believes in me does not believe in me, but in him who sent me. He who sees me sees the one who sent me. And as you go on through John, I don't have time to take you to all of the verses, but it's the dignity that Jesus ascribed to himself is that the one who sent him, or to receive him, is to receive the sentence of him. One who sent him. To see Jesus was to see the Father. To receive Jesus' words was to receive the Father's words. To believe Jesus was to believe the Father. To honor Jesus was to honor the Father. To love Jesus was to love the Father. You see, the dignity that Jesus ascribed to himself.

36:20But then look at this dignity he gives to his slaves. You see, the apostles are his ambassadors. And in the person of the ambassador, guess what? The one who sent him is either received or rejected. Incredible dignity. I remember Billy Graham's funeral and the testimony of an individual that came out during that time, chief of staff. You may remember him, Carl Rove. I remember his testimony speaking about that day of 9-11. They had grounded all of the air flights around New York and everywhere, and no one was allowed to be in the air. And as he talked about that day, dealing with the aftermath of 9-11, he said, one person was given flight permission, and that was Billy Graham. And he said, and so. The sky was clear, and here comes a helicopter carrying Billy Graham into the site. And as he related the story, tears filled his eyes. He said, It was as if I knew God was still here.

37:49Billy Graham, what can he do? Right? I mean, he can't even carry a shovel, probably by that age. Can't do a whole lot, right? But in the chief of staff's mind, he was an indication of the presence of God. What a dignity to be put upon humanity, right? You see, to receive the messenger, to receive the slave, to receive the apostle is to receive the sender. A supreme dignity of being a slave is found right here. Look at what Jesus said in verse 14: If I, then, the Lord and teacher, wash your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. Don't think too highly of yourselves, young men. And then he says in verse 16, Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.

38:55Stop this pursuit of worldly greatness. And by his action of washing their feet, it's like he shames them. Don't think of yourself like this. But then, on the other hand, he gives them this view of their dignity that is beyond comprehension. If I stood up here today and said, or let me say this, if Matt got up here today and said, listen, to receive my words is to receive the Christ who sent me, and to receive the Christ who sent me, sent him is to receive the Father who sent me. There's a direct parallel to the words I am communicating to the, and how you relate to them is how you relate to the Father. If Matt came up here and said that, we'd all probably say, wait a second, who do you think you are?

40:06And yet, look at the dignity Christ gives his slaves. I love Morris's quote here. The disciples are warned not to have too high of an opinion of themselves, nor stand on their dignity. To serve Jesus is to take the way of the cross, and it necessarily leads people into lowly paths, but it is not to be lightly esteemed. It has a high and holy dignity. You see, those who are sent by Christ are brought close to God by necessity because they become His ambassadors.

41:03Never underestimate the dignity that Christ has bestowed upon us as His slaves. We are not to pursue things, greatness, as the world pursues greatness, but we are to pursue things to be great in His eyes. And the way we are great in His eyes is to do exactly what He shows us right here: to love as we have been loved. Well, our time's about out. But I wanted you to see this morning the dignity that goes with being a slave of Christ so that you will never aspire to be anything else. It is the highest office. It is the highest place, even though it is the lowest place. Strange. It's because His kingdom is very different from ours.

42:01The dignity of being a slave of Christ is seen in the fact that they are chosen by I am to represent him. And what is the task? I can only start to get into this today, but what is the task that Christ envisioned for his apostles? As you go on, it's going to be the gospel to the nations for sure. But we haven't left the context right now of loving one another, have we? Let me tell you, this is his call. This is his commission. This is what he envisions for you. This is why he has chosen you. The I am has chosen you, and he has chosen you to represent him. And where, first and foremost, is he expecting you to represent him in the church.

43:03To love one another as he has loved you. That's your call in life. To love each other, those in this room. And if you're part of another church, those in that body. You see, we're called, we want to pursue greatness. And we've got to be very careful that we don't start pursuing a worldly. Kind of greatness. He makes it very simple. We just don't like to walk in it. And how do we walk into it? We have to understand that we have been loved like this so that we can love like this. He called them and he calls us to love each other.

43:48And we can do so because he has loved us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, what a dignity that we can't even begin to fathom that to love one another as you have called us, as you have loved us, is the paradigm of life that you've given to your people. And out of this, people are going to know who your true disciples are. Father, forgive us for the many pursuits of greatness that we have imagined in our own minds and our own sinful hearts. Father, help us to go low. Help us to follow your example here. Help us to realize the degree to which we are loved. And help us then to turn and get out of ourselves and love others with that same kind of love, knowing that there is joy in such service and there is a dignity beyond comparison to be a representative of you, to our neighbors, to those in this body. Help us not to take lightly these words, but let them be the new paradigm by which we follow, Father, that we might truly prove to be your disciples.

45:15Thank you.