It was along a sandy beach on a destitute river that a man named John was baptizing. People were coming unto him and he was hearing their confession. It was a baptism of repentance. He was sent to prepare the way for the one who would come. And one day he saw him coming. And John lifted up his voice to the gathered crowd, and he said to them, behold the Lamb. Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And now it begins to be that time when this lamb lays down his life. And it tells us in John chapter 13, now it was before the feast of the Passover. You know about the Passover. We've studied it before. We'll talk about it a little bit this morning. We read about it in Scripture today in Exodus chapter 12. It commemorated the time when the children of Israel were in servitude in Egypt. And there in bondage, they had labored. And they cried out and they were groaning before the Lord until the Lord sent them a deliverer. And his name was Moses. And when he came, what came with him were ten plagues upon a rebellious people and a hard-hearted Pharaoh. And it all came to a culmination. God striking down the firstborn in land But God made a way of salvation And he said to the people of Israel I want you to go and I want you to find a lamb and it needs to be without spot and it needs to be blemished without blemish and you need to examine it for days in advance and Then a twilight I want you to take that lamb and I want you to kill it I want you heads of the household to take your knife, and I want you to slit its throat. And I want you to catch its blood in a basin, because there's no atonement without shedding a blood. And I want you to catch that blood, and I want you to take it to the doorpost of your home. And on either side, on the jams, I want you to strike it there with a little bit of a branch of what was called hyssop, maybe like we would think of sagebrush in Wyoming. And I want you to smear some blood on the jams and on the lintel. And then that night, when the destroyer comes through the land, when the destroyer sees the blood, will pass over you and so it is before the feast of the Passover and we'll talk about that phrase here in just a minute and I want you to notice what it says about this when Jesus knew his hour had come to depart out of the world. Now, he knows how he's going to depart out of the world. He's not going to be like Enoch, who just gets transported up to glory. He's not going to be like Elijah, who goes to the Father's house in a chariot of fire. He's going to depart in blood and tears, hanging on a cross. He knows that his hour has come to depart out of the world and to return to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the very end. And during supper, when the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him, once again, emphasis on Jesus' knowledge, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, Jesus knowing He had come from God and He was going back to God, in full possession of that knowledge, He got up from supper, He laid aside His outer garments, He took a towel, He tied it around His waist, He poured water into a basin. He began to wash the disciples. Let's pray. Lord, as we come before your Word today, we pray that you would show us Jesus. That we would be reminded today that the very one whom the angels praised. And as we have already studied, and how it says in Isaiah chapter 6, that when Isaiah saw you high and lifted up, and your glory filling the temple, he was speaking of Jesus. That when the angels were crying out, holy, holy, holy, they were speaking and praising Jesus. and that that very person laid aside all that glory, came to earth, humbled himself and became a man, humbled himself further to serve us, to live a lowly life, and then humbled himself further by the death of the cross, and now He is exalted. Your right hand. Bless us as we reflect and as we study today in Jesus' name. Amen. How do people under the sentence of death spend their last night? Haven't been there. Might have been in some hospital beds awaiting procedures and you maybe have too. Maybe there was a night in a hospital bed for you and you knew that the next day you had triple bypass or some other thing going on in your physical body that was outside of your control and the doctors were scared of and you didn't know but that perhaps it was your last night. Maybe you served in the armed forces and you knew that the next morning there was going to come an H-hour. You were going to storm a beach or you were going to step off a helicopter or you were going to jump out of a plane and you didn't know what you'd face. But you knew that perhaps it would be death. How do people facing death spend their last night? Nervous tension, obviously. I would imagine food is pretty difficult, probably sits pretty unrestful on your desk. Maybe writing some letters. Maybe sitting reflectively and looking at some pictures. Maybe playing a game just to pass the time. Maybe flipping on the TV, but mindlessly watching. But those hours of contemplation are torturous. How did Jesus spend his last night? Isn't that interesting? How did Jesus, knowing in full possession of what was going to happen the next day, spend his night? What did he do? Having loved his own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. I want to focus on that this morning as we think about it. And what I want to do today is kind of lay out a framework for our study over the next several months. It's going to take us a couple of months to get through the next several chapters. What we have unfolding, beginning at this message and going forward, is teaching in the scripture that is unique to the gospel of John. None of the other gospel writers include it. It's called the upper room discourse. It begins with Jesus taking off his outer garments, wrapping a towel around his waist, pouring water in a basin, washing the feet of disciples, having interaction with Peter, Peter says, not my feet. And what does Jesus say to Peter? Okay, I get it. You're a proud man. You don't want me to invade your bubble. Whatever. What does Jesus say? Peter, if I don't do it, you don't have any part with me. That's instructive. There are some lessons here that are important for us. Jesus is telling Peter, hey dude, just because I chose you does not mean you get a pass on sin. You need to be cleansed. And Jesus teaches them about cleansing in that washing. Unless I wash you, you have no part in me. Talks about Judas. Can you imagine that moment for Jesus? Stooping before the man He knew Satan had put in that man's heart to betray him. And Jesus takes that man's feet and he washes them. Looks him in the eye. Can you imagine? And then from that, Jesus teaches. We're gonna just lay out some ideas this morning that will set kind of a framework a general skeleton for where we're going to go. And I want us to think about some things. Now, what I want you to notice, first of all, today, is there is a phrase here in the text that kind of introduces it all and helps us think about where we're going. It says, it is before the Passover. Now, we talked briefly about the Passover. And I'm not going to take a lot of time this morning to go back into the Old Testament to the book of Exodus and chapter 12 to lay out how God instituted the Passover. But in the Passover, there was a remembrance annually of the children of Israel coming out of bondage. It becomes a beautiful picture for the New Testament church of our coming out of bondage because of the slaying of our lamb, Jesus Christ, his death, our forgiveness, our state of slavery being eradicated, and we are set free in Jesus. There are two parts to the celebration of Passover. It begins on the 14th of Nisan, first month of the year in the Jewish calendar, and there is a day that is called Passover. And then it stretches for seven days in this feast, all-inclusive, and it is called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We'll talk about that in just a minute. In Mark chapter 14 and verse 12, and we're gonna go through some other scriptures here that bears this out. It says of what's happening on this night that we're reading in John 13. It was on the first day of unleavened bread. Now you know what unleavened bread is. It is bread without what? Leaven or yeast. Leaven in the scripture In this relationship is a picture of sin and its permeability and its growth. And so in the book of Galatians, Paul says, don't you know that a little bit of leaven does what? Leavens the whole lump. And so what happens is, ladies, you put a little bit of yeast in your lump of dough, what happens? It invades the entire thing. And so in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, there was this process that the nation went through where they would eradicate in picture form, for example, as a type, they would eradicate all the leaven from their home. Now, they didn't go to Walmart and buy yeast, right? They didn't order it on Amazon. So their kind of way of baking and their kind of yeast is more along the lines of maybe what we think of as like a sourdough starter, that type of thing. So they eradicated from their homes and for seven days they would eat unleavened bread. So it says it is on the first day of unleavened bread when they sacrificed the Passover lamb His disciples said to Jesus, they've come back into Jerusalem, where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover? So Mark chapter 14 is telling us that in the upper room, Jesus is eating what supper? What meal is he eating? You want to answer that? Is it just any old meal? It's what meal? The Passover. So Jesus is eating the Passover. So this is Thursday night. Now remember, all this gets really confusing because the way the Jews figured their days began at evening, not at morning. The way we, you know, when you get up in the morning, you think it's a new day. They thought it was a new day when the day ended at work and they started the next day in the evening. So there again, that kind of screws it all up in our way of thinking and in our understanding of a day. But the point I want to make here is this, Jesus is eating the Passover that evening. And he is going to die the next same, it's the same day, right? Same day in the Jewish reckoning, because that day began at twilight. But he's going to begin, he's going to die at three in the afternoon, basically. On that same day, next day in our way of reckoning, on that Friday, He's dying as the Passover lamb. And then John says it happened when? This meal began when? What does it say in chapter 13 verse 1? Now before what? Now before the Passover. So why does John say Jesus is eating the last supper in the upper room and it is before Passover and then Mark tell us here It is on the first day of unleavened bread when they sacrifice the Passover lamb and they say to Jesus What do you want to prepare for you to eat the Passover so why does the synoptic say the day he eats it is the Passover and Then here we're saying it's before pass. How does that fit? Now, the first thing that I want you to understand is this. These guys who wrote the Gospels, not only are they under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is going to preserve them from error, and they're not going to make mistakes. But think about who these guys are. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew and John are both in that room. Eyewitnesses. Mark, although not an apostle, is a close associate of the Apostle Peter. And most scholars regard the Gospel of Mark as Mark recording the teaching of Peter. So Mark was always tied in church history. The Gospel of Mark is tied to Peter. Luke is written by a man who is not a Hebrew Christian. He's either one of two things. He's either a Gentile or he is a Hellenized Jew. When I say Hellenized, it would mean he was a Jew who had embraced the Hellenistic culture of the Greeks. Doesn't tell us which of those he is. But Luke, that's not a Jewish Hebrew name. But he thoroughly researched, it tells us in chapter one, everything that Jesus did. He is writing under the direction of the other apostles and Paul. It is inconceivable to think that men who are thoroughly schooled in the understanding of the Jewish law and ritual would make a boneheaded mistake and say oh this happened before the Passover and then this happened on the Passover and they would make that mistake. So the first thing to realize is let's just put out of our mind a notion that somehow these guys are in error. That's not what's happening here. It's easily recognizable and redeemable under a couple of thoughts. Now, the first thing that I want to just draw your attention to, let's go through some scripture. Okay. This is in Luke chapter 22 in verse 1. And it says this, now the feast of unleavened bread drew near. The feast of unleavened bread is, I told you already, how many days? Seven days. It's a week. It's a week-long feast. And the feast of unleavened bread is called what? Passover. The two are used synonymously. One of the things you have to understand as we go into this text and as we think about it, is like when you say Christmas in America, you're thinking of a couple of things. You're thinking of December the 25th, that's Christmas Day, but when you say Christmas in America, you're thinking of a Celebration that you know they would like us to begin at Halloween Right because you I I was in Costco this week, and they already add up Halloween stuff I was like this is nuts. I mean this is really this is not But okay, so they bring out Christmas stuff. You know like in July And they start selling it you know, but you know we kind of start celebrating Christmas when I? I don't know about you, but soon as Thanksgiving's done, my daughter's always out, time to break out the Christmas carols, you know, and we're gonna listen to Christmas music now. So, you know, right after Thanksgiving, it's Christmas. But it's not Christmas Day. Christmas Day is the 25th. But the whole thing is Christmas, right? That's kind of the way the Jews thought of this deal. Passover is 14th of Nisan. But the whole thing is Passover, and it's unleavened bread. So the two terms are used synonymously. So one of the things to note here is John is clearly just drawing our attention to the fact that what is happening here in this meal is before the entire Passover week has happened. And over the next days, there are going to be many celebrations related to Passover. And it is at this day that Jesus institutes the Lord's table that the Passover lamb is slain and the meal happens in the upper room. So he's linking it all together under one heading. But the two are used synonymously. It's important to understand that. This also is another sideline I want you to know. That may be too small for you to read where you are, but I wanted to put it up there. And I wanted to do it on one slide. Sometimes I do that because I like to make notes and tie things together with my pen. So then came the day of unleavened bread, on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus delegates to Peter and John, go and prepare the Passover for us, though we may eat it. So these guys got to get a lamb. They didn't bring it with them, no doubt, because Jesus didn't have sheep. So they've gotten it, along with many other Jews who have come. Josephus tells us that during the days of Jesus, there were about two and a half million people that would come to Jerusalem to celebrate. It's astounding. They had to get a lamb for their family group or for the disciples. And Peter and John got to go to the temple, and they got to stand in line. How many of you like to stand in line? Can you imagine standing in this line with hundreds of people, with a lamb, waiting to get to the front of the line to kill your lamb? I mean, this isn't just partaking at the Lord's table when you come to church. I mean, this is you taking a lamb, slitting its throat, and a priest is catching its blood. So all the priests are on duty this day. And it is rapid fire. You are going there in line. You get next. It's your turn. You slit its throat. priest catches the blood, walks to the altar, anoints it on the altar, it is then taken and opened up, certain parts of the fat and the kidneys are burnt on an altar, and you take the carcass and you take it with you, and now you're going to go home and you're going to cook it according to the rituals of the law, and you're going to eat it that evening. So Peter and John have been delegated with this task, and they've gone to the temple. There again, they didn't go to Walmart and buy this thing. I mean, you're involved in the worship here. They said to him, where would you have us now to prepare it? Where do you want us to go and get the meal ready? He said to them, behold, when you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water is going to meet you. follow him into the house that he enters, tell the master of the house, the teacher says to you, where is the guest room? Where I can eat my Passover or the Passover with my disciples. He will show you a large upper room that will be furnished, prepare it there. That's why we call it the upper room. Happening in an upper room in the house. So they went, they found it just like he told them, and they got ready for the meal. And then we get to it in John 13. Now all the disciples have assembled. They have come together to celebrate the Passover. When they come into that room, as is Jewish custom, they have washed probably their hands ceremonially. But according to propriety, there is a basin and a towel for the washing of feet. And a slave would do it. But Peter and John didn't line anyone up, obviously, because the Lord didn't want them to. because the Lord's going to do it. Nobody has washed their feet. That's propriety. We'll go into that when we get to that part of this chapter. This is not commanded in the law. There is nowhere in the Law of Moses where it says, before you eat the Passover, you need to wash your feet. But it is custom. It is custom because of the culture in which they live. Because they're dirty. because as they walk these dusty streets, their feet gather up the dirt and the grime of the day. It was refreshing to wash your feet. You ever been out in the sun all day? I was baling some hay this week. I get dusty. There's nothing nicer than to come in, take a wet wash rag, right? And you just freshen up. And if you don't get a shower, if you just freshen up, You just feel better. And that's exactly what happens with these disciples, except it's their feet. So that's what's going on here as we lay down some framework. Now, John's account of the upper room is unique. When we study this, his is the one gospel in which the Lord's table is not instituted. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus said what to them? Now, can you imagine, these guys have not seen, we're looking back on this, they haven't seen all this happen. But Jesus is eating, and he breaks the bread, the unleavened bread, he passes it around the table, and he says to them what? This is my what? This is my body. And then he passes a cup around the table, there again, they haven't been to church yet, Because church, the way we know it, hasn't happened yet. All they know is Old Testament custom and Old Testament ritual, and all of a sudden there's a cup coming around, and they're taking a swig out of it, and maybe passing it around, and Jesus is saying, what? This cup that you're drinking is what? It's my blood. And their mind is running back to something that happened in Galilee a year ago, Because up in Galilee, Jesus fed 5,000 people. And then he taught them and he said, unless you eat my body and you drink my blood, you have no part with me. And we already studied that. Those guys, their minds got to be going back to that. But that's Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In John, we don't even see that repeated. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we don't have the foot washing. We do have, in Luke, the disciples arguing at the table. Now think about this. They're arguing at the table. Which one of us is the greatest? Who's going to sit closest to him in the kingdom? They're arguing about that at the table. Can you imagine? Bunch of kids. And it's in that context that Jesus sets aside his garments, and he goes and serves them, when they are arguing about who is the greatest, and the greatest comes and serves. And he says to them, do as I've done. We also have extensive teaching that we'll look at. Now, there are some details that set the stage. Let's do this real quick. Number one, Jesus' knowledge. Jesus knew what? His hour had come to depart. He knew this is his last supper. He knew he is dying. Jesus also know that Satan had caused Judas to betray him. This is an important link. I'm sure this will come up again in our study. Satan has put it in the heart of Judas. That does not mean Judas was not responsible. Judas was responsible. I think it is clear from scripture that Judas was not a regenerated man. Because the scripture says it would have been better for that guy if he had never been born. He goes and he hangs himself. In remorse and regret, but not in repentance. Peter repents. Judas is remorseful, but he is not repentant. What is the difference? What is the difference? It's where you turn. Peter, in his regret, turned where? From himself to Jesus. Judas, in his remorse, turns into himself and takes his own life. Satan put it in his heart. Now, let me just go over here. I want to show you one verse. It says in Luke chapter 22, Satan, notice this, There's a lot of places in scripture that says that a demon possessed a person. This tells us Satan possessed Judas. Kind of like when something big needs to get done, you don't delegate it. And Satan's like, I don't want this one to get messed up, I'm gonna do this one myself. And he possesses Judas. Satan enters into Judas called Iscariot. He was the number of the 12. He went away and he conferred with the chief priests and the officers how he might betray him to them. And they were glad. And they agreed to give him money. What men will do for money? I mean, think about it. What men will do for money? So he consented. He sought an opportunity to betray them, betray him to them, and notice this, in the absence of the crowd. So he's looking for a time when he can do this and he's gonna get away with it without any attention. So Jesus has this knowledge. It also tells about Jesus' authority. All things are in his hands. He knows he came from the Father, he knows he's going back to the Father, and he knows the Father has put all things in his hand. Why is that important? Because this all sets the stage for his act of service when he washes their feet. He knows who he is. He knows everything the Father has given him. And yet he takes the form of a servant. That is instructive, because then Jesus says to us, I have left you an example to do, just as I've done to you. I do want to just draw our attention as we bring this to conclusion. I want to look at three things. There's a very important statement there in the text. Having loved his own. He loved them to the very end. In these next chapters, Jesus does three things. I'm almost entitled my sermon, The Love Language of Jesus. But I didn't, you've heard of love language. Jesus does three things that reveals to his disciples how much he loves them. And these are three things besides his willingness to die for them. This should be instructive to us. Because he says, do as I have done. What are the kinds of things that we should do for others to reveal to them our love? Jesus gives us three in these chapters shortly before he dies. Here they are. Number one, he served them. How did Jesus show these men he loved them? Instead of sitting in that room during the Passover, mentally checked out, knowing he's gonna die the next day. So he's oblivious to the needs of others, he's only thinking about himself, right? Think about yourself. Instead of being in that mental state, what is Jesus doing? He is thinking about them. He is thinking about their needs. He is thinking about how can I get these men ready for what they don't know is going to happen tomorrow and is going to shatter their world and cause them to deconstruct everything they've known. And they're going to be in turmoil. How can I get him ready for that? The first thing he does is he serves them. And in so doing, he teaches them a lesson about forgiveness and washing. And so we are called to serve one another. And we see this all through the scripture, and we'll come back to that in another week. Secondly, Jesus communicated. He communicated. I know, guys, this is revolutionary to us, but other people can't read our brains. The guys that work for you don't know what you want unless you what? Communicate it. People can't know expectations. People can't know what we're thinking unless there's communication. This is not a public sermon. This is Jesus sitting down with 12 men, actually 11 because one of them leaves in the meal. Name is Judas. 11 men. And he talks to them. And what he tells them is astounding. He doesn't tell them what they want to hear. He tells them what? What they need to hear. He's going to tell them some really hard things. He's going to say, you're all going to gather and pretend you don't know me. And he's going to look at Peter, his main guy, and he's going to say to Peter, Peter, before the cock crows three times, or before the cock crows, you're going to deny three times you know me. Peter's going to say what? No way. Not me. Yes, you. But he's going to also encourage them. He's going to tell them, I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. I will receive you to myself that where I am there you can be also. And he says, I am going to the father's house. Jesus is going to say, it's to your advantage that I go away. Because if I go away, I'm going to send somebody in my place. His name is the comforter, he's gonna live in you, he's gonna teach you. He communicates with them. He tells them what he wants them to do. He tells them things about the true vine. That's a beautiful chapter, chapter 15. I am the true vine, you are my branches. Every branch in me that bears fruit, I what? Ouch, I prune it. Peter, get ready, you're gonna get pruned. He communicates. The last thing Jesus does for them is this. He prays for them. Chapter 17 is one of the most beautiful chapters in the entire scripture. Have you ever been in a setting where somebody prayed for you in a very pointed way? Powerful. I was at an event in Cheyenne where Noreen and Andrew Brunson shared what had happened to them in being imprisoned, persecuted in Turkey. All the things that happened in his life, the darkness. Powerful two days listening to Andrew and Noreen. And as I was there, I was in a time still trying to heal, my body was still trying to heal from a lot of illness that had hit me in 2016. And after the event, I was talking with him, with Andrew and Noreen, and we had really created a great friendship. And all of a sudden, Noreen just said to Andrew, said, we need to pray for our brother Tim. And they both just laid their hands on me in that place and prayed a prayer with me and over me like I had never had anybody pray for me. And it was like, for me, it was pretty powerful. These guys get to the end of this discourse. And Jesus, in a sense, takes them in his arms, and he says, Father, I pray for these men. I don't pray for the whole world. Jesus is saying this right in this prayer. He says, I'm not praying for everybody at this moment. Father, I'm praying for these guys, these 11 guys, that you would make them one team, and you would keep them together. Father, I pray that you would keep the evil one from them. Father, your word is truth. And Father, I pray that you would take your word and you would sanctify these men. It is a pointed prayer. It's not fluff. And then Jesus goes on and he says, Father, While we're at it, I'm not just praying for these guys, I'm praying for everybody who's gonna believe because of these guys. And I'm kind of praying the same thing for all of them, that they'll be one. That Satan won't be able to get them. And then he goes to the garden and he prays again. And he sweats great drops of blood. But can you imagine that prayer? People. We should not just pray for each other in our closets. We should pray for one another with one another in very pointed and real ways that touch real issues that aren't full of fluff and flour but get to the heart. Jesus does three things to prove to these people He loves them. He serves them, He communicates with them, He prays for them. Let's close. Father, we thank You for Your Word. Lord Jesus, I thank You for Your example to us. And You tell us in these verses that we study, You left these things as an example to us. So Father, help us this week that we may serve one another in love, that we may communicate clearly with one another, Not always telling each other what we want to hear, but telling each other what we need to hear. Encouraging one another. Coming alongside one another and teaching one another. And Father, may we pray with and for one another. And thus fulfill these things that you lay upon us as your children. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.