our chapter this morning, John chapter 13. Now we're gonna close out the chapter looking at verses 31 to 38. In this chapter we have seen Jesus wash the feet of the disciples in a great act of love and humility. He tells them he does this as an example that they would go and do likewise. We've also very soberly considered the betrayal of Judas and the significance of all that has taken place and all that is about to take place. We're on the cusp of those moments. The cross itself is in the near future. And then today in our passage, what we were about to see, is that every moment, every detail, every aspect of what has taken place, of what we witness, is all according to the divine plan of God. You could almost say it like this, there are no accidents or surprises when it comes to God. There are no accidents or surprises when it comes to God. He is not caught off guard. If I could think of something that would encourage me today, it would be just that, to know when I feel like my life is out of control, when I feel like what's going on in my circumstances don't make sense, I serve a God who knows precisely what is going on. With that being said, let's turn our attention to our text and hear it from our Lord. He says it far better than I can. I'll read for us again, John 13. I'll start in verse 31 and then read down to verse 38. When he had gone out, Jesus said, 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 glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Jesus answered him, where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward. Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. Jesus answered, will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. This is the word of the Lord. Would you once again go with me as we go before him in prayer? Dear Heavenly Father, we need this word today. Because of your divine providence, you know where all of us are, we come in this day with the circumstances that are in our lives, the troubles, the complications, the hardships, the challenges that we are facing, and you know that today, in this hour, this is what we need to hear. I thank you for that, Lord. I thank you for your divine plan, and I thank you for your providence, and I thank you for how you work that out in the lives of all of your people. And I pray, oh Lord, that you would give us wisdom to see that today, that we would understand your truth, and that by seeing it and by hearing it, we would apply it to our lives and live it out. Father, I thank you for this time. We give it back to you now, oh Lord. In Christ Jesus' name, amen. One of my favorite TV shows is one that aired in the 1980s. It was a show called The A-Team. Many of you may be familiar with this show. For those of you that aren't, the back of the box would say, A team of highly trained military personnel were wrongfully convicted and court-martialed due to a crime they did not commit, and now they are on the run. But if you have a need that you cannot solve, you have a problem that you cannot fix, call the A-team, and if they are available, they will help. One episode comes to mind, and I just, the comical nature of this, and they do, they help all sorts of people with all sorts of problems. There was a watermelon farmer that was being plagued by bandits, and they had to help save the day so that they could get their crop to market. That's the kind of drama that you received on this show. I liked it, it was good, clean fun, and there's a lot of firearms, but no one ever got shot. It was just good. And there was a leader of this show in the 1980s, and his name was John, Colonel John Hannibal Smith, always called Hannibal. And he had a line, he was famous for saying this line in the show, I love it when a plan comes together. That was his catchphrase. And it really was this wonderful, entertaining show because the schemes and the problems and the circumstances they would get theirselves into and you would find yourself wondering, how are they gonna get out of this pickle? How are they gonna solve this problem? How are they gonna find a creative solution to this situation? And again, if you've not seen it, the best I can explain it to you, take Scooby-Doo and Mash. and combine it. If I haven't sold you on this yet, you need to watch the old 80s, 18, because that's what's going on here. And by the end, by the episode end, you may get down to the 28 of the 30 minutes, and you're like, I don't know what's gonna happen, but in those last two minutes, everything would come to a peaceful-ish resolution. And you would hear or be reminded of Hannibal's words, I love it when a plan comes together. My friends, we live in a time, we live our lives desperate for a plan. We live in a time where we're desperate for that plan to work out, to know how is this going to conclude? We're at minute 28 of a 30-minute episode and our lives are a mess and we're like, I don't know what you're gonna do, God. You've only got two minutes left. How are you gonna finish the episode? Unfortunately for many of us, it's a two-parter and we don't know it yet. It's not, we don't have two minutes left, we have 32 minutes left, and we're like, okay God, I'm in this for a little while longer. Our Savior Jesus Christ didn't suffer from that problem. He didn't suffer from a problem of a lack of understanding of the plan. In fact, Jesus knew the plan, executed the plan, whether we understood it or not, but the beauty of the gospel and the beauty of God's word is that Jesus brought his people along for that plan. You and I today, now, here this morning, are part of God's divine plan. We may not understand it today, we may not see it today, we may not be able to explain it today, but you are in part of that plan right now. And I think it's important for us to remember that. And so this morning, I want us to look at our text, and I want us to see three ways in which the divine plan of God is being executed perfectly. Three ways in which the divine plan of God was being executed perfectly, and these are in some seemingly surprising ways. The plan of God was executed perfectly in the path to the cross. Jesus is glorified and reveals the plan of God in the path to the cross. Secondly, Christians, we reveal the plan of God as we are identified by our love for one another. And then finally, it's even part of the plan of God that temptation comes for those who profess Christ. All of these points that we see this morning reveals the plan of God and how he is working all things out for his glory and for our good. So let's begin by considering how Jesus is glorified in the path or the plan to the cross. And if you remember right before this section where we paused last week, it ended Satan possessing Judas And then Jesus telling Judas slash Satan to leave. And what happened? This was so important last week, and they left. Even the plans, the schemes of Satan are subject to the divine will of God. And we cannot forget that. That is so vital for us. The greatest attempts by Satan to undermine the people of God are subject to the ultimate divine plan of God. Jesus tells him to leave and he leaves. And then our text picks up after this. Jesus says, after saying these things, And then we get the message that, or excuse me, I looked at 21, when he had gone out. So after that, Jesus then says what we read just a moment ago. He says, now is the son of man glorified. God is glorified in him. And if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once. Jesus has just told the disciples two things. One of you is a betrayer and I'm going somewhere. And then here he says, and in that, I am glorified and God the father is glorified. Which leads us to ask a very important question, how? How is Jesus glorified in having a betrayer? How is Jesus and God the Father glorified in knowing that he is about to endure something that is gonna take him away? But before we even get to that, we need to step back one step further because Jesus says something here. Now is the Son of Man. We've seen this before, but just as a reminder, that title, Jesus gives it to himself here, should draw our attention back. It should draw our attention back to the book of Daniel. In the book of Daniel, chapter seven, we have a prophecy. And this prophecy is about four great beasts that come to earth and come to devour and come to reign and rule and conquer. And each one is progressively worse than the previous one. And then we're told in Daniel the explanation of the prophecy. These are nations and kingdoms that will come and rule and reign and have might and power and dominion for a season. But ultimately, they will all be defeated before a greater kingdom is coming. And the king of that kingdom is the Son of Man. Just a section of it, I'll read it. Daniel 7 verse 13. I saw in the night visions and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like the Son of Man. He came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. His kingdom is one that shall not be destroyed. So when Jesus says here, the Son of Man is glorified, he's telling the disciples, get out your Bibles, your Old Testaments, go back to Daniel, read what was prophesied about me hundreds of years before this moment, and then when it takes place, realize I've been working this out from the beginning. Simply put, what is Jesus saying? I've got a plan, guys. and it's being executed. I'm being glorified because what I said would come true has. And what has been said of me to come true is. In light of and despite all of the things that are taking place, the betrayal of Judas and the uncertainty of what's going on and the darkness of this moment, Jesus is saying my plan is going forward. And he says here, he's not the only one being glorified. He also says God the Father is being glorified in this. Why? Well, before the foundation of the world, the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had a council. They came together and said, this is how we will bring salvation to mankind. And so when Jesus, the Son of God and God himself, comes to earth and executes the plan that he and the Father and the Holy Spirit devised, that is glorifying not only to Jesus, but to the Father as well. For Jesus does exactly the will of the Father. He fulfills the wishes of his Father perfectly and flawlessly and exactly as he designed it. That's glorifying to God the Father. What is more flattering to someone than to listen to them and then do what they say like they said it? But there's another way in here that God the Father is glorified in all of this, and this is kind of funny language, I admit that. Now is the son of man glorified, that's Jesus is fulfilling the prophecies. God is glorified in him, Jesus doing the will of God. But then verse 32, if God is glorified in him, him there being Jesus, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once. That's a tricky sentence. What we're talking about here though, as scholars agree, most of them, Jesus' plan is gonna lead Him to the cross. Jesus' plan is to die for the sins of His people as a sacrifice. That is glorifying to God alone, that Jesus did what He said He would do. He set out to execute it and He did. But how much more glorifying is it, and I love that text, I love that passage, on that third day. How much more glorifying is it to God the Father when Mary and Mary come to the tomb and the tomb is empty? The stone is rolled back, the soldiers are laying there on their faces terrified, some of the most hardcore men in existence, Roman soldiers, and they're shaking like they're dead. An angel is just hanging out on the stone, kicking his feet up. Why do you seek the living among the dead? What does it say here? God is glorified and will glorify him at once. The resurrection glorifies God because it is a validation of the work of the Son. This is tricky in the language in this passage, but that's what they're saying here. God the Father says, I accept your sacrifice and I honor it. And he raises him from the dead. And we know that it was accepted because all we have to do is ask the question, where is Jesus now? Where is he now? What does the scripture say? He is sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, where he remains until he comes back to get his people. What does that mean to be at the right hand of God the Father? That is the seat of judgment. Jesus Christ sits as Lord in the seat of judgment, ruling and reigning over his people, fulfilling what we read in the Psalm this morning, now, actively, currently, and that is glorifying to God. That is glorifying to Jesus and that is glorifying to God the Father. And all of that is possible because Jesus allowed Satan to enter Judas. Jesus allowed Satan to go off and to sell him out to the Pharisees, who they're about, I don't know where we are in the timeline. I don't know if Judas is on his way to them or they're on their way to him right now. But we're in motion, right? The betrayal is in motion. And yet, that is glorifying to God. I said it, I think it was two Sundays ago, think about this. If you knew how, when, and where you were gonna die, would you willingly carry out the events that would lead to your death? Would you willingly walk into that room knowing you wouldn't walk out? Would you willingly serve a group of people knowing one of them will ultimately betray you? Jesus did. Jesus did. It's important to remember we have the ability, we have the gift that we can critically analyze this. But put yourself in the shoes of the disciples. They're hearing this and they don't have the rest of the book. They don't know what's coming. Jesus tells them, you're not gonna get this. He calls to them, little children, I am with you a little while, you'll seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, where I'm going, you cannot come. Everything I'm telling you's gonna happen's about to happen, and you're gonna be left alone. Now, referring to them as little children, that's not derogatory, although at times they deserve it, as do we. Rather, that's a term of endearment. Jesus is saying, my children, You've got to understand what's about to be executed, the plan that's about to be laid out, is gonna separate us. And you're not gonna be able to find me. Why did he tell him that? So that when it happened, they wouldn't go, oh no, his plan went off course. Instead, it would be so when it happened, they could go, oh, he told us this too. Maybe he knew what he was doing all along. Jesus expects us to model this behavior. He expects us to live our lives as if God has a plan and we're part of it. He expects us to model this whether we understand it or not. His plan ultimately would lead to the salvation of those 11. It would lead to the salvation of us here who trust in him today. It had to take place. And he calls us to live with that level of love for one another. And we see this in our second point. How we treat others is part of the plan of God. And before I get into this, and this is really, I love this section, it's one of my favorite passages of scripture, I wanna remind you, Jesus is not asking his followers here to do anything he himself is unwilling to do. What have we already learned in chapter 13? It starts with Jesus showing love to his disciples by treating them in a way that they did not deserve, by washing their feet. An act of humility so great a Jewish slave wouldn't do it, Jesus did it. That is how Jesus shows them, and think about the last section. When I'm about to go away, he's preparing them for his death. What a great act of love. Instead of worrying about your own death, you're worried about those around you that are gonna be affected by it. That's love. I love you so much, I'm gonna prepare you for my leaving. Jesus never asks his disciples to do something he himself was unwilling to do. Jesus displays extraordinary love, and so when he calls us to do the same, we should not be surprised. So let's get into it. A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you're my disciples if you have love for one another. Now we pause. How is that new? Ever thought that or wondered that? Maybe you heard it this morning or you've been pondering it this week. How is that a new commandment? Biblically speaking, aren't we commanded to love one another? Well, yes. We could go back to the Levitical law. Leviticus 19.18 commands the Jewish people to love their neighbors as themselves. You'd rather hear it in the New Testament, Luke 6.31, the golden rule as we call it, treat others as you want to be treated. Biblically speaking, the command to love others is not new. The new is not the command to love. The command here, the new, is how. Okay, this is vitally important. This is the most important thing I'll tell you this morning. How? How do we love? What does he say? A new command I give to you that you love one another, and in my Bible, colon, here's the new. Just as I have loved you, you love one another. The new is the reason or source for love. We love because of the love of Jesus. Now why is that revolutionary? Well here it is. What if you don't feel like treating someone like yourself? Here's an even harder question and I ask this because I answer this. What if you don't love yourself? And the Bible says treat others as you treat yourself, and you treat yourself like dirt, and said, well, I can do that to everybody else, too. I'm not excluding me. I don't think any of us would admit that outwardly, but I know inwardly, some of us are going, ooh, hmm, pastor hit that one. Right here, what Jesus says is you cannot choose to ignore others whether you feel like it, whether it's convenient, whether it is easy, you cannot choose to ignore others in those circumstances because Jesus loved you when you were not lovable, cooperative, or willing to listen. Jesus' command to love takes us out of the picture completely. We love, we're commanded to love because of Jesus, not because of anything that has anything to do with us. I'll give you a practical example. I'm currently in the stage, Lisa and I are in the stage of raising young children. And this morning, just smile if you've heard these words lately, parents. He hit me. She's not sharing. I only did it because they did it first, or my personal favorite, that's not fair. Now I wanna be clear here. All of us adults are prone to the exact same behavior. To understand the child is to understand an adult. And so I'm not just picking on children here today. but if you're following Jesus's command to love based on him, not based on you or your circumstances or how you're being treated, you know how you would respond to those situations? He hit me and so I gave him a turn with my toy. She's not playing fair, so I let her pick the next show to watch. I don't deserve this, but you know what? I don't deserve most things I get, and so I'm gonna accept that which comes my way. That's how this verse changes everything, because how you treat others is conditioned upon Jesus, not you, your circumstances, your life events, or how you feel. That just made loving a lot harder, didn't it? Most of us, we don't wanna love like this. We want conditional love. We want to love and treat others based on circumstances, based on how they're treating us. But you have to go back to the original audience. Who's he talking to here? He's talking to disciples. What's about to happen? Jesus is gonna die, he's gonna be raised from the dead, he's gonna be with them for a little while, he's gonna ascend into heaven and he's gonna say, go and build my church. And they're gonna go into towns and villages and cities and they're gonna say, Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead, you are commanded, you are called to worship him in spirit and in truth. Let's get a church going, let's get it started, it's how it should look. And sometimes people said, great, let's go, let's build, here's some money, how can we pray? Who else needs prayer? Let's get this going. Book of Acts, wonderful stories. Sometimes though, they get out the pitchforks and they start the bonfire and say, there's the door, next town's 14 miles, how quickly can you get there? Now if the disciples did evangelism, or put it differently, if they showed love to those communities the way that they might be tempted to, or we might be tempted to, they might be tempted to get out their own pitchforks and their own torches and go, no, wait a minute. What I'm telling you, you need to hear. You're not being very loving right now. I'm gonna beat some love into you. How often is that how we decide to do things? I'm gonna knock some sense into you so you learn not to be violent. We do it. No, Jesus said, when they do that, you love them anyway. When they persecute you, know they persecuted me first. When they mistreat you, know they mistreated me first. When they kick you out and ridicule you, or even worse throughout church history, when they put you on the bonfire, go to the time of the Protestant Reformation, most of the people that translated the Bible into a language the people could understand were killed for it. And as the fire is being built around them, what is the most loving thing to do, to curse them? No, it's to say, Father, I pray in time they will come to appreciate that which you've done in my life. That's love. And that is all part of the divine plan of God. Jesus in demonstrating this and living this out in his life was equipping the disciples to go and do likewise. The disciples in demonstrating this and living this out in their lives is equipping you and me today to go and do likewise. See how we're part of the plan? How we're called to an unconditional type of love? And the beauty of this passage even part of the plan is the fact that you're not gonna be treated well because of this. You're gonna face temptation and ridicule because of your love for God and love for others. And we see that in our third section. And we kind of, snap back into the situation here. Jesus has told them, I'm glorified, the Father's glorified. He's given them the new commandment, love others as I have loved you. Remember, that's the new part. And then everything kind of snaps back to reality. And who is it that speaks up? It's Peter. It's like something resonated with him and he couldn't get it out of his head. And Peter, if he has a thought, he has to say it. blows over the whole love part, which is, that's probably fair for Peter. He catches on to that Jesus is leaving. Lord, where are you going? Jesus, where I'm going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward. Peter, why can I not follow you? I will lay down my life for you. Now, I like to pick on Peter only because I feel his humanity. But one thing I don't think we can question, Peter loved Jesus. He loved Jesus dearly. To go three years with this man knowing the trouble that came around him and willingly you stuck around, you've gotta have a level of closeness or connection to him at some level or you're just so amazed by him. But Peter stayed close and Peter spoke his mind and Peter asked questions and Peter listened to the answers. Peter loved Jesus dearly. He said, I'm not letting you leave. You go, I go. Whatever happens to you happens to me. Jesus, no, you're not. Will you? Will you indeed lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. Remember, the disciples are in a frantic state right now. They're trying to determine the betrayer. Imagine being one of the other 10. and you're sitting there and you're listening to all this and you're trying to take it all in, and Jesus looks to Peter and says, truly, truly, I say to you, before the rooster crows, you'll deny me three times. Being one of the 10 guys, you're going, oh, oh no. It's Peter? We never would have thought it would be Peter. Surely not him. Jesus says it's so. He's not the betrayer, but he is gonna deny the Lord. What would have happened What would have happened to Peter had he not, and he declared his faith? There probably would have been four crosses instead of three. He probably would have got a quicker death. They probably wouldn't have waited for him. Imagine being told by your savior, the one you love, who's never spoken anything that's untrue, that you're gonna deny me. Imagine how crushing that would have been. But there is a positive note to this, and I don't want you to miss this, I like this. Look again at what Jesus' words. Where I am going, you cannot follow me, and then what does he say? Now. But you will follow me afterward. If you're Peter and you're really in tune and you're really catching on, what does he say? You're not gonna do it yet. but in time you will. What does that mean? Peter, you're gonna finish the race. You are going to follow me in life and in death. You will die in the faith. You're not gonna get there right now. We gotta work through some things. If we were the one writing the plan, would any of us plan for the moral failure of one of the main characters? Would any of us for our own lives say, you know God, what I really need in this season of life is a complicated divine question that makes me wonder and contemplate absolutely everything I believe in and everything I've gone through? Not if you're in your right mind, you won't. You wouldn't say that to God. So why? Why does God allow this for Peter? Why is this important for us today and why does this go back to what Jesus said about love? Two reasons. One, I believe Jesus is teaching Peter and the disciples and us how cunning the devil is and how much we have to guard our hearts. We talked about it last week and the week before. We are at war. It is real, it is dangerous, and there are casualties. This is not some game we're playing. We are in the middle of warfare, Christian. and you have to be on it at all times, for the devil is ready to devour us. But a more important point, and I think this really gets to the heart of why Jesus allowed this. Jesus needed to show Peter and the disciples and us that there is always a way back. How great an act of love to show Peter and the other disciples and us that we will fail and falter and fall and mess up and miss the mark and that does not exclude us from the love of the Father. Go to Hebrews chapter 11, not right now, but this afternoon or later this week. Any, pick one, any of them. any of the heroes in the hall of faith, some of the greatest people in all of scripture, apart from Christ himself, which really the whole point of Hebrews 11 is Jesus is even better than all of those people, pick one. Go back and read their life story and tell me that most of them, if we have it recorded, did not go through some series of extraordinary trial or moral failure, and yet what is it said of them? Abraham. a man of faith, a child of God, Moses, beloved by God, on and on, David, on and on and on. It is vitally important, not only do we learn to love like Christ, but we need to remember when we don't, there is a path back. Because this side of heaven, we're not gonna get it perfectly. So how do we apply this to our lives? I'll wrap it up here. For many of us, myself included, we need to do a better job of trusting God's plan, especially when it's not apparent. We don't know where we are in the episode. But God does, and he's in control. We need to trust his process and see what he has in store for our lives. We need to live more by faith and less worried by what we cannot control. We also need to love others as Christ loved us. Not because of who they are, not because of what they've done, not of whether they deserve it or not, but as Christ loved us. This love is not earned or deserved. In fact, often it is in spite of other people's behavior. Which, by the way, this kind of love is so bizarre in the world today, it may be one of the greatest witnessing tools we have. Treat people like this and they will be dumbfounded and go, why? I don't deserve that. Do you know what I did to you? Do you know who I am? Do you know what I do? Well, it doesn't matter. Because I know a God who's better than us both. And then thirdly, we need to guard our hearts. The devil is crafty and knows it's devastating to bring a saint into a state of moral depravity. Guard your hearts, love like Jesus, and trust His plan for your lives. This is how we equip ourself for the days ahead. Please pray with me. Lord, these are heavy words. They're heavy because we know our own hearts. And we know our temptations, and we know our struggles, and we know what is coming for Jesus, and yet he willingly walked that way. He marched himself to the cross for the sake of his people. Thank you, Lord, for his call to unconditional love. Or, if you will, love that is conditioned upon Christ, not upon us. May we strive to love this way toward others, particularly for those who are unlovable or unloving. Remind us that there's always a great plan. You've been working it out from the beginning, you will see its conclusion in the end. And until that end, help us to not lose hope. And Father, protect us from the schemes of the evil one. Protect the people here. Watch over husbands as they lead their families. Be with wives as they serve and love and nurture and care for their families. Be with children that they might know and grow in your truth, that they might stand fast in a lost and dying world. Be with all of us, oh Lord. We need you more than we need anything else. Grant that we ask in Christ's name this day, amen.