Two More Gleanings from the Passage

Driving home: Privileges alone, without grace, save nobody and will only make hell deeper. Judas shows us the uselessness, of a mere head knowledge.

Bishop Ryle's quote about Judas Iscariot serves as a 'beacon to warn Christians' about the fruitlessness of religious profession without inward grace, illustrating the danger of hypocrisy and mere head knowledge.

Well, we come again tonight to this field of John 13, 1 to 17, in order to gather some additional gleanings from this portion of the Word of God. Having sought in some, I trust, responsible way to open up the passage in terms of the two central lessons that the Spirit of God intended to give us in the passage, we came back to it this morning to gather some gleanings, or, without that imagery, to take up some further observations and applications that are in this portion of the Word of God. And we looked at two this morning, and I stated them this way. First, the foot-washing. The foot-washing ...

4:15 - 5:43 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the disciples' sinfulness through their carnal ambition (arguing who was greatest), their pride (unwillingness to wash feet), and their spiritual dullness…

The disciples' refusal to take the place of a servant and wash feet, despite the basin and towel being present, illustrates their pride and carnal ambition.

and is prepared to set His face like flint to go to the agonies of the cross on their behalf. So they have shown their carnal ambition. Furthermore, in this setting of the upper room, in this setting of the incident of the foot washing, they manifested their pride by their unwillingness to take the place of the servant. As we saw in the exposition several Lord's days ago, the basin was obviously there.

12:49 - 13:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the disciples' sinfulness through their carnal ambition (arguing who was greatest), their pride (unwillingness to wash feet), and their spiritual dullness…

The story of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, sad and slow to believe, illustrates Jesus' grief over His disciples' spiritual dullness and their inability to grasp His redemptive mission.

There are ample indications in the Gospel records that when Jesus faced the spiritual dullness of His disciples, it grieved Him. You remember on the road to Emmaus, and you've got these two people dragging their chins along the road full of sadness. Their countenance is sad and Jesus draws near to them and begins to talk with them. And they tell Him why they are sad.

15:44 - 16:10 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin details the disciples' sinfulness through their carnal ambition (arguing who was greatest), their pride (unwillingness to wash feet), and their spiritual dullness…

The analogy of trying to communicate deeply precious things to loved ones (wife, husband, son, daughter) who 'don't get it' illustrates the pain Jesus felt at His disciples' dullness.

You and I know what it is when there are things deeply precious to us and we're trying to communicate them to those we love the most. Wife, husband, son or daughter. And they don't get it. How frustrating it is.

16:50 - 17:06 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The pool of our Lord's patience would have long gone dry were it not fed by streams from the ocean of His infinite love.

The metaphor of the 'pool of our Lord's patience' being fed by 'streams from the ocean of His infinite love' illustrates that Jesus' patience is sustained by His boundless love for His own.

and to His own image. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, that is as a confident expectation of promised blessings, and the Father had promised Him a people, a people whom when He had finished His work of redemption would indeed be like Him and therefore a love that endured all things. Thinking of it in this imagery, the pool of our Lord's patience would have long gone dry were it not fed by streams from the ocean of His infinite love. The pool of His patience would have long gone dry were it not fed from streams flowing out of the infinite ocean of His love to His ow...

28:13 - 29:37 Read in full sermon

The point: Believe that Jesus yet loves us, is yet patient toward us as He was with His true but sinful and dull disciples in the upper room, without making light of our remaining sin or how our Lord is grieved.

A stanza from Horatius Bonar's hymn 'I hear the words of love' is quoted to comfort believers that while their love and joy may ebb and flow, their peace with God and Christ's love remain steadfast and unchanging.

You can tell Him better how to do what you think He ought to do to others and to you. And yet, as we come to the table tonight, what do we find our Lord Jesus to be? We find Him to be exactly the Jesus who was there in that upper room, infinitely patient with His sinful, dull, yet true disciples. I have a lovely hymnal produced by InterVarsity decades ago that is my devotional hymn book.

30:47 - 31:25 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The foot washing incident contains a comforting articulation of a vital principle of God's providential dealings with us.

The story of Joseph, from his dreams to slavery and imprisonment, illustrates the principle that God's providential dealings, though incomprehensible in the 'now,' will be understood 'hereafter,' revealing His good purposes.

He is free to make known to us when He pleases the significance of what He's doing with us. Now sometimes, what He's doing with us now that we cannot understand, that we do not understand, the hereafter is some period later in our earthly pilgrimage. The classic example of that is Joseph. You will remember, Joseph has his dreams and his dreams indicate that he's going to come to a place of prominence, his own father, his own brothers will bow down to him, all of that.

36:27 - 37:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Be content to say, 'Lord, wherever the hereafter is in my pilgrimage, and you want to just, as it were, flip a part of the tapestry over and make me stand back in wonderment and amazement, then Lord, I leave in your hand…

The metaphor of life's difficult circumstances being like the 'backside of a tapestry' (ugly, tangled) which, when flipped over, reveals beauty and symmetry, illustrates how God's purposes are often hidden until later revelation.

Joseph lived long enough to see that though all he was seeing was the backside of a tapestry that was woven with silver and gold threads, the backside of the tapestry is usually ugly. It looks like a tangled mass of an irrational putting together of threads. But you turn the tapestry and you're made breathless with the beauty and the symmetry and the order and the geometric design. All Joseph saw for those years was the backside of the tapestry.

38:34 - 39:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Plant yourself down in front of Golgotha and say, 'Lord Jesus, whatever You are doing in my life is impelled by love and shaped by infinite wisdom. You are the Christ of the cross. What wickedness to doubt Your love, to …

Bishop Ryle's quote reinforces the idea that many of Christ's dealings are hard to understand in this life, but we must remember 'What I do you know not now, but you shall know hereafter,' trusting that all will be explained in glory.

the purposes of Your heart. Again, the old bishop from Liverpool, you get the impression from those of us who preach in this pulpit, we love old Bishop Ryle. Listen to the bishop. Even in our best estate we shall find that many of Christ's dealings with us are hard to understand in this life.

43:44 - 44:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Afford the luxury of again and again saying, 'Lord Jesus, I believe you. What you're doing now, I do not know, but you have promised I shall know hereafter.'

A stanza from 'Be Still My Soul' is quoted to encourage believers to trust God's undertaking to guide the future, assuring them that all now mysterious 'shall be bright at last,' because Christ rules all things.

There came days long after Christ had left the world when Peter saw the full meaning of all that happened on the memorable night before the crucifixion. Even so there will be a day when every dark page in our life's history will be explained, and when as we stand with Christ in glory we shall know all. I could not help but think of this stanza in the well-known hymn, Be Still My Soul. Listen how the hymn writer has captured this.

44:36 - 45:10 Read in full sermon