Beyond Sunday with Pastor Nic
Join me for a more personal look into the weekend sermons, as well as some thoughts on theology, marriage, parenting, and leadership. I will also explore some of your most asked questions throughout the year.
www.nic-williams.com
Beyond Sunday with Pastor Nic
A New Commandment: Love One Another
Witness the emotional whirlwind as Jesus identifies Judas as the betrayer amidst the disciples' confusion and trust. We navigate through this poignant narrative, focusing on Jesus’ unwavering grace even towards His betrayer. Explore the critical role Judas's betrayal plays in the divine plan of redemption, and how Jesus’s words on love and obedience continue to resonate. Feel the urgency and eagerness of Simon Peter as he grapples with understanding Jesus's path. Through gripping storytelling, we connect these biblical events to their lasting impact on faith and redemption.
Hey podcast world and welcome to another edition of Beyond Sunday. I actually prerecorded today's podcast about a week ago and woke up this morning and decided I didn't like what I recorded. Have you ever been there? You put all this work into something and then you realized it didn't just hit the mark and part of the problem was yesterday was Sunday. I stood on stage, I preached this sermon for three services. I had poured my heart into it the week before and I walked off stage yesterday and it spoke to me on a different level than a lot of sermons have.
Speaker 1:Some of that is just understanding the story more. Some of it is the content. Some of it is when I speak on Sundays, there are moments that I say something and it challenges me and I want to walk through yesterday's message. If you go to South Shore Community Church, the church I'm a lead pastor at in Sarasota, florida, then you've already heard this message, but maybe not this angle of it. But I want to walk back through my experience of honestly preaching this message yesterday.
Speaker 1:If you're not caught up to speed, we're in John, chapter 13,. Yesterday, if you're not caught up to speed, we're in John, chapter 13. We're verses, I think 18 through 30 something and we're really looking at the second part of the story. The story is the story of the upper room. This is when Jesus is with his disciples the night before he is crucified. Last week, on the podcast and on church, we talked about the first 12 or 13 verses and that is where Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, the heart of the servant, if you will. That's who Jesus was. But the second part of the passage still happening in the same context people sitting around a table sharing a meal with Jesus, hearing conversation is wrapped around this idea of love here in conversation is wrapped around this idea of love. And I can't get past the call that Jesus has for us.
Speaker 1:Verse 34, a new command I give you love one another. Truth be told. That's not a new command. He had said this before. He had said it in a different way. When he was asked what's the greatest commandment, right, the greatest thing we can do, he said love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, your soul, your mind and strength. And then he said love your neighbor as yourself. And this call for you and I to love was already there.
Speaker 1:And what's different about this time, as he's sitting with his disciples, telling them I have a new command for you. What's different? One of the things that's different is he's telling them how to do it Love as I have loved you, the as I principle, if you will Do it as I've modeled it for you. And Jesus does this all throughout scripture. He models everything for us. He models love for us, he models servanthood for us, he models how to obey, he models how to pray, he models how to lead. Over and over again, we just see him modeling things. And so here he's saying hey, I've loved you Speaking to disciples for the last several years. I've walked with you day in and day out. I know your ups and downs, your sins, I know your strengths, I know your struggles, yet I have still chosen to love you. And what's unique about this is he's also saying this about Judas, who, from the day that he picked Judas, the scriptures say he knew that Judas was going to betray him. And this night, when he's Judas, the scriptures say he knew that Judas was going to betray him. And this night, when he's sitting in the upper room, he knows, as he's washing Judas's feet, that Judas is going to betray him. And even in that, jesus didn't treat him any different. Jesus washed his feet. Jesus actually let Judas sit at his left-hand side the side that is saved for the favorite right, that is saved for the favorite right. He dipped bread into a bowl and shared that with Judas.
Speaker 1:I said an illustration yesterday that if you and I went to a Mexican restaurant and we were having an appetizer, we'd probably get the chips and salsa, and it'd be no different if I dipped a chip into the salsa or the queso. Rather, always get queso over salsa, dip the chip in the queso and then I go to feed it to you. That's how intimate this moment was. This was an act of love for Jesus. And as I began to just think about this passage, this question that pops in my mind is how can I love more deeply and how can I love more genuinely? Because Jesus expects every one of us to live this out. We're called. This is a command, a new command I give you love one another as I've loved you, so you must love one another. Verse 35,. He goes on and says by this, everyone will know that you're my disciples if you love one another. All throughout scripture we see calls like this. I believe that other people should be able to see God's love through our actions period, through the things that you and I do, how we talk to each other, how we treat each other, how we help each other.
Speaker 1:Had a pastor call me about 10 minutes ago and said, hey, he's a pastor in another town about 30 minutes from here. And he said, hey, I just got wind of a veteran in your area just had heart surgery and the county is coming down on him pretty hard because his yard has gotten out of hand. And I can imagine that In this weather, with all the rain we've had, all the flooding we've had, I can imagine that's not a priority. Add to a guy that just had surgery, a major surgery, and it's probably just not a priority in his life. Now, if the county's getting involved, this hasn't been a two-week. I haven't cut my lawn. This is a long time coming, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:But the pastor called me and he said is there anybody in your church that can help? And the good news is I could text them right back and say man, I've got hundreds of people in my church that would help. All I have to do is ask. This is not a situation where I'm going to have to beg somebody to go and help this guy. This is a situation where I could send out a text right now to 100 people and I would have 95 of them say what's the address. I'll go help them and I love that.
Speaker 1:I love that our church is a church that loves people. Well, that's what we're called to do. That's the model that Jesus set for us. Other people should be able to see God's love through our actions. We're not meant to be just a vessel of God's love. We're not just supposed to hold on to it. We don't just become a container that fills up with the love of God. We're to be a conduit that shares the love of God with people, that the love of God is pouring out of us to different people. And Jesus did this. Jesus chose to obey out of love. He went to the cross out of love for you and I. As he's on that cross, he looks down at the guards who are shooting lots over his clothes, arguing a who gets what? Looks down on him and says, father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Love was Jesus.
Speaker 1:Now, what we see in this story, picking up verse 21,. So, backing up a little bit, we see one of the main characters, the guy that we all know his story, judas. Jesus is talking, and he's talking about Judas, verse 21,. He said after this that Jesus' heart was troubled in spirit and he testified very truly. I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.
Speaker 1:His disciples stared at one another at a loss to know which one of them he meant. They had this heart that. Could it be me? He's saying somebody's going to betray him. I know all these guys in here. They're my friends. I've done ministry with them. I trust them. There's no way they'd ever do that. Could it be me? And one of them? The disciple whom Jesus loved, of course, that's John. Referring to himself, john, the writer of this gospel, was reclining next to him. He's on one side of Jesus. Judas is on the other of Jesus. Judas is on the other. And because John's sitting next to Jesus, simon Peter speaks up and says hey, ask Jesus which one he means, just ask him. Who is it that's going to betray you? And, leaning back, john does ask Jesus, Lord, who is it? Who is this person? And Jesus answered it's the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I've dipped it in the dish. And then he did just that he dipped that bread in the dish and he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Now this should have been the moment that all the disciples were like I can't believe it, it's Judas right. But that's not really what happened.
Speaker 1:As soon as Judas took the bread, one of the saddest things that you'll ever read in scripture happened. Satan entered into him. Judas had prepared the way for Satan to enter into his life. He prepared the way by rejecting Jesus. He prepared the way by deceit and greed and stealing and sin that opened the door for Satan to come into his life. And so Jesus, after Satan came into him, jesus said to him what you're about to do, go do quickly. And you got to remember. Judas was in charge of the moneybags, he was the treasurer for the ministry, if you will, he was the most trusted disciple amongst them. They would have never thought he would do this. And as he runs out of the room, the disciples almost instantly forgetting that Jesus just said whoever eats the bread is the guy. They begin to think oh, where's Judas going? Oh, you know what? He's probably going to feed the poor. He's probably going to get some supplies for the festival that's coming up. They trusted him so much that, even though Jesus had just said this is the guy that's going to betray me when he runs out, they think the best of him.
Speaker 1:Verse 28 says I love the story of Judas. It's a sad story, but if you focus on the heart of Jesus, you see some things. You first see that Jesus accepted him. He accepted Judas for who he was. He accepted Judas, knowing what Judas was going to do to him. Yet he continued to give him chances. He washed his feet, he invited him into the ministry, he sat him beside him at dinner. He spoke into his life, he shared a meal with him.
Speaker 1:Over and over again, jesus is inviting Judas to be a part of Jesus. And we know how the story ends Judas rejects him, runs out, tells on Jesus, sells him out. And you would think that in this moment Jesus would be upset. Oh no, it's the end now. I know what's coming, but it's not. He says something crazy. He says now the son of man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, god will glorify the son in himself and will glorify him at once. He's basically saying hey, things are set in motion now, and what's set in motion is that the son of man is going to be lifted up, that God is going to be glorified through what happens.
Speaker 1:This act of betrayal was the linchpin needed for you and I to receive redemption, for you and I to have the chance of freedom in our life, for you and I to have an eternal life with Christ. For Jesus, the cross was that ultimate act of humble obedience. And so, again, one of the questions I'm wrestling with is how am I doing obeying him? Do I live in a sense that Jesus lived? Do I love like Jesus loved? Am I obedient like Jesus was obedient?
Speaker 1:Now, simon Peter picking up on what's going on, trying to figure everything out. Simon Peter asked Jesus hey, where are you going? And he asked this to Jesus' phrase, verse 33. Jesus says my children, I'll be with you only a little longer. You'll look for me, and just as I told the Jews, I'll tell you where I'm going. You cannot come. So it's obvious that Simon would speak up. He's the spokesman, right. He'd say Lord, where are you going? What's going on? And Jesus replied to him where I'm going. You cannot follow now, but later you can.
Speaker 1:I'm going to be honest, this study through the gospel of John this year has been pretty incredible for me as a pastor. I'm a very story-driven person and so I love reading the stories. When I read scripture I can see the pictures in my mind. I can see the disciples lounging against Jesus in the upper room, talking, laughing, arguing all the things that would happen amongst friends. I can see them believing the best in Judas as he runs out, even though Jesus had just said what was happening. I can see them wanting to believe the best in him.
Speaker 1:And John as he's writing this gospel later on in his life historical records say that he probably lived to a little over 90 years old. He's writing this in his 80th or 90th year, sitting down, recounting all these stories. The central message that he gives is love that you and I are called to love, that God loved, that Jesus modeled love. There's a historical story of John as he became the pastor and later a senior elder at the church of Ephesus was asked later in his life to preach, and I can imagine even a church that was that far removed from the events would be excited that somebody that had witnessed it was coming to speak. I can imagine as an old frail, john walks on stage to recount who Jesus is and what Jesus did in his life. I can imagine him standing on stage and saying hey, you want to know what I know about Jesus, that Jesus is love and that Jesus has called you and I to love one another.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you this how are you doing with that? How are you doing with what might sometimes seem like the impossible task of loving one another? It's easy to love when everything's going well, but when people hurt you, when people disappoint you, when there are struggles in relationships, it's easy to write people off. It's harder to love. And how in the world are you doing with obeying Jesus in this command to love one another as I have loved you? It is my prayer and hope for you this week that wrestles in your heart and mind and that every conversation that you have, every person that you interact with, that you learn to love like Jesus loves and I promise you it'll change everything. Your relationships will be different, your friendships will be different, the trust that you find in people will be different.
Speaker 1:Love is often seen as a feeling, but you can't command feelings. You can't, in the middle of an argument tell somebody to stop being angry and all of a sudden they're stopping being angry, right, if you ever tried that with your spouse. It just doesn't work. Jesus isn't commanding us to feel a certain way. He's commanding us to act a certain way, and that way is to love one another. How are you doing with that? And that way is to love one another. How are you doing with that man? I pray that today is a new day for you in how you model the love of Christ. Thanks for joining us today. I hope you have an incredible week Until next time. May you love like Jesus loves.