Today's Word Radio

Brett Meador: You know, Jesus over and over, he said in John over and over again, mine hour is not yet come. But now, here in verse one of chapter 13, mine hour's come. This is it.

Kurt: Pastor Brett Mether, fully appreciating the appointed time of the Savior.

Brett Meador: When Jesus is speaking about his hour, it's not just his death, but it's his burial and his resurrection that's being talked about here. From a human point of view, you know, his hour is that of suffering. But when you read Jesus and you realize what he's talking about, it's an hour of glorifying.

Kurt: It's in Matthew's Gospel that we read of Jesus saying, the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve. It shouldn't have come as any surprise then when we find him in John's Gospel humbly washing the feet of his apostles. Coming up on today's word, Pastor Brett Mether turns to the passage offering a glimpse into the heart of Jesus on the eve of his crucifixion.

Brett Meador: Here in John chapter 12, we're going to see some of the most profound of statements from Jesus as he's kind of finishing his public ministry in chapter 12. He's going to move more into the private ministry to his death and starting in chapter 13 and it's really only the disciples he talks to from this point forward in John chapter 13. But we see sort of his most important words he gives. One of the hardest people to put under the correction of God's word is yourself. Have you ever noticed that? It's easy for me to superimpose God's word on other people and say, man, you really need to follow the word.

But to put myself under its correction, that's an important thing. We're going to see that a lot of times I've noticed the tendency. I call it Uncle Bob. Maybe you've heard me talk about that. Everybody's saying, oh, I wish Uncle Bob were here at church tonight. He sure needs to hear this. Forget about Uncle Bob and we always have to kind of say, Lord, what would you have for me to receive from your word tonight? Chapter 12 recap, the part we've covered some of the big events. The voice came down from heaven. We saw, you know, where the Lord boomed from heaven at Jesus's baptism.

We saw that Jesus heard from the Father in heaven booming from heaven at the Mount of Transfiguration. Mark 9, Matthew 17. But also right here we saw in chapter 12 the booming from heaven and they they didn't know. Some people said it was the thunder, others said it was the voice of angels there. We saw it in verse 28 of chapter 12 when he said, Father, glorify thy name. Then the voice came saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. My name is glorified. Um, how is that? Through the Son is the greatest glorification.

And we're going to see the glorification of the Son is linked to the hour of the Son. Remember how Jesus said, mine hour is not yet come? We're going to see kind of the fruition of that statement which we've seen several times. And we're just going to keep reading about this. And this this is the stage set, the booming voice third time in the world's history where God boomed from heaven concerning Jesus, his son. Then we saw Jesus saying, the Son of Man must be lifted up which is equal to being lifted up on the cross.

And then in chapter 33 we saw how people in that day would have known that Jesus was referring to the death of the cross of crucifixion. And this is interesting because crucifixion was relatively in the world's history new at this time. And the reason I love that is because nobody even knew what crucifixion was when some of the old Testament prophecies of how Jesus would die were mentioned. Scriptures like Deuteronomy chapter 21 where it says, and if a man have committed a sin worthy of death and he be put to death and thou hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day.

For, check this out, he that is hanged is cursed of God. That thy land be not defiled which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. Question, was Jesus cursed?

Guest (Male): Yes.

Brett Meador: You got to think about that, right? Yes, he was. He was cursed. Uh, Galatians 3 13 through 14. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree. That little part there is kind of one thing that Jesus is already talking about here in chapter 12 uh, getting ready to fulfill the old Testament prophecies. Verse 14 goes on that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through him.

So, that's kind of important to see that that part of it. So, um, was Jesus cursed? Yes. He became sin for us. Thus he became a curse. So, we pick up where we left off in chapter uh, 12 right there in verse 44. Well, it says, Jesus cried and said, he that believeth on me believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. Now, again, I don't want to belabor this point, but Jesus is saying it again. He's claiming to be God here. It's not that he's saying you have you know, when he says in verse 44, he that believeth on me believeth not on me.

The idea is you're saying, should we believe in Jesus or not? Well, the idea is if you believe in Jesus, you're believing in God the Father. They're one and the same. That's why it says, you know, in verse 45, he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. It's the same thing that Jesus told Philip. If you've seen me, Philip, you've seen the Father. We're one and the same. This is where Jesus is God. You know, we call him Emmanuel which means God with us. Uh, that's who Jesus is. We read on there verse 46, and I am come a light into the world that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.

And if any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. Now, uh, you you might say, well, Brett, isn't Jesus going to be the one who judges the world? But he says, I come not to judge the world. Well, what we're talking about here is his first coming. Jesus says, I'm not coming to judge the world, but what did he do in the first coming? He came to save the world by dying on the cross for the sins of the world.

Later in his second coming, he's coming as the judge, the king of kings, the Lord of lords. You say, okay, Brett, so, man, we need the Lord to come quickly because the world is it needs a judge. Did you know there's sort of an intermediate judge of the world right now? See, Jesus came not to judge, but to save. And he did that. Praise the Lord for that. That's how we're saved by his grace through faith. But at the same time, you say, well, the world needs judging right now. Well, did you know there's there is sort of a judging agent?

And we're going to see that. It is the word of God. Did you know the word that's in your hand right now is the judge against the world right now? We're going to see that. Jesus is going to articulate that. Let's keep reading verse 48. He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one that judgeth him, the word that I have spoken. The same shall judge him in the last day. The word will be the judge. That's why we want to share the Bible. That's why I teach verse by verse, chapter by chapter through the Bible is the world needs to know, what is the world saying?

What does the world need to know about what's right and wrong? Well, the word is the judge. Some people have, you know, criticized what we do here at Atheist Creek saying, you know, well, Brett, you're believing the Bible, you know, but what about the world that doesn't believe the Bible? Well, if you care about the world, you'll share what the Bible says. But what if the world doesn't care what the Bible says? You might say it this way, if you're a person who likes to exceed the speed limit and you really enjoy going over 100 miles an hour everywhere you go, some of us are like that.

Uh, you know, you like to drive fast. But you say, but the law, the law says, you know, 55 saves lives. And there's people that will say, yeah, they like like the police officer that pulls you over, he'd say, but now what would the police officer tell the person that was going 110 miles an hour on I-5 as he pulls him over? What would the police officer say? Well, you you broke the law. Well, I don't care about the law, he says. I I've never read the law. I don't know what the law is. So, I'm just doing what I want to do.

What would the police officer say? He'd say, tough bananas. Please step out of your car and put your hands on the you know, hood or whatever and and arrest you if cuz that'd be worthy if you're that dumb to not know what the laws are, then you probably deserve everything you're going to get. In the same way, I say this kind of brutally, but I I kind of hope the world understands, yeah, that that's a bad situation when you've got God who's got his law written for us. How it all works out, how the whole thing works from beginning to end.

And and if you don't care about that law, it doesn't matter. The law still stands and you're still under the law. That's why you know, I think Paul told the Ephesus elders, I have not shunned there in Acts 20 27, I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God speaking of his word. I've not left out one little verse, one little chapter. He said, I've shared the whole thing. He wanted everyone to know the rules. So, you know, the idea of uh, of knowing what the law is. I remember I had a friend who was pulled over, an older friend, who was pulled over by a police officer for going too slow.

And the the police officer gave him a ticket. I didn't realize that was a law, neither did my buddy who was an old timer, you know, and he he just was going too slow on the on the freeway and the police officer is, man, you're you're a hazard to all traffic. And it's kind of funny just because you don't know the law doesn't mean you're not uh, guilty. By the way, there's some interesting USA Today gave a few examples of laws that are interesting that are on the books. And did you know in the state of Washington it's illegal to kill Bigfoot?

Bigfoot hunters beware. Skamania County, Washington passed a law back in 1969 deeming the slaying of Bigfoot as a felony and punishable by five years in prison of all things. In Virginia, did you know there's no hunting on Sundays unless unless you're killing raccoons? Uh, it's illegal to hunt or kill any wild bird or animal including any nuisance species on Sundays except it's permissible to kill raccoons. Did you know in Oregon there's no practicing of occult arts, you know, like if you want to do tarot cards or astrology or you know, palmistry or clairvoyance or any of those things.

Did you know what county Does anybody know what county you can't do that in? Yamhill. Tell you what, those Yamhillians uh, you know occult practices over there. That that's great. Probably should do that statewide if you ask me. But anyway, people will not be able to claim their ignorance. I didn't know that the law you know, existed, you know, but everyone will be held accountable because the word of God. Do you remember what is coming out of the mouth of Jesus when he comes in his second coming in the imagery of Revelation 19? The sword of the Spirit, a double-edged sword.

We know what that is. That's the word of God. The word of God is living, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. It's a big two-edged sword that comes out of his mouth. That is the word of God that judges the nations, the Christ rejecting sinful nations that he's going to return to. So, if you don't accept the free gift of salvation from the Lord, Jesus is saying, then my word is going to condemn you. And on the last day, it'll haunt you forever. The The The people that say, I didn't know, it still doesn't matter.

It's still the word of God and it remains. The word of God is more powerful than our Constitution of the United States. The word of God is more powerful than any other book or law or anything that was ever passed legislation. The word of God is the one that matters. And that's why we give a lot of time and effort in going through the Bible. Well, verse 49 goes on. Jesus says, for I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak.

And I know that his commandment is life everlasting. Whatsoever I speak therefore even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. We see Jesus saying things like, I always do the will of the Father. You know, Jesus is sort of that a part of God in the three parts of the Holy Trinity that is submitted to the Father. That's kind of interesting. You say, but isn't he one and the same? Yes. But what this kind of shows as part of not only Jesus's nature, but it sort of tells us about the nature of God himself.

Remember when Jesus says, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Well, how does the Father show his own sort of if you would humility? Like there's a There's sort of a humility in God and we see that because there's a humility in Jesus. Now, we're going to see that humility demonstrated as powerfully as you could ever imagine in the next chapter. But you know, it'd be a good practice by the way to do what Jesus does and only do what the Father wants us to do. Wouldn't that be great if your mouth only spoke the words that God wanted you to speak?

There's an old Testament story. Remember Balaam who wanted to curse the children of Israel and every time he opened his mouth to curse, blessing came out of his mouth. Oh, I wish I had that problem. You know, instead of saying something mean or sharp or witty or snarky, if the Lord would just kind of build in my my character just I'd try to say it and then I just couldn't. I'd only say nice things. Well, Jesus is the one who fully showed how that's supposed to look only speaking what the Father wanted. I wonder if you and I if our number of words would be less if we only spoke the things God Maybe some of us wouldn't say a word all day.

Uh, who knows? But uh, you know, James chapter 3 verse 8 it reminds me that you know, the tongue uh, no man can tame. Uh, it's an unruly evil full of deadly poison. Man, our tongues are bad news. It's like a The Bible says it's a little member like a rudder of a ship, but it steers the whole ship. That's what your tongue is. Steers your whole life and your body and your person and your being that what your tongue says. Jesus perfectly said what only the Father would want him to say. And you say, well, what does that have to do with anything?

Well, remember Jesus in the beginning was the word. We started the Gospel of John with this. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus is the embodiment of the word of God, the very thing that will judge the world in the end. But if you want to see perfect balance and what you see is, yeah, Jesus is going to judge the world at the end. But before he does that, he dies for the world for the sins of the world that they might be saved.

Don't you see the beautiful perfection of Jesus Christ here as we see his saving work of the cross? But at the same time, his complete righteousness in the way he lives and moves and serves all of us as the Savior. What an amazing thing. Well, that brings us to John chapter 13. And this first part we're going to see that humility. Verses 1 through 5 is going to be sort of demonstrating his humility. And then we'll kind of break up maybe the rest of the chapter in some other smaller points. But the first section is humility verses 1 through 5.

As we start out verse 1, it's a it's a lot here in verse 1. It says, now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, oh, did you see that? Mark that his hour was come. That's a big deal. That he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. Man, we could meditate on this verse just all night. It's such an amazing verse. There's a few things there I want you to see. First of all, mark the word end there at the end of the verse.

The word end is the word telos. It kind of is linked to the word telescope. What do you look when you look in the outer space and you look through a telescope? You're looking way out as far as you can see. You might say to the uttermost. That's what the word telos is in the Greek. It means the uttermost. So, the literal Greek word telos uttermost is often the way it translated. The word uh, if you look it up in the Greek, it's the limit at which a thing ceases to be to the very end of something, uh, the last in a succession of series or out to the uttermost is the the Greek word there.

It's pretty cool. There was a an old preacher and they've used this line now over the years. But years and years ago there was a preacher that had a inner city ministry and he was preaching on the street in the gutter. But um, this preacher was a guy who just was called to that kind of ministry and he um, he read the scripture uh, this one along with by the way Hebrews 7 25 where he read this. It says uh, wherefore he is uh, able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession.

What is Jesus doing? Ever living to make intercession for who? To the people that are out in the uttermost. And this preacher kind of changed and said to the guttermost. That's where Jesus is able to save from the guttermost to the uttermost. That's what he preached about. Another phrase you may notice that pops out of this verse one is Jesus knew that his hour had come. The hour of Jesus, we've talked about this before, but you know, Jesus over and over he said in John, Jesus has said over and over and over again, mine hour is not yet come.

But now, here in verse one of chapter 13, mine hour's come. This is it. And this is where we begin the whole upper room scene. So, we're right there at the very door of the cross in the story of Jesus here in John chapter 13 when he says, mine hour is come. When Jesus is speaking about his hour, you can sort of understand what he means by the context of the the use of mine hour. Jesus's hour where Jesus would be glorified through his death, his resurrection and his ascension. You might just say that would be the hour that Jesus is referring to his death, his resurrection and his ascension.

It's not literally an hour you know, 60 minutes. It's this moment in his life that would sort of encompass the work of salvation. It's not just his death, but it's his burial and his resurrection that is the hour that is being talked about here. From a human point of view, you know, his hour is a that of suffering. But when you read Jesus and you realize what he's talking about, it's an hour of glorifying which Jesus is is talking about here. So, we get back to our text here in verse two. And there it says, and supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son to betray him.

Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God and went to God, he riseth from supper and laid aside his garments and took a towel and girded himself. After that he pour water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel where with he was girded. This is why in verses 1 through 5 we call this the section of humility. Jesus, I mean, what a radical thing. In Luke's Gospel we we know what the disciples are debating right now.

Does anybody remember in Luke's Gospel what are the disciples talking about when this happens? Yeah, which one of them was the greatest? That's embarrassing. We were talking about which one of the greatest. Meanwhile, the greatest among us stripped himself of his clothes, put himself wrapped him a towel which is only what a slave would have done. Did you know in biblical culture at that day um, the washing of another's feet was pretty common. But it was always a servant or a slave who had washed everybody else's feet. It was very rare to see a colleague or an equal wash somebody else's feet.

There are examples of that where uh, you know, I'm just a normal person wash somebody else's feet. That was rare, but it was a real honor. It was a real intentional show of respect and honor to your friend or to someone to wash their feet. That would have been like kind of out of the ordinary. So, by the way, remember when Mary anointed the feet of Jesus, that would have been very out of the ordinary. But it was known of as the highest way of respect and honor. By the way, there's two foot washings that take place.

The two most important foot washings in the history of the world happened in chapter 12 and chapter 13. Jesus had his feet washed in in chapter 12 by Mary. And now he's washing the disciples' feet. These are the most important ones. Some interesting things as we kind of look at this foot washing scene of humility by Jesus. Notice he washed all their feet including Judas Iscariot which brings up a question. Why would Jesus have washed his feet? Why wouldn't he just skip over? And we already know from the narrative Judas is the one is going to betray.

We know that that's the way the story's going to shake out. And so, why would Jesus wouldn't he just skip over just and Judas would be like, hey, why do you wash my feet? Well, cuz you're a loser. That's not what Jesus does. Uh, here's a little reminder of what was said. If you recall John 6 64 through 71. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him. And he said therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my Father.

From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. But then you read on and it says, then said Jesus under the 12, will you also go away? Then Simon Peter answered and said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered them, have I not chosen you 12? And one of you is a devil. All the disciples, am I the devil? Is it I? You know, like can you imagine being a part of that group?

Which one of us is the devil? Verse 71, he spake of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. For he it was that should betray him being one of the 12. We already saw this way back in John chapter 6. Isn't that something? And so, you know, Peter says, all 12 of us believe. Peter boldly steps out and says, and Jesus says, yeah, but not all of you. One of you is not a believer. You know, I think what was Judas's problem? Boy, that that that's a study right there of its own. But the probably the biggest issue if you really boil it down is Judas I think believed Jesus maybe was going to be someone else, maybe a political figure or something like that.

But he didn't believe Jesus as the Messiah and all of his claims.

Kurt: Pastor Brett Mether, pausing in our look into John chapter 13. As Jesus faced his final hours and Judas's impending betrayal, still demonstrating the depth of his love by serving his disciples. And there's much more to come in our verse by verse look into John chapter 13 next time on Today's Word. I trust you'll stay right there as Pastor Brett will also join me in a moment. But first Today's Word is the radio ministry of Atheist Creek Church just south of Portland, Oregon where Pastor Brett Mether is the senior pastor. Our vision is to proclaim the hope of salvation and help people know Jesus through careful study of the Bible.

We invite you to find out more by going to todayswordradio.com. If you've missed any portion of this message, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com. Well, Pastor Brett has joined me now. Brett, I've been asked about the name of your church, Atheist Creek. And I know you've kind of mentioned it already, but can you repeat how you got the name Atheist Creek?

Brett Meador: Well, people say, how do you pronounce that? A they or and I say, well, it sounds like atheist, but we are not atheist.

Kurt: That's right.

Brett Meador: But it's athe. No, the way we got that that name was uh, we started with a different name, you know, 30 years ago. And as it turned out, somebody about 100 miles from here had the same name that we chose. So, we quickly had to change and we Our first church meetings were in an a middle school. And that school was called Atheist Creek Middle School. And it's because there's a little creek right next to the school called Atheist Creek. And And so, we thought nobody will name their church Atheist Creek. So, so we took that name.

And you know what's kind of funny about that, Kurt, is we uh, we moved from that school about a mile away and built our church building. And right next to our building is a road called Atheist Road. Uh, so the Lord kind of worked it all out. But uh, it's a unique name, but uh, you know, it's funny how a name that's strange becomes very familial and happy. Uh, we just think it's just kind of a nice name for our church. Atheist Creek Church is where where we landed.

Kurt: Absolutely. That's a great story. Thanks for sharing that, Pastor Brett. And if you'd like more information about Atheist Creek Church, Pastor Brett Mether or Today's Word, you can visit our website at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. Well, that's all the time we have for today. Next time Pastor Brett Mether will share something that no other earthly leader would do, but Jesus did. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Mether is an outreach of Atheist Creek Church in Westlin, Oregon.