John #32: The Great Distinctive (John 13:18-38) - a podcast by Rob Woodrum & Others

When a person has on a garnet and gold shirt with a feathered spear emblazoned on the chest, you can get a pretty good idea what college team they root for come football season. Same thing when someone stretches their arms out front, right arm over left and begins moving the arms up and down, you can easily guess what reptilian mascot they pull for. People’s loyalties will often have identifiable distinctives.

But what about a loyalty to Jesus? How can people tell that a person is committed to Him? Some believe that they have to be outspoken about their moral convictions and fight every impure aberration they encounter in order to demonstrate that they are, indeed, a Christian.

Some people are so zealous they could be described as being “in your face” about their faith – all in an attempt to be identified as belonging to Christ. Did Jesus give us any clues about how we could be recognized as his disciples, his followers?

The answer is yes. He told us very clearly, with words that are both ridiculously easy to understand and ridiculously hard to do.

We’re going to be reading John 13:18-38 this Sunday, finishing up the chapter. In this section we have three points – 1) a betrayal is forecast and the betrayer identified, 2) Jesus gives a new commandment, and 3) Jesus forecasts Peter’s denial. Jesus’ command is sandwiched between two revelations of faithlessness – which I believe is intentional to provide a contrast for his command.

When Jesus revealed that someone would betray him, what were the disciples uncertain about? Did they show any predisposition to assume Judas was the betrayer? It seems like Judas blended in with the gang quite well – so with that in mind, how much do you think  an outward show of conformity has to do with rightly representing Jesus?

When Jesus told them all he was leaving to a place they couldn’t follow, Pete zealously announced that he would go anywhere – he would die for Jesus. Jesus had some disconcerting news for him about events that would happen later that night. How much did outspoken zeal have to do with rightly representing Jesus?

V34-35 – what did Jesus say would be the identifiable distinctive of his followers? Is this romantic love, or sentimental love, or something else? How easy or hard is it for you to love people who are unlovely – those who’ve hurt you or offended you? How does loving people like Jesus loves us help us understand the process of loving others? This will be a challenging, albeit, hope-filled study – and I hope you can join us for it this Sunday at 10 am!

Click here for a pdf of the teaching slideshow.

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