 So tonight we're in John chapter 13 and as we are turning to John 13 I want to share with you the the title of this it's the eternal love of Jesus you know as we are embarking the evening before thanksgiving we can honestly think about all the things that we're thankful for many of us will spend time tomorrow with family and friends and and loved ones reflecting on how we are thankful for the many things that Jesus has done in our lives and so as we are celebrating thanksgiving I wanted to give our church a reminder of the very thing that we need to be thankful for and it's the love of Jesus Christ and not only is it his love that sets us free it's his eternal love that transforms our lives and I think a lot of times we go through this Christian life and we often forget that it's through Jesus his love is what drives us to serve him and this evening we're going to take a look at this beautiful picture of the eternal love of Jesus Christ and how this applies to our own lives so Lord we ask that your hand would be in this teaching and that you would speak to us in Jesus name amen in John chapter 13 beginning with verse 1 and I'll read verse 3 it says now before the feast of the Passover when Jesus knew that his hour had come that he should depart from this world to the Father having loved his own who were in the world he'd love them to the end and having and supper being ended the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Ascariot Simon's son to betray him Jesus knowing that the Father had given him all things and do his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God there's so much packed in these the first three verses what I want to do is little by little and pack these unpack these verses and see how it transforms and sets us up how we are to live as Christians you know there was a time in my life you guys where thanksgiving was not a good time for me it was a time where I was alone I was addicted I was strung out matter of fact when we were singing overcome just recently just right now it took me back to a place where where I was in a hotel room alone and it was when it was one of those times where I contemplated taking my own life because that my addiction in my life was so severe that I had isolated myself and I pulled myself away from family and it was the Wednesday before thanksgiving that I knew people were gonna come over I knew my family was gonna have a gathering but yet there I was alone strung out and didn't think I was gonna make it and I'm thinking back to that today where a lot of us can have this same response but God God has delivered us from a lot of different things in our lives and he's prepared us because of his love for us is eternal and at this time the idea of being loved and being thankful was something that was very far from me I never thought I was good enough to be loved I never thought that I would be in a place where I could be thankful especially in that lifestyle I definitely didn't deserve the love from family or anybody else and it was my own choices that had left me in this place where I know that I was unworthy of love and in our passage tonight we get a glimpse of the last intimate time that Jesus is gonna share with his disciples it is a great demonstration of love before his ultimate demonstration of love at the cross and so we see here right away in verse one we're given a timeframe John starts this after this verse off with now now before the feast of the Passover we all know that the Passover was a celebration of when the Jews or the Israelites were led of out of captivity in the book of Exodus from the enslavement of the Egyptians and it was at that time in Exodus chapter 12 where Jesus instructs Moses to tell the people to get a Passover lamb and to kill it and to take the blood and pour it on the doorpost with Hisop and the Passover angel or the Passover the angel of death will pass over that house because it was covered by the blood of the lamb and so the Israelites always commemorate or celebrate one of these major feasts and it's in celebration of the atonement of that lamb that this that they were passed over to escape the angel of death they were delivered and we know that Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice that atoned our his our sins with his blood and it's the night before the Passover the Passover is a time where they would have a meal between Thursday at sundown and Friday evening according to the Jewish calendar it was a time where they slaughtered lambs and on the day of atonement and Jesus and his disciples were going to celebrate Passover together and in verse one it also tells us that his hour had come now what's interesting about this is that this was no surprise to Jesus he often referenced his hour throughout the throughout the book of John it was no surprise to Jesus that his time for the death on the cross had finally come he knew that he was gonna endure a bloody death on the cross and this was the day before his crucifixion which fell on the 14th of Nissan the time of Passover more than any other Gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke John emphasizes the fact that Jesus was on a heavenly timetable as he did his father's will in John chapter 2 verse 4 he says my hour has not yet come in John chapter 7 verse 30 he references his hour also had not yet come and in chapter 8 verse 20 again we are told that his hour had not yet come and in John chapter 3 verse 23 it tells us that the hour has come that the Son of man should be glorified and here in John chapter 13 verse 1 Jesus knows or knew that his hour had come this hour what is this appointed hour it was the time that Jesus would be brutally crucified for our sins so no longer do our lambs needed to be atoned we had the Lamb of God who will atone our sins with his blood it was that very moment when Jesus would pour out his blood and his love on the sacrifice of the cross that we may be set free that we may be have life in Jesus to demonstrate his ultimate love for us and it tells us here that and alongside that his hour had come here in verse 1 it says that he would depart from this world to the Father now this is interesting because when he speaks here of departing from this world Jesus is speaking of his resurrection he's speaking of his ascension into heaven that he would leave this world to return to the Father now when you look up the word world in the original language we get the word cosmos and it's not so much the globe that we're talking about rather than the world system that it operates in that Jesus was going to leave this time this world system to ascend to the Father eventually for us to receive the Holy Spirit he would leave this world so we get the English words cosmopolitan which is a citizen of the world and I found this interesting we also get the word cosmetics now what's interesting here young ladies is that it's those things we put on in order to bring out of chaos that may ring true for some but I'm not looking at anybody so Jesus is leaving this worldly system he's gonna leave here and he's speaking of the resurrection and what the writer of what John is doing here is now he's building up Jesus's deity in these first three verses because the next thing that he tells us it says that he loved his own having his loved his own disciples who were part of this world says that he'd loved them to the end Jesus loved those who believed in him and he ready them for his mission in the world the word love here it's it's an interesting word because we know the love that Jesus offers is a copy love there is no higher form of love than what Jesus is speaking here a love that is the utmost highest love that anybody can ever offer we often often know that I got paid love is a sacrificial love a love that would lay down one's life for his friends but it goes beyond that friends his love a copy love is eternal in nature when the Bible tells us that God so loved the world it's not in a present tense form it's telling us that his love for us is eternal that there is limitless boundaries on his love but I think a lot of times from our Western thinking perspective that we have a hard time understanding what this love is and the only thing that we can demonstrate this is by using the word love now it's interesting here we love a lot of things we love pizza we love chicharrones tamales we love TV we love a lot of things and this what sometimes makes it so difficult for us to read from a Western perspective because we substitute the word love for so many things but when you look at this in the original language it says he loved his own who are in the world that type of love there is the highest form of love that anybody can have but yet again that's hard for us to measure because we'd love so many things but we get a glimpse a little bit of this and their next part of the verse one where it says he'd loved him to the end this is an amazing verse you guys verse one again is on is unfolding the deity of Jesus to set us up for the rest of the chapter having loved them to the end the extent of Jesus's love for his own was to love them until his death but his love was preparing them for the for his death in resurrection but what's interesting here is that he'd love them to the end to the end of what to the end of his earthly life but that love is limitless and extends into eternity he had boundless love for them it is a love that it has the full extent and the utmost love for them a love that is eternal now I don't know if we understand what an eternal love is I don't think we've ever experienced an eternal love until we have a true identity in Jesus Christ he would prove this by continuing to love them until he died on the cross you know it's even more amazing guys is that he continues to love us now and he's in heaven his love for you and I is eternal his love for us has no boundaries it has no flaws as it has no limits his love for us is so pure and highest form that we have a hard time understanding how to measure that the closest love that I think I can receive that is the love of my wife the love of my children but oftentimes my friends I still feel that I'm undeserving of that love Jesus's love for you this evening goes beyond the death of the cross his love for you this evening is eternal and it will always be eternal and when we are able to understand and walk in that our lives can be transformed I love what it says in Jeremiah 31 3 it says the Lord has appeared to me appeared of old to me saying yes I have loved you with an everlasting love so Jesus loves his disciples without limits he loves each and every one of us without limits Jesus has come to this earth to die for the sins of the world and he had paid for our sins at the cross Jesus loved us because he didn't Jesus loved us not because we're so lovable it's true that some may be more lovable than others but from God's point of view there is no nothing lovable about a sinful person he loves you because it's his character to love I love what it says in 1st John 4 10 this is love that we are loved that we that not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins so God loves us at his own character now if I were to survey all of us here this evening and have you all come up here pass a microphone to you and I asked you does Jesus love you what would your response be yeah he does but well yes I think he does well sometimes I think he loves me because there's so many bad things happening to me how can God love me if he allows all this stuff to happen in my life it's his character to love us and he loves them to the end just as he loves each and every one of you do you truly understand that Jesus loves you with an eternal love do you really understand that his love for you is limitless his love for you has no boundaries his love for you is eternal see I made love my wife I I made love my friends I made love a lot of people but in that love there's limits in that love there can be boundaries that will limit how I love but Jesus loves us eternally and the next thing that the writer that John tells us in verse 2 he tells us that supper being ended now there's something I want to point out here and develop just for a few moments you guys we just seen in verse 1 where John tells us that he loved them to the end and then in verse 2 it tells us and supper being ended now John is giving us a play of words here because the word end in verse 1 having in love them to the end is a different word used than the word supper being ended there are two different Greek words with two different meanings and what's interesting about the one the love the love to the end in verse 1 is that it's eternal there's no time frame on it yes it's on an or it's ending on an earthly level but extends into eternity and here in verse 2 and supper being ended is another Greek word that's totally different it indicates that there is a temporary time frame to it that it's going to end that is it's going to it's going to speak of a time that's temporary and has an expiration date see the love that is spoken in verse 1 love them to the end speaks of a love that is eternal the love of Jesus Christ is limitless his love for Jesus is ongoing and everlasting it is Jesus who was eternal he loved his disciples and he loves you of his earthly ministry that stretches way into eternity but when you look at this event of the supper being ended it speaks of an event that's temporary it speaks of a of an event that has an expiration date even though this supper has great significance and great meaning it's still ended and I think a lot of us pursue those things that are so temporary we try to fulfill make bring fulfillment into those things that have an expiration date we try to bring those things in that would try to bring fulfillment in our lives such as the pursuit of money recognition relationships we're in the pursuit of these things but they can never bring fulfillment as the eternal love of Jesus Christ but yet we are so often and so bent looking for these things see anything that we experience on this side of heaven will always have an expiration date tomorrow a lot of us are gonna be eating but tomorrow evening at 1159 p.m. Thanksgiving it's about 10 and then we're gonna have Christmas Eve that's gonna end and then we're gonna have Christmas morning guess what that's gonna end see in so many times we put our hopes in our fulfillment and our desires for fulfillment in those things that are temporary and what John is telling us here is that Jesus's love is eternal that brings fulfillment and that this supper has ended anything that we do that is outside the eternal love of Jesus Christ will have an expiration date so why are we looking so hard to have these things fulfill us why is that because they're temporary they will not last they have an expiration date but yet we're in pursuing of these things so my question to you this evening is what are those things that you're pursuing if we're not resting in the eternal love of Jesus Christ and allowing his love his eternal love to bring fulfillment to us we were we are pursuing things that will expire they will never bring fulfillment in our lives they will never bring an eternal perspective in our lives only our hope in Jesus Christ we see the perfect example of a man who was fulfilling his life with temporary things because in the second part of verse 2 after supper being ended it says the devil have already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him this is a perfect example of someone who has pursued temporary things for fulfillment from the world and yet he had access of greater than anybody to the eternal love of Jesus Christ think about it Judas walked with Jesus many miles Judas was around those campfires with Jesus hearing his heart Judas was the one that was there when he would see the dead come back to life Judas was there at the last supper but yet his heart was full of greed and he was after those temporary things and so what is so dangerous about this is that this person Judas Iscariot had so much close access to Jesus he still was after the things of the world see friends if we are not in pursuit of God's love through his word through the fellowship of our believers and in prayer we can be so close to Jesus in proximity but our hearts can be so far away from you Judas was the perfect example who pursued temporary things even though he had direct access to the eternal love of Jesus Christ his pursuit of greed led Judas to betray Jesus and this is what happens when we look for fulfillment outside the love of Jesus Christ we will begin to give our lives over and betray our Lord and Savior when we think about all the things he's done for us at the cross but yet we decide to do it our way or we decided to do it this way or we think we can get away with this or you know I you know I've been serving God for a little bit of time now so I did look I deserve a little bit of this and I deserve a little bit of that and ultimately what we're doing is that we are be trained the very love of Jesus Christ so what are you seeking for fulfillment this evening what are you pursuing because if it's outside the eternal love of Jesus Christ it's temporary and it will never bring you fulfillment Matthew 15 aid it says these people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips but their hearts are far from me nothing will ever bring fulfillment outside the love of Jesus Christ everything is temporary I like what it says in Isaiah chapter 54 verse 10 it says for mountains may depart and the hills may be removed but my steadfast love shall not depart from you my covenant of peace shall not be removed says the Lord who has compassion on you Psalm 103 17 says but the steadfast love of the Lord it's from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him Jesus knew that Judas would betray him Judas has mentioned eight times in the Gospel of John more than any other Gospels Satan had entered into Judas and now he would give him the necessary thought to bring about the arrest and crucifixion of the Son of God what's interesting here when it says and the devil have already put it into the heart of Judas that word in the Greek put in really means to throw and so it was thrown on the heart of Judas and when our hearts are seeking after those temporary things it's very easily for the enemy to throw these things on our hearts I'm often not asked is was Judas a believer or we's has he always been a member of Satan's family he sat under Jesus's ministry for three years was a part of the inner circle again he's seen miracles but yet he was under the control of Satan because of his pursuit of worldly things and his plot against Jesus was nothing less than satanic but verse 3 it's an amazing verse you guys look what it says Jesus knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God this is an amazing verse because just alone in verse 3 we are seeing the deity of Jesus unfold before our eyes this is Jesus knowing what's what's so amazing about this is that Jesus in his earthly form is now taking on the deity characteristics he knew is knowing it's an ongoing thing as he says here that knowing that the Father has given into the hands and that he had come from God and was going to God in other words God has given Jesus all authority all authority not just some authority all authority now I don't know if you guys ever had any run in with the hood out right or the cops for you and they have authority they can arrest you they can take you to jail they can do a lot of things and some of us don't like that so sometimes we will rebel against that authority but it's telling us here that all authority was given to Jesus and he knew this he knew this he knew that his death was coming within the next couple of days and and it's telling us here that he has all authority given us a characteristics of his eternal is that he was in a patent all knowing this is what I love about verse 3 because it's building the in a patent in the eternal aspect of Jesus it tells us here in verse 3 that he's going into it come from God and he's going back to God tells us the eternal relationship between the son and the father another aspect of Jesus's deity and this verse also shows the eternal relationship between the two and it tells us here in verse 3 that he had come from God and was going to God he knew that his identity was in God that he was God himself so you see that verses 1 2 and 3 have given us this unpeeling of the deity of Jesus he uses the word John uses the word and he knew and he loved eternally and now he's omnipotent he knows all things and all authority has been given to him from God and now he's going back to God is that amazing the description in these first three verses of Jesus when we take the time to look at that we're thinking this wow all authority has been given to him how much authority has been given all so when you read this you're thinking now Jesus has all this authority you know he's gonna go do he's gonna go out there and overthrow the Roman government right all authority has been given to him Jesus go out and and destroy Pilate and destroy the governors and destroy all of Roman and get that occupation out of Jerusalem get him out of Israel or you know what Jesus Judas is a treacherous be betrayer zap into a chicharron get them take care of them but what does he do all authority has just been given to Jesus and he knew this look what it says in verse 4 he rose from the supper table a lady's outside his garments took a towel and girded himself after that he poured water into a basin and begin to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded he rises up you think he's gonna start rising in power and he's gonna lead this this coup and go out there and take care of things but instead he rises up and he removes his garment what's so significant about him removing his garment when you look at I'm jumping ahead of myself when you look at John chapter 19 verse 23 it says that the Roman soldiers divided his garments and gambled for them that verse tells us that it's a it was a one seam seam it was a seamless tunic and that the Roman soldiers wanted to gamble for it so there's a little bit of significance of what this garment is actually it says garments see most rabbis would would in those days would wear a seamless garment yet Jesus was not rich and a lot of times the Bible tells us that a lot of the things were supplied to him and and one of the commentators pointed out that a robe or his seamless garment may have been given to him as an indicator of a high authority but it was with no pomp or circumstance it was just a seamless one seam robe but it was significant enough for people to identify who he is with that robe it was enough for the Roman soldiers to want to gamble for it at the side of the crucifixion and the first thing that he does when he's just been given all authority is he gets up and he removes that garment which removes himself as having all authority and he pours he begins to pour he begins to wipe the the feet of the disciples with the towel in Jewish customs there was no way masters would ever wash the feet of servants Gentile slaves would typically do that but Jesus knew within the disciples that there was some type of competitive spirit that was going on in fact within minutes of washing the disciples feet when you look at Luke 22 you'll see that they begin to argue who's the greatest and Jesus perceived that knowing all things and he begins to deal with that he gave them an unforgettable lesson in humility and he rebuked their selfish pride the more you think about this the more profound what Paul writes in Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 11 let not let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God did not consider robbery to be equal with God but made himself with no reputation taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of man and being found in the appearance of man he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death even the death of the cross therefore God has also highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name that's the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and those are earth and those under earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father sovereign Jesus all power has just been handed to him all authority has been given to him and the first thing he does is he rises up and takes the role of a servant to wash his disciples feet now I don't know about you guys I would never wash your feet I've seen some of your guys's feet if I put my feet in there I was I seen these places where you could put your feet in these little things and all these little fishes would eat it right if they did that to me all those fish would be floating and imagine the dirt that was on the towel of washing their feet how dirty it was he yet Jesus removes his garment and he and he puts on this towel and he identifies himself as a servant and what's interesting about this is that Jesus removes his deity his garment of deity and he is taken on the dirty sins of our lives in order that we may be set free and he laid himself his garments and he girds himself with the towel and the first thing that John tells us he does is he pours Jesus had been pouring into the lives of his disciples for the last three and a half years he poured his life into them and he poured his love into them and now he is pouring water into a basin to show his disciples the most ultimate demonstration of love servanthood and the next time that we will read of Jesus pouring out will be why he's on the cross pouring out his blood because he loves you and he loves me Psalm 22 14 says I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint my heart is like wax it melted within me what's interesting here in verse five it talks about he poured water in the basin and began to wash that word means to wash just a single part of the body the distinction was he was trying to teach his disciples that by washing your feet that we are called distinctly to walk a holy walk and that we are to keep our feet clean in order for us to walk worthy because if we're defiled we cannot have communion with our Lord we can experience his eternal love that brings fulfillment in our lives as an example to love and to serve others how we do in that area in serving one another it's hard it's difficult to serve one another but why don't we follow the example of the eternal love of Jesus Christ you know earlier I mentioned that there is a time in my life where Thanksgiving was not a good time for me as I mentioned before because I was alone I was strung out I was addicted I I had made poor choices and now I'm here I am sitting by myself thinking that just in hours family is going to get together and I'm not going to be there and I don't know about you guys but that I don't know if you guys ever experienced that type of loneliness and again this was a time the idea of being loved and being thankful was something that was so foreign to me so far away from me and I remember coming home on a Sunday before Thanksgiving and as I walked through the door I was strung out I was angry and I walked through the door and my dad meets me there and he begins to try to encourage me that son your life is not supposed to be like this Jesus loves you he has a plan for you he has a purpose for you son turn away from these things and what I do is I get up and I push my dad down on the floor and I can tell you friends that I've never ever forgot that look in his face never he was shocked that his son would do something like this and as I saw him on the ground tears started to stream from his face and I'm thinking to myself what have I done and the look that he gave me that confused stunned look that his own son has just pushed him to the floor I remember leaving there thinking I can never be loved I can never be forgiven when he died at his deathbed as soon as he took his last breath that was the first thing I thought about and it still burns my heart and my mind but it reminds me of a story and I'm going to close with this because God's love and his eternal love for you he has forgiven you for everything I love what it says in Ephesians but you guys many of you guys have heard this story before and it bears repeating because it's it's a picture of God's eternal love a man had a man had many dogs you guys know this one many dogs and these dogs were purebred dogs and he would take these dogs to dog shows and they would win first place prizes and because of this this man became very rich and yet these dogs really did nothing for them he tried to have a relationship with them they tried to he tried to spend time with them but yet these dogs really didn't do anything for them but just won him money and trophies you'd go into his fireplace and he had these trophies of first place and they made them lots and lots of money but there's no relationship with them and he told his servant you know what I want to go out and look for a mutt and his his servant is like what do you mean you want a mutt you have all these dogs right here they've won you tons of money they have done so good for you why would you want to look for a mutt because they do nothing for me I love them and they do not respond so they get into limousine and they're cruising up the highway in the byway and it's pouring rain and they get to an alley and they look down the alley and the man says stop the car and as the master gets out of the car he goes and there are there is a mutt that is digging through the trash this mutt had no home he had been kicked out he had been hated he'd been beat he'd been stepped on and so as this master is approaching this dog that is left to dig through the trash he goes and picks him up and the mutt is very timid because it has been beaten before and the master picks this mutt up holds it close to him it's wet I don't know if yours has ever smelled wet dog and he puts it in the car and takes it home meanwhile this mutt's like this guy's going to throw me out the window everybody else has nobody has been good to me everybody else has done me wrong and the master takes this mutt home and he gives it a warm bath he lets him eat out of his bowl and he loves this mutt he gives it a bath he warms it he feeds it at lets it sit on his lap while they eat he sleeps with it and one morning the master gets up and the mutt is gone and the master couldn't understand why this mutt would leave after he had poured his heart into this dog and every morning that master would go and he would go on the highways and the byways looking for his dog and he could never find it and so he gave up much time has passed and one morning he hears a scratch at the door and he's thinking maybe that's my mutt nah it's been too much time there's no way that dog would come back I wasn't looking for it it's gone and he heard it again this is while he was eating breakfast and the master gets up and he starts to walk quickly to the door and his his walk begins a brisk jog and his brisk jog became a sprint to the door and he opens up the door and guess what he sees come back next weekend I'll tell you guys his mutt his mutt came home and this time his mutt brought a bunch of mutt friends with him and he turned and spoke mutt language to these dogs and said this is the man who loved me when nobody else would this is the man who loved me with an eternal love this is the man that when I pushed my dad down he forgave me this is the man that when I was strung out he's the one that set me free this is the man that when I had no hope and wanted to take my own life that he gave me life this is the man amen and this is the man who loves you eat see friends there's nothing in this world that we can pursue outside the eternal love of Jesus Christ may we always remember that in this Thanksgiving season that Jesus loves you with an eternal love never never forget that may we always walk in his love because he loves you I hate to say this guys but we're all mutts and we all have a story when Jesus said