The rejection of the Lord Jesus, the Perfect Servant

Chapter 10 and verse 27. John 10 and verse 27. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which giveth them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.

Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Now chapter 13 please. Verse 1. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, 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.

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 poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.

Peter saith unto him, Lord, thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.

Now just for sake of time, go down the chapter, verse 21. When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one to another, doubting of whom he speak.

Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom he speak. He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is to whom I shall give a sob.

Now chapter 18, verse 15. And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. That disciple was known unto the high priest, and then with Jesus into the palace of the high priest.

But Peter stood at the door without. Then went out that other disciple, which was known unto the high priest, and spake unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter. Now then saith the damsel that kept the door unto Peter, Art thou not, or art thou also one of this man's disciples? He saith, I am not.

And the servants and officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals. And it was cold, and they warmed themselves. And Peter stood with them, and warmed himself.

Now chapter 21, please, for a few verses. I'm reading a few, but I'm not going to be up here very long, hopefully. 21 and 1. After these things Jesus showed himself unto the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias.

And on this wise showed he himself. There were together Simon Peter and Thomas Caldiramus, and Nathanael of Canaan Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing.

They say unto him, we also go with thee. Verse 15. So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these.

He saith unto him, yay, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto them, feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me.

He saith unto him, yay, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto them, feed my sheep. He saith unto him The third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things.

Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedest whither thou wouldest.

But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest. This spake he, signifying of what death he should die. Verse twenty, Then Peter turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following, which also leaned on his breast at supper, and saith, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Now we know that God will bless the reading of his word with what we have heard.

We read in John chapter ten about what I will just simply call the rejection of the Lord Jesus. Amazing, isn't it? The Lord came, as we've already heard and know it, he came to reveal the Father. But they didn't want anything to do with the Lord Jesus, but he had his own sheep, and he gave them eternal life, and he said they'll never perish.

And then when he said, I and my Father are one, they took up stones to kill him. Now we come to John chapter thirteen, we find a great contrast. There it's not so much the Jews or those that were all against him, but he has a little group of his own.

And having loved those that are in the world, he loved them unto the end. What a contrast that was. There may not have been very many, but he said this little group belongs to me.

And that's very important for us to realize. Those of us in assembly fellowship, some maybe in small assemblies, and maybe you think not of much consequence in the world. Well, I'll tell you this.

The Lord loves you, and he loves the little groups, having loved his own which are in the world. They're near and dear to his heart, and so are you. And he loves you, and he wants you to keep in that close position, to keep a place near to his heart.

Think of who he is. You already came from God, was going back to God, knew that all things were delivered into his hands, knew who it was that was going to betray him. The Lord knows everything.

The gospel of John is a gospel of the one that knows everything. He knew who it was that was going to betray him. I won't go into detail, take too long, but it's a gospel of his greatness, greater than all, greater than Jacob, greater than our father Jacob.

You're greater than Abraham. Before Abraham was, I am. By implication, greater than Moses.

Moses gave you the manna, and your fathers ate it, and they're dead. But I'll give you the true genuine bread that comes from heaven. If you eat of this, you'll never die.

But the Lord wasn't thinking about the day when all things were going to be delivered into his hands. He's thinking of that little group. He's going to lead them, and he loves them, and he's not going to leave them orphans, of course.

The Holy Spirit is going to come. But I want to impress this upon us right now. The Lord Jesus knew exactly what was needed at that time, and he knows what we need today.

You see, he's a perfect servant, isn't he? He girded himself with a girdle. Think of all his greatness, but yet his thoughts aren't so much even with Calvary at this time. His thoughts are with the little band that he's going to leave behind.

Israel, really the ones that rejected him, they were to be God's servant, weren't they? And if you go to Jeremiah chapter 13, there's John 13, Jeremiah 13. Jeremiah was told to take a girdle, and he was told to take it and put it in a little cave on the banks of the Euphrates. And then he was told later on to go back for that girdle, and the girdle was marred.

The girdle speaks of service, but the service of Israel was marred. But here's the perfect servant. Mr. Darby's translation, I think, tells us it was a linen girdle.

It's pure. The pure servant knows exactly what we need. He's serving us just as he served them.

His service hasn't finished, you know. He's still serving us in heaven. But he's a servant, and he knows exactly what they need.

What did they need? They needed their feet washed. Peter said, you're going to wash my feet? He rejected it, first of all, and he said, well, you know, then if you're going to wash my feet, don't stop there. Wash me all over.

Well, you know, when you look at John 13, you have to remember the bath and the basin and the bosom and the betrayal. Those are the four B's that you need to remember when you look there. And he said, no, you're bathed all over.

You're born again. That's a new birth. You don't need that.

That's only once in your life, born into the family of God. And, you know, here he is. I could trace through John 13 all the colors of the high priest's garments, all speaking beautifully of the Lord Jesus.

But, you know, here he is. And he said, once you're born again, you're safe. You know, the high priest had two stones on his shoulders.

Remember the onyx stones? Exactly the same. And the names of the children of the tribes were written according to their birth. That's a new birth.

And he's holding us all up in his presence today. That's what he's doing. But you know as well, there were stones on the breastplate.

Now, you see, here he is. He's rejecting it. Peter's rejecting it.

But then you have his request. And he wants to know who it is that's going to betray him. Did you wonder why Peter didn't ask the Lord himself? Well, I'll tell you why.

I think it was, at least it's a lesson for us. He wasn't close enough to get the answer. We need to be close to the Lord.

And that's what the Lord wants us to stay in that place of nearness. We're all on the breastplate of our great high priest. All the stones, all precious, all different.

That's you and I. Thank God we're all precious. It's a good thing maybe we're all different too. We shouldn't try to make everybody the same.

But we're all on his bosom. What a wonderful place to be. So, what does Peter do? He has to ask the man that's close to him.

The man that's leaning on his breast and in his bosom. The bosom, of course, speaks of love, doesn't it? And it's love drawing us into his bosom. Love drawing us in the breast is like there's love going out.

And that's where the Lord said, the perfect servant knows what is absolutely needed. We need to be close to the Lord. We need to be enjoying the place that he has given us.

We're on his breast, each one of us. But are we really entering into it? Are we really enjoying that place of nearness? Now, you know, he's the one that has the answer. Sometimes we can't get answers.

It's because we're not living close enough to the Lord. But he has the answer because, you know, not only do you have the onyx stones in the breastplate, but you have the urim and the thummim. We're not told exactly what they are, but we can conjecture.

But I'm not taking time to do that. But at least that's where they got the answer. These, whatever they were, stones, likely they were in the pouch behind the breastplate.

So the Lord's going to give them an answer. And that's where we get our answers, from the very heart of the Lord. They're on his heart as well, on the breastplate, in the pouch behind.

And the direction that God gives us is direction from his very heart. There's never wrong direction from him. That's what we need.

But we need to be close to him to get the direction. And we get it through the word of God. It's not something magical that just comes to us, but we're guided by the word.

The water of the word is likely what he, we have here, whether it's the laver or not. I would look at it as as the laver, but whatever. It's the water.

Where did they get the water for the laver in the wilderness? They got it from the smitten rock. So we've got direction. Now, when we come to chapter 18, we have a relapse, I'd call it.

Here's the man that was so strong, but you know, he would have been a lot stronger if he'd been closer to the Lord, wouldn't he? I'm not, don't like to find a lot of fault, but Peter was a tremendous person, but he wasn't indwelt by the Holy Spirit and he was impetuous. Sometimes we can be like that. We want to speak without thinking much about it.

We've been reminded of that in the conference, but here he is. And you know, John really didn't help him very much. I don't think John should ever have taken him into the high priest palace.

He knew that the man was there likely that he, that he cut his ear off. And they would say, that's a dangerous place to go. And why you're just setting yourself up.

Sometimes you have to be careful how we lead others. We should be an example, shouldn't we? But anyhow, whatever happened here, he is so strong. What I do now, no, it's not now the feet washing, but thou shalt know hereafter.

He didn't know right then, but now he's going to find out. And how is he going to find out? Well, that's what we read off in 21. I'm not sure if the first part of that verse, I know there's maybe dispensational teaching, but I'm not, I wouldn't condemn Peter too much.

Maybe he thought we should be doing something, but you know, he just couldn't wait. That's dangerous, isn't it? When we can't wait, that was Esau's problem. He couldn't wait.

He wanted everything right now. And you know, we need to be able to wait. We need to have patience.

I mentioned somewhere where God is looking for, I used to say two things from every believer, but now at least it's three. Maybe there's more, but one is dependence. How can we depend on God in our prayer life? Obedience.

How can we be obedient? That would be in our Bibles, reading the word. But another thing we need is patience. God doesn't give us an answer right away.

Sometimes we have to wait. And most of us were impatient. We're living in a right now generation.

And everybody wants everything right now. One woman, she said, Lord, give me patience and give it to me right now. Well, it doesn't work like that, you know, but we want it right away.

But anyhow, whether he was leading the others astray or not, it doesn't really matter. But the Lord had called him to catch men, not fish, catch men alive. But then, you know, after they had dined, he had been at the world's fire, had been at the wrong fire.

Now the Lord had a little fire, wonderful the way the Lord dealt with him. He didn't just go after him right away. He waited till he came in and brought the fish.

The Lord had fish already there. And the Lord had a fire, warmed him up, warmed his heart. And now he's going to restore him.

You know, there is restoration and it's full restoration. We're hearing about the bird with a broken wing doesn't fly so high. And most of the brethren don't believe that.

And I don't believe it either. Of course, you'd have to prove yourself. You know, if you have a real bad fall, you need to prove yourself.

But you know, God has used people and he's going to use Peter in a mighty way. You and I maybe wouldn't have said, well, Peter, you have fallen now and you've denied me more than once, three times. My goodness.

And yet he said, no, I want you to see what the feet washing really means. Love us down me more than these. I would take it more than the disciples.

Some William hosts is more than a fish, but I don't, I'd rather look at it the other way, but whatever it is, it's all about love. He's going to serve the Lord. He's going to really represent the Lord.

The Lord took care of the sheep of Israel, but now he said that Peter, I'm leaving and you're going to do this. Love us down me more than these. I'll know us to all things.

It's the gospel of the knowledge of the son of God. He knew Nathaniel. He knew the woman, how many husbands you had and so on.

And Peter, he finally says, Lord, I know us all things. I know us that I love thee. You're going to be a shepherd and we all, we should, all of us should have a shepherd's heart.

And you know, we're going to have a shepherd's heart. It all comes from love to the Lord Jesus. We can't love as people if we don't love him.

And we'd like to love him more. How can we love the Lord more by getting into the word and learning how much he loves us, entering into his love for us will help us to love him more. And you know, the more we love the Lord, the more we'll love as people.

And the more we love the Lord, the more we'll love the souls of dying men and women and their sins. So he said, now you're going to feed my sheep. You're going to represent me in my absence.

Lord, what shall this man do? I don't think the Lord was angry with Peter to want to mind your own business. I don't think the Lord would have said that at all. What shall this man do? What does that to the follow down me? And I just want to leave you with this thought.

The most important thing today for you and for me is to keep ourselves right with God. It doesn't matter what others are doing. First of all, we're going to be a help restore such a one in the spirit of meekness.

You know, that's what Abraham did. But a lot, when lot was taken captive and he brought him back, he restored him. But in the spirit of meekness, he wouldn't, he wouldn't accept their goods from the, from the king of Sodom.

That's the also be tempted. God strengthened them so he wouldn't be tempted, but keep yourself right with God. And that's what I try to do.

Keep myself right with God. And just as Peter now, he said, you're my representative. You and I are his representatives down here.

What a calling that is to represent the Lord Jesus and to represent him. We'd have to be like him. We're ambassadors in a way, a little ambassador, somebody that knows the person they represent.

So we need to get to know them if we're going to represent them. And we need to be like him. Wouldn't it be great if we're all progressing just maybe even a little bit.

I like to make progress. None of us are making very much progress, but there's going to be a change coming. Change this body of humiliation to be like under the body of his glory.

But it'd be good if the change was just a little bit less because we're becoming more and more like the Lord. We may have failed, but there's restoration and now there's representation of the Lord here in his absence.