Most countries have ambassadors who act as representatives or diplomats in foreign countries in the same way believers are called to be ambassadors for Christ. It's not a responsibility reserved for pastors or missionaries. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg shows us what is involved in such a calling. Mm-hmm. John 13, verse 12, when Jesus had washed their feet.
and put on his outer garments and resumed his place. He said to them, Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you're right, for so I am. If I then your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet. you also ought to wash one another's feet.
For I have given you an example that you also should do. Just as I have done to you. Truly, truly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, Blessed are you if you do them. I'm not speaking of all of you.
I know whom I have chosen. But the scripture will be fulfilled: He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. I'm telling you this now before it takes place. that when it does take place, you may believe that I am He. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one who I send receives me.
And whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit and testified. Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me. Father, thank you for your word. And we pray now that as we consider It's uh truth.
That the Holy Spirit may be our guide, controlling my thoughts and my words. our hearts and our wills, our response.
So that Uh having heard Jesus say this, we might be enabled by the Holy Spirit to go out and do what he said. if you do this. And so help us then, Lord, to take seriously what the Bible says in order that we might do. what it asks us to do. by the power of the Holy Spirit, and we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen. The sermon title for today was Truly, Truly Times Three. I thought that was really good. And um No one really had much idea about it, but nevertheless. I have to write something in my notes.
So there are three that we're considering, and the first of these we try to give time to. Although the statement itself in verse 16 really is borne out, its impact is borne out by everything that goes before it. And in one sense, what he says in 16 is just a wonderful summary of the call to humility on the part of those who are his followers. And the attitude of heart is to precede the action of their lives. That's why 17 follows 16, if you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
Now, the next one is then in verse 20. Truly, truly, I say to you. Whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Now, we should note as well that the extent of Jesus' love for these disciples to whom he speaks. Is such that you will notice in the verses that actually precede twenty. He is preparing his disciples for what is about to happen. It is clear from the text that the disciples um are unaware of the fact that there is a quizzling among them. Uh the reaction that comes later on makes that obvious to us.
Of course. Judas knows and Jesus knows, but the rest don't know. And so, what Jesus is doing here is making sure that they're not going to be caught off guard when this happens to them. And that's the significance of him. Quoting from the Old Testament: He who ate my bread has lifted up his head against me, his hand is heel against me.
I beg your pardon. And if you remember when we studied 1 and 2 Samuel together, this is a reference to David's encounter with Ahithophel, who turns against David and seeks to do him ill. And so Jesus recognizes that when What is about to happen happens It has the potential to upset them. to derail them. if you like, almost to undermine their faith.
And so he lets them know. I want you to know that the scripture is going to be fulfilled. that the one who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me. They surely looked at one another in this moment and wondered if they didn't say anything to one another, perhaps their eyes said it. I wonder just exactly what he has in mind here.
I'm telling you this now, before it takes place. that when it does take place, you may believe that I am He. And that is actually the great I Am again. Remember, he's already caused such a ruption with the religious leaders by making this amazing claim to divinity. And he wants them to understand that when all that is about to unfold unfolds, although there may be that which just creates a wobble in their hearts or their minds, He wants them to be prepared so that they will be able to hold on, if you like.
If um this i this is an expression of love, isn't it? It's a generous expression. I'm I'm uh I'm not a fearful flyer, but I also like it when the um the captain says, you know, we're going to be taking off and it looks like it's going to be pretty good, but until we hit the Gulf Stream, The jet stream, that's right, the Gulf stream's in the water, jet streams in the air. And he says, you know, when we hear that, you'll know about it.
Well, he didn't need to tell us that, but man, when we hit it, I was glad that he'd told me. Because otherwise, when you hit it at a certain velocity and a certain Angle, it's an experience to be remembered. And so that's why he did it. It was very nice of him. It's the same tenderness that your parents say to you as a child when they say, you know, when we move house and you are going to be in a new school, the chances are that you're going to be unhappy.
And the chances are that you will miss your friends. Why are they telling you that? Because that is going to happen. And when it happens, you're going to say, aha. They prepared me for this.
That is exactly what the love of Jesus is doing for his disciples. And it is a wonderful encouragement. When things he might have said to them seem to be unraveling, you need to know, you need to know that I am moving forward. To do what is planned for me to do, which of course is a reference back to the previous chapter. And his truly, truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it will bear much fruit.
They had pondered that on that occasion.
Now they're about to discover a distinct wrinkle in the material, as it were, and very kindly he prepares them.
Now in verse 16 They were warned, and we with them were warned, not to stand on any assumed personal dignity. Don't get ahead of yourself, don't get out in front of your skis, don't have too high of an opinion of yourself, just don't do that, Jesus says, both by His word and also by His testimony. But having said that in verse 16, now you find in verse 20 that he's actually saying something different. You're not contradicting 16. But he is pointing out that those that Christ sends out have a dignity That is theirs, that is ours in Jesus.
as ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ. The dignity is not in personality, the dignity is not in giftedness, the dignity is in being called to Christ. To know Christ, to live for Christ, and to go out and speak for Christ and bear testimony to Christ. In the awareness of the fact That the response of people to a straightforward statement concerning who Jesus is, why he's come, what he's done, and so on, is often the occasion of mockery and so on. And so Jesus is saying, you need to understand, fellows.
That You didn't choose me. But I chose you. And I ordained you to go and bring forth fruit. This is John 15. Bring forth fruit, and that fruit will actually last.
So you see what he's actually doing here. This is the scene. The move has gone from the crowd and from the public arena into a private arena with his immediate followers. He recognizes all that is before them. And what I think we must guard against is the idea, because this is an intimate scene.
It is a scene of intimacy without that question. But And I think I've read this in the past as a kind of intimate farewell. Jesus gets together with his disciples, and in 14, he says, Let not your hearts be troubled, you believe in God, and so on. I'm going away, I'll prepare a place for you. And so there is something very tender about it.
But to view it in terms just as an intimate farewell, almost as a kind of spiritual deathbed scene. is is a real danger, I think, and for this reason Because what Jesus is saying when he says that the hour has come. He's actually saying Listen, fellas, I am now facing the completion of my mission. The completion of my mission brings the beginning of your mission. I will go to the Father.
You will stay. The Holy Spirit will be given to you. And you now will go out to the ends of the earth in order to bear testimony to me.
So that What is happening here is, if you like, when we compress the hours that are involved in the whole discourse. Is in one sense Jesus saying to them, you know, you've got your marching orders here. The hour has come. This is what's involved. This is what it will mean.
And then Whoever receives the one I send. receives me. And whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Now I read that wrongly because it's easy to read it incorrectly. Whoever receives the one I send, who's that?
His disciples, those who he has called to himself. Whoever receives the one I send, receives me. You're writing a gospel, a chapter, each day. By the deeds that you do and the words that you say. Men read what you write.
Distorted or true.
So what is the gospel? According to you. Those Who received the one I send, Receive me. Meet me. You are the light of the world, he says.
I am the light of the world. Follow me, you won't walk in darkness. And he says, Now you are the light of the world. You go out and shine as your light in the world. And if you're frightened and you're fearful and you feel yourself to be the only person in your life, Lab or in your office or in your schoolroom or wherever it else is, you need to remember this.
that your your humility of heart is a Big, big plus. But don't take on some peculiar role of undue self-deprecation. Because there is a dignity that is now yours, because you are my ambassador.
Now, I think in the simplest terms, as you know, and I don't apologize for that, but as I sat and thought about this, I thought immediately of Mr. Spence.
Well, you say I wonder who mister Spence is. It's kind of suspenseful mentioning Mr. Spence, isn't it?
Well, Mr. Spence was the headmaster of Carrollside Primary School. And mister Spence would come around all the classes in the primary school every day just to see what was going on and who were who were in the in the positions of usefulness and who were in the naughty positions. And uh Every so often A call would come from the office that the That there was a message to be taken around all the classrooms in the school, and Mr. Spence wanted somebody to go as his messenger.
Oh, I wanted to do that. I want to do that, I want to do that. One, you get out of the class that you're in right now. Two, you can string it out for as long as you possibly can, going from class to class. And three, you kind of feel pretty good about it.
Especially if it is that uh School is going to be set free from his bondage one hour early this afternoon. And that's what you have to do. Or you go in and you say that. and not in so many words. But actually you don't say that.
You don't say, I want you to know that. You say Mr Spence, the has asked me to say. There's all the difference in the world. Because the I want you to understand this can have a real smart alec dimension to it. It can creep up on you.
Especially the longer you go in the faith. The more you understand the gospel, The more free you become about being able to articulate the gospel to people. And suddenly, we get the dignity, humility thing completely upside down.
So that we start to take ourselves too seriously rather than acknowledging the fact. that we are there. at the appointment of someone else. What Jesus is doing here is actually anticipating Uh verse twenty one of uh chapter twenty. When he had said this, He showed them his hands and his sight, and then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
And Jesus said to them again, Shalom. As the father Shalom Eleche. As the Father has sent me, Even so, I am sending. Yeah.
Now what this actually means is very, very important. It it has a particular impact, I'm sure, for those who are called into positions of of particular areas of ministry. But we speak wrongly when we talk about are you in the ministry. No, there is no the ministry. There is ministry.
There is preaching ministry, there is singing ministry, there is helping ministry, there is flower ministry, there is art ministry, there is caring ministry, there is ministry. And in Christ We're in ministry. And we know ourselves to be flawed and Failing. And we know what we're really like inside, and so does Jesus. But what Jesus is saying to us is very straightforward.
Listen. When I go and I leave this to my disciples and they take it up from there, they will in turn make disciples, who will in turn make disciples, and look at where you are.
So when we go to people and we say to them, we implore you, this is 2 Corinthians 5:20, we implore you on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God. That might sound a bit of a mouthful. We might not s necessarily say it in those terms. But we get in a conversation with somebody, and we say, well, what this is really about is about Jesus.
He steps in between our sinful lives and the glory and the wonder of God in all of His holiness. We're actually alienated. We talk to our friends and we say that sense of insecurity and alienation that we sometimes feel that we often can't even explain. We say to them, what the Bible actually says is that that is just a product of the great alienation. And that what Jesus has come to do is to reconcile us to God.
And I beseech you. On behalf of Jesus, Who sent me to you? Be reconciled to God. I wonder what I wonder if we haven't left some real opportunities, as it were, on the table. For just at the moment of Closure.
being afraid to follow through. I say that because I remember with the Campus Crusade background that I had pushed on me by my mother and father-in-law, and particularly by my mother-in-law. She actually arranged, you know, the meetings that I was supposed to have with people. She decided: this person, you need to speak to this person. And of course, I responded to that with alacrity.
Oh, what a wonderful idea, mother-in-law to be. And in actual fact, She set it up, and I remember this so vividly. This fellow died a few years ago. He was a pilot, as it turned out, for um the airline that flies out of uh Um Pittsburgh. which is now, I guess, American.
I forget what it was. Anyway, he was French. He was French. Michael. And he was a good tennis player.
And she said, well, you should talk to Michael, and I've invited him over this afternoon so you can talk to him. And so he came over and we sat on the back porch. And so I did what I had been trained to do. I went through the four spiritual laws with him. I said, God loves you, he has a wonderful plan for your life.
You're sinful, you're separated from God, and you can't know His wonderful plan for your life. But there's good news. Jesus has come in order to bridge the gap between you and a holy God, and He has done for you what you can't do. But here's the deal: you have to individually receive what Jesus has done in order that you might be reconciled to God. What do you want to do about it?
He said, I want to receive Jesus Christ. I said to myself, oh no, you can't do it like that. Yeah.
That something's gone wrong in the whole system. I mean, this can't be right. I mean, I was flabbergasted. I was amazed. I said, no, I mean, yes, I don't know.
Yes, of course, yeah. And we prayed together. And he trusted Christ. And all these years later, I ran into him again in Pittsburgh when he was flying in the airline and he was an elder in his church. And then he got cancer and then he died.
And then he went to be with Jesus. But if I hadn't listened to my mother-in-law and had the guts to actually close the deal.
Someone else would have had to do it. Because clearly he was one of those that The father had given to the sun. I think, you know, that in this present climate, With a humility of heart and an understanding of a dignity that comes through our calling. and our relationship to Jesus. There is You know far more opportunities than we realize.
To take the gospel to our friends. in a kindly way. Because what Jesus is actually saying, and I need to go to this last thing, but what Jesus is saying is that to reject that kind of appeal. If we go back to to uh verse Uh twenty. We go back to that.
To reject that kind of appeal is to reject Christ. And if anyone rejects Christ, They will be rejecting the one who sends Christ. And the one who sends Christ is the God who loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son. that whoever believes in him wouldn't perish, but would have everlasting life. Life.
Um I don't know who wrote this, but it's good, and we move to the last point. Let us note. that it is no light matter. to reject and despise a faithful minister of Christ. A weak and ignorant servant, may carry a message for a royal master.
And for his master's sake. and ought not to be lightly esteemed. contempt for Christ's ministers. when they are really faithful. is a bad symptom.
in a church. and inner nation. We don't ever want to be a church that says, well, I like this one, but I don't like that one. Hmm. It's a sheer dignity.
It's a shared calling. It's a shared privilege. It's a shared responsibility. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alastair Begg.
Now, if you listen to Truth for Life regularly, you've heard me ask for prayer for Alistair recently as he's been traveling and teaching at various events. And I recently had the opportunity to talk to him about. How he has been speaking with young pastors and sharing his experience with them. You have found yourself encouraged by your interaction with these younger men and what you see in their heart and their desire to want to serve the Lord. That's been an encouragement, hasn't it?
Oh, it's fantastic. Yeah, I mean, it's really super. You know, years ago, reading J.C. Ryle, I read the Part where the people asked Ryle, what is going to happen to the church, you know, when all you old guys go. And his reply, which is far more eloquent than this, goes along the lines of you shouldn't worry about that because.
God has yet brighter stars in his universe. And of course, if you think of all that followed from the ministry of Ryle to the present day, then you realize. How accurate he was. And that will always be the case because. God has purposes from all of eternity that He's going to fulfill until finally the kingdom is there in all of its fullness and all of its Beauty and Glory.
Well, when you join our Truth Partner team, you are taking part in this mission to support local churches and encourage pastors so the gospel reach will remain strong for future generations. You can sign up to become a truth partner today. Go to truthforlife.org slash truth partner. Or call us at 888-48-8-8-8-8-8 The first thing is that the majority of the five-year-olds are. Thanks for joining us today.
Jesus knew who his betrayer was, but the other disciples didn't have any idea. Tomorrow we'll hear warnings and encouragement gleaned from the traitor's story. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
