WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.920 --> 00:00:07.840 If you open your Bibles with me this morning to the Gospel of John, chapter 13. 2 00:00:07.840 --> 00:00:12.260 Many things take place in chapter 13. 3 00:00:12.260 --> 00:00:19.980 We are going to focus on just the last part of this. 4 00:00:19.980 --> 00:00:26.800 We are going to read verses 33 to 35 as our text this morning. 5 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:28.840 This is coming from the Lord Jesus. 6 00:00:28.840 --> 00:00:36.620 He is with his disciples and he has just shared the Lord’s table with them. 7 00:00:36.620 --> 00:00:40.420 This is the night before his crucifixion. 8 00:00:40.420 --> 00:00:47.260 He tells them, beginning in verse 33, this is God’s holy word. 9 00:00:47.260 --> 00:00:52.380 Little children, I am with you a little while longer. 10 00:00:52.380 --> 00:01:01.740 You will seek me, and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come. 11 00:01:01.740 --> 00:01:12.240 A new commandment I give to you, that you are to love one another, even as I have loved you , that you also love one another. 12 00:01:12.240 --> 00:01:18.450 By this all men will know that you are my disciples , if you have love for one another. 13 00:01:18.450 --> 00:01:26.080 Let us look to the Lord and ask the blessing on the reading of his word. 14 00:01:26.080 --> 00:01:31.940 Father, we are so grateful to you for your great mercy for us. 15 00:01:31.940 --> 00:01:34.600 We thank you for the work of Christ our Savior. 16 00:01:34.600 --> 00:01:44.560 We thank you for his great examples of love, for his great love that he has shown us, for the great love that you have shown us. 17 00:01:44.560 --> 00:01:52.920 We thank you that you love us with a love that is unimaginable because it is not a love that is earned . 18 00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:57.360 It is a love that just freely flows from your nature of love. 19 00:01:57.360 --> 00:02:05.360 Help us today to grasp a little more of this love, to understand it, to appreciate it. 20 00:02:05.360 --> 00:02:19.580 Father, by the grace and power of your Holy Spirit, to apply the truths of Jesus’ words to our lives, so that we love in some measure in the same way that Jesus loves. 21 00:02:19.580 --> 00:02:25.660 Help us with this, we pray, in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, and for his glory, we pray. 22 00:02:25.660 --> 00:02:28.880 Amen. 23 00:02:28.880 --> 00:02:41.560 A few months ago, back in the first of November, I went to the Division of Motor Vehicles and renewed my driver’s license. 24 00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:43.480 I have it here. 25 00:02:43.480 --> 00:02:50.780 It looks a lot like my other driver’s license, except I have changed just a bit. 26 00:02:50.780 --> 00:02:54.870 I think this is good for six or more years. 27 00:02:54.870 --> 00:02:57.640 It is good for a good while yet. 28 00:02:57.640 --> 00:03:04.130 The only significant difference between this thing is that up here in this corner, I have a little star. 29 00:03:04.130 --> 00:03:11.820 It is a little star on my driver’s license, and that makes this a real ID. 30 00:03:11.820 --> 00:03:14.280 It is a real ID. 31 00:03:14.280 --> 00:03:26.100 A few years ago, some of the states started allowing non-citizens to get driver’s licenses, even though they were not legal citizens. 32 00:03:26.100 --> 00:03:29.560 It was just less of a hassle for the state. 33 00:03:29.560 --> 00:03:33.180 So they let them get driver’s licenses. 34 00:03:33.180 --> 00:03:42.360 So it was impossible then to use a driver’s license to identify you as a citizen. 35 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:57.180 So next month, in just a week or so, if you fly somewhere in the United States, you are going to get on an airline, like Jessica did a few weeks ago when she took that little hop up to Pennsylvania. 36 00:03:57.180 --> 00:04:04.760 You have to either have a real ID, like that little star on the corner of your driver’s license, or you have to have a passport with you. 37 00:04:04.760 --> 00:04:09.340 You have to have something to prove that you are a US citizen. 38 00:04:09.340 --> 00:04:11.480 I was thinking about that. 39 00:04:11.480 --> 00:04:26.520 Wouldn’t it be great if in our churches we could have a way of saying, “Can you give me a real ID that you belong truly as a citizen of the Kingdom of God?” 40 00:04:26.520 --> 00:04:28.500 Wouldn’t that be a terrific thing? 41 00:04:28.500 --> 00:04:36.820 Because the truth is, in our churches, all too often, you might have what Jesus called a wolf in sheep’s clothing. 42 00:04:36.820 --> 00:04:39.100 There is that in the Bible. 43 00:04:39.100 --> 00:04:41.980 The Bible refers to that as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. 44 00:04:41.980 --> 00:04:46.860 A person who appears to be a Christian and yet they are not. 45 00:04:46.860 --> 00:04:48.960 There are many examples of that in the world. 46 00:04:48.960 --> 00:05:06.460 A few years ago, a man who had had an exemplary life, who was homeschooled in a Christian family, and he established, grew up, he wrote books, Christian books. 47 00:05:06.460 --> 00:05:10.540 I never found any error in his theology that I read. 48 00:05:10.540 --> 00:05:12.820 It all seemed pretty wholesome. 49 00:05:12.820 --> 00:05:21.860 He founded a church which became part of a movement of churches, multiple churches across the United States, significant ministry. 50 00:05:21.860 --> 00:05:24.090 Then he apostatized, turned away from the faith. 51 00:05:24.090 --> 00:05:26.720 He did enormous damage. 52 00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:27.790 Enormous damage. 53 00:05:27.790 --> 00:05:31.320 It is hard to figure that out. 54 00:05:31.320 --> 00:05:38.120 Wouldn’t it be great when you are going to hire a pastor, you could say, “Do you have this identifying mark? 55 00:05:38.120 --> 00:05:46.640 Do you have a real ID that tells me that you are a true believer, a true disciple, a true citizen of God’s Kingdom?” 56 00:05:46.640 --> 00:05:50.500 That would be a wonderful thing to have. 57 00:05:50.500 --> 00:05:58.760 As we get into this chapter, it reminds me of the Lord Jesus when he was talking. 58 00:05:58.760 --> 00:06:11.100 A lawyer came up to Jesus at one point, back in Mark’s Gospel in chapter 12, a year or so ago, we were looking at that. 59 00:06:11.100 --> 00:06:20.060 The content there is similar to what Jesus is saying here, so I wanted to refresh your memory of that. 60 00:06:20.060 --> 00:06:21.670 A lawyer comes up to Jesus. 61 00:06:21.670 --> 00:06:29.760 He is a very shrewd fellow, and he is putting Jesus to the test, and he says to Jesus, “What is the greatest commandment of all? 62 00:06:29.760 --> 00:06:34.180 Of all the commandments that you find in the Old Testament, what is the greatest?” 63 00:06:34.180 --> 00:06:43.090 Jesus immediately quotes two passages from the Old Testament, from the books of Moses. 64 00:06:43.090 --> 00:06:52.860 First, Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might.” 65 00:06:52.860 --> 00:07:00.780 Then he quotes Leviticus 19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 66 00:07:00.780 --> 00:07:08.360 Jesus says, “If you do these two things, all the law, all the rest of the law of God in the Old Testament, hangs on those two laws. 67 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:12.510 If you fulfill those two laws, you fulfill all the rest of those two laws.” 68 00:07:12.510 --> 00:07:13.910 That is it. 69 00:07:13.910 --> 00:07:15.050 It is interesting, isn’t it? 70 00:07:15.050 --> 00:07:20.560 That is what we are to be doing, and how we fail to do that. 71 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:23.840 It is the greatest of commandments. 72 00:07:23.840 --> 00:07:41.220 I remember I came across, I was reading Martin Luther sometime ago, a quote from him, a passage from him that is talking about this very thing, how he realized, “This is the greatest of commandments.” 73 00:07:41.220 --> 00:07:54.460 If you fail to keep the greatest of commandments, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, you have broken the greatest of commandments. 74 00:07:54.460 --> 00:08:06.820 Yet, you think about your life, and you think, “Am I living my life in this way, loving God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength?” 75 00:08:06.820 --> 00:08:09.020 Have I done that? 76 00:08:09.020 --> 00:08:12.980 Have I done that for a year? 77 00:08:12.980 --> 00:08:15.440 Have I done that for a month? 78 00:08:15.440 --> 00:08:16.980 A day? 79 00:08:16.980 --> 00:08:24.620 Have I done it really completely for five minutes in my life? 80 00:08:24.620 --> 00:08:28.340 With all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. 81 00:08:28.340 --> 00:08:35.140 We love the Lord, and we love the Lord because, really, of what I was talking about last week. 82 00:08:35.140 --> 00:08:38.700 We catch a glimpse of his goodness and his beauty. 83 00:08:38.700 --> 00:08:46.040 We catch a glimpse in the Gospel, in what Christ has done for us, and we see how gloriously wonderful he is. 84 00:08:46.040 --> 00:08:48.500 So our heart is drawn to him. 85 00:08:48.500 --> 00:08:52.040 We love him, and we do love him. 86 00:08:52.040 --> 00:08:56.940 But do we love him in that ultimate way? 87 00:08:56.940 --> 00:09:02.100 Then there is that second part, to love your neighbor as yourself. 88 00:09:02.100 --> 00:09:14.120 In the upper room, just to give the setting of the passage, this is the very last thing of Jesus’ ministry on earth, just before the crucifixion. 89 00:09:14.120 --> 00:09:25.620 It takes place in the upper room, and Jesus has just washed his disciples’ feet, and he shared the Last Supper with his disciples. 90 00:09:25.620 --> 00:09:34.440 Judas has been identified as a traitor, and he left into the night to do his evil deed. 91 00:09:34.440 --> 00:09:49.220 Then it was in those last moments with his disciples, these men that he truly loved, that he spoke this really most important word, the most important words that he could speak. 92 00:09:49.220 --> 00:09:52.480 That is these words that we have just read. 93 00:09:52.480 --> 00:10:03.520 He tells them, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you , that you love one another.” 94 00:10:03.520 --> 00:10:10.260 This is his final lesson. 95 00:10:10.260 --> 00:10:14.300 So we should treat it with some real respect when we come to it. 96 00:10:14.300 --> 00:10:16.040 We should think about it. 97 00:10:16.040 --> 00:10:19.870 The command is, “Love one another.” 98 00:10:19.870 --> 00:10:28.660 It is a very simple narrative passage, and I do not think I have to spend a great deal of time interpreting it, do I? 99 00:10:28.660 --> 00:10:33.460 We can mostly understand what these words mean. 100 00:10:33.460 --> 00:10:38.980 But there are a couple of questions maybe you could ask. 101 00:10:38.980 --> 00:10:43.000 What does Jesus mean by “disciple”? 102 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:44.960 What does that word “disciple” mean? 103 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:47.660 That might be important. 104 00:10:47.660 --> 00:10:50.140 Why does he call it a new commandment? 105 00:10:50.140 --> 00:10:57.920 Didn’t we just read pretty much the same thing from the Old Testament, the book of Leviticus, that he cites to the lawyer? 106 00:10:57.920 --> 00:10:59.740 Why is it a new commandment? 107 00:10:59.740 --> 00:11:03.000 We are going to think about that just a little bit. 108 00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:10.000 First, what does “disciple” mean here? 109 00:11:10.000 --> 00:11:14.960 This is what a true disciple does, shows who is real. 110 00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:20.640 But what does a “disciple” mean? 111 00:11:20.640 --> 00:11:23.480 Is it a Christian? 112 00:11:23.480 --> 00:11:24.860 Is that the same thing? 113 00:11:24.860 --> 00:11:36.760 I think if you look at John’s Gospel, there is some good direction in what “disciple” means. 114 00:11:36.760 --> 00:11:46.820 If you think about this word historically, it can help us understand what “disciple” means, and I think that is important. 115 00:11:46.820 --> 00:11:52.500 Because they did not use the word “Christian” when Jesus was speaking here. 116 00:11:52.500 --> 00:11:56.530 In fact, the word “Christian” is only used three times in the Bible. 117 00:11:56.530 --> 00:12:08.920 It is introduced to us in the book of Acts, and it is mentioned one time by Peter, twice in Acts and once in Peter. 118 00:12:08.920 --> 00:12:14.640 You might remember the verse, “They called them Christians first at Antioch.” 119 00:12:14.640 --> 00:12:18.260 Christian means a little Christ. 120 00:12:18.260 --> 00:12:27.620 It was the outsiders, no doubt, who were referring to these people who were followers of Jesus, referred to them as Christians. 121 00:12:27.620 --> 00:12:33.300 It was probably a put-down or something that they thought was funny. 122 00:12:33.300 --> 00:12:37.180 But it became the word that was adopted. 123 00:12:37.180 --> 00:12:42.600 If you suffer for being a Christian, Peter says, that is a good thing. 124 00:12:42.600 --> 00:12:49.920 Do not worry about that. 125 00:12:49.920 --> 00:12:55.240 The primary word for a follower of Jesus was this word “disciple.” 126 00:12:55.240 --> 00:13:02.100 In John’s Gospel, we get some ideas about what that means. 127 00:13:02.100 --> 00:13:06.600 A disciple is someone who trusts Jesus. 128 00:13:06.600 --> 00:13:15.500 There was a time when many of Jesus’ followers turned away from him, back in chapter 6 of John’s Gospel. 129 00:13:15.500 --> 00:13:22.600 Jesus turns to his 12 and he says, “Are you going to turn away from me too?” 130 00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:26.280 Peter says to him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? 131 00:13:26.280 --> 00:13:28.350 You have the words of eternal life. 132 00:13:28.350 --> 00:13:35.130 We have believed and we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.” 133 00:13:35.130 --> 00:13:36.740 That is a disciple. 134 00:13:36.740 --> 00:13:41.410 That is a disciple, one who trusts and believes and knows who Jesus is. 135 00:13:41.410 --> 00:13:43.640 He is the Holy One of God. 136 00:13:43.640 --> 00:13:48.040 A disciple is one who abides in the word of God. 137 00:13:48.040 --> 00:14:04.520 In chapter 8, Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed in him, they had believed in him. 138 00:14:04.520 --> 00:14:15.900 Jesus says, “If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine.” 139 00:14:15.900 --> 00:14:21.840 So a person who abides, is faithful in the word of God, is a disciple. 140 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:29.040 In John chapter 15, Jesus gives that analogy of the vine and the branches. 141 00:14:29.040 --> 00:14:37.980 In verse 8, it says, “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.” 142 00:14:37.980 --> 00:14:49.000 So one of the ways that you demonstrate that a disciple is shown is through the fruit-bearing that they give. 143 00:14:49.000 --> 00:15:02.280 All of those are qualities of disciples, but basically, a disciple is the person who follows Jesus, who has a relationship with him, who, for us, is the person who has been redeemed, washed by his blood today. 144 00:15:02.280 --> 00:15:08.460 The person who belongs to him is a disciple of Jesus. 145 00:15:08.460 --> 00:15:27.400 So people who are not a disciple may claim to be, but they are not necessarily people who fail to have a true relationship with him. 146 00:15:27.400 --> 00:15:35.000 So that is that one question, and I would say that basically it means the same thing that we mean today when we are talking about a true Christian. 147 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:36.930 A true disciple is a true Christian. 148 00:15:36.930 --> 00:15:39.300 It is essentially the same thing. 149 00:15:39.300 --> 00:15:46.640 There is the other question, and that is, it is interesting, why does he call it a new commandment? 150 00:15:46.640 --> 00:15:49.260 Why is this new? 151 00:15:49.260 --> 00:15:54.660 We read almost the same words thinking about Leviticus. 152 00:15:54.660 --> 00:15:57.100 So why is this something new? 153 00:15:57.100 --> 00:16:04.530 Well, it is new because he has elevated it to a new standard, and I will talk about that in a moment. 154 00:16:04.530 --> 00:16:07.520 It is a new standard of the relationship. 155 00:16:07.520 --> 00:16:25.320 It is a new relationship with God and with the family of God because Jesus is, in what is about to take place, he is instituting a new covenant in his blood, a new relationship that we are entering into with God. 156 00:16:25.320 --> 00:16:29.580 That involves the new people of God, the church of God. 157 00:16:29.580 --> 00:16:33.760 This in particular has to do with the church of God. 158 00:16:33.760 --> 00:16:50.080 When you are saved, you are immersed into Jesus Christ, and you are baptized, you are immersed into the body of Christ, the believers, the Christian church. 159 00:16:50.080 --> 00:17:03.020 When that takes place, there is a new relationship that you have with God, and there is a new relationship you have with the people of God. 160 00:17:03.020 --> 00:17:03.620 So it is new. 161 00:17:03.620 --> 00:17:05.160 That aspect is new. 162 00:17:05.160 --> 00:17:15.080 It is a new empowerment with the power of the cross, the power of the resurrection, and the power of the coming Holy Spirit. 163 00:17:15.080 --> 00:17:23.480 So as important as this is, you read this, and you cannot help but get a sense of how significant and important this is. 164 00:17:23.480 --> 00:17:29.680 Yet it is evident that this is shrugged off by a lot of people. 165 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:30.670 It really is. 166 00:17:30.670 --> 00:17:34.440 It is not taken too seriously. 167 00:17:34.440 --> 00:17:36.980 Why would that be? 168 00:17:36.980 --> 00:17:50.660 When we take a look at ourselves, I think that the first problem is that we are by nature an incredibly self-centered group of people. 169 00:17:50.660 --> 00:17:52.470 Our love is for ourselves. 170 00:17:52.470 --> 00:17:55.340 We have a mighty love for ourselves. 171 00:17:55.340 --> 00:18:10.360 When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they stopped looking to God as God, and they started looking at themselves as God. 172 00:18:10.360 --> 00:18:12.680 That was Satan’s temptation. 173 00:18:12.680 --> 00:18:16.840 That was the essence of the appeal to them. 174 00:18:16.840 --> 00:18:19.610 So they started looking at themselves. 175 00:18:19.610 --> 00:18:22.250 “You will be like him. 176 00:18:22.250 --> 00:18:26.070 You are going to be your own little gods.” 177 00:18:26.070 --> 00:18:33.340 That is what they believed, and that is exactly what started happening. 178 00:18:33.340 --> 00:18:42.000 Their love shifted away from pleasing God to pleasing their own appetites and themselves. 179 00:18:42.000 --> 00:18:49.840 It was an example of their love for themselves, just self-centeredness. 180 00:18:49.840 --> 00:19:08.840 Stephen Charnock, who was a Puritan theologian, wrote, “When we believe that we ought to be satisfied rather than God glorified, we set God below ourselves. 181 00:19:08.840 --> 00:19:14.460 We imagine that he should submit his own honor to our advantage. 182 00:19:14.460 --> 00:19:24.020 We make ourselves more glorious than God, as though we were not made for him, but he made for us. 183 00:19:24.020 --> 00:19:28.850 This is to have a very low esteem of the majesty of God.” 184 00:19:28.850 --> 00:19:30.000 That is true. 185 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:31.100 That is the problem. 186 00:19:31.100 --> 00:19:45.110 You see, the problem is a lot of people who come to worship and who say good theological things are in that worship, in that relationship, and it is all about them, really. 187 00:19:45.110 --> 00:19:52.360 They are pursuing God because of what they want from God. 188 00:19:52.360 --> 00:20:01.850 So they are not loving God, as I said at the beginning, because he is loving and wonderful and glorious and beautiful and deserves that love. 189 00:20:01.850 --> 00:20:03.020 It is not because of the attraction. 190 00:20:03.020 --> 00:20:09.140 It is because of what they think they will be able to benefit and get from God. 191 00:20:09.140 --> 00:20:14.010 So the God they worship really is not this majestic God of the Bible. 192 00:20:14.010 --> 00:20:16.710 That is a problem. 193 00:20:16.710 --> 00:20:20.640 That is one reason. 194 00:20:20.640 --> 00:20:31.880 Many of us are caught up into our own self-love, and even though we have been redeemed, our hearts changed, we still have old practices and ways of thinking, and it is difficult sometimes. 195 00:20:31.880 --> 00:20:37.640 But then there is also the fact that we think we measure up pretty good. 196 00:20:37.640 --> 00:20:43.180 We read a passage like this, and we say, “I love a lot of people. 197 00:20:43.180 --> 00:20:44.400 I love people. 198 00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:46.300 I love quite a lot of people. 199 00:20:46.300 --> 00:20:56.460 I love my mama, I love my daddy, I love my children, I love my friends at school and at work, and I love my friends at church. 200 00:20:56.460 --> 00:20:58.080 I love lots of people. 201 00:20:58.080 --> 00:20:59.350 So I am pretty good. 202 00:20:59.350 --> 00:21:05.320 I am doing real well.” 203 00:21:05.320 --> 00:21:16.540 We probably need to deal with what Jesus said back in Luke 6:32 when he said, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? 204 00:21:16.540 --> 00:21:19.660 For even sinners love those who love them.” 205 00:21:19.660 --> 00:21:23.580 That is not exactly what Jesus is talking about here. 206 00:21:23.580 --> 00:21:30.430 He is talking about a love that loves people who do not deserve your love. 207 00:21:30.430 --> 00:21:32.270 That is what he is talking about. 208 00:21:32.270 --> 00:21:36.610 He is talking about brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. 209 00:21:36.610 --> 00:21:37.990 That is the ultimate view. 210 00:21:37.990 --> 00:21:39.620 That is the context of this. 211 00:21:39.620 --> 00:21:43.780 We do not have to move too far out of that. 212 00:21:43.780 --> 00:22:02.920 Yet there are brothers and sisters in the body of Christ that do not rub you exactly the right way, who you have problems with, who gossiped about you, who insulted you in some way, who just did not say hello and walked past you. 213 00:22:02.920 --> 00:22:14.010 There are all sorts of things that stir us up and cause us to have problems with people who are fellow believers in Jesus Christ. 214 00:22:14.010 --> 00:22:20.080 We are to love those people. 215 00:22:20.080 --> 00:22:27.020 Or we think, “I am pretty nice to just about everybody. 216 00:22:27.020 --> 00:22:29.170 I am a nice person. 217 00:22:29.170 --> 00:22:33.330 I am nice to people who I do not know. 218 00:22:33.330 --> 00:22:37.880 I am nice to people who maybe even treat me badly.” 219 00:22:37.880 --> 00:22:40.600 You have lots of examples of that. 220 00:22:40.600 --> 00:22:54.940 Well, there is a little problem with that too, and that is this, that our culture’s definition of what love is is being nice. 221 00:22:54.940 --> 00:23:01.040 Our cultural definition of love is that we are nice people. 222 00:23:01.040 --> 00:23:06.040 But love is not really about being nice to people. 223 00:23:06.040 --> 00:23:15.380 If that were the case, then Jesus is not an example of it, because he was not always nice to everybody in the sense that we mean it today. 224 00:23:15.380 --> 00:23:20.240 Not in that sense. 225 00:23:20.240 --> 00:23:25.600 The truth is, Jesus loved with a mighty love at all times. 226 00:23:25.600 --> 00:23:36.980 Jesus loved with a mighty love when he said to the Jewish religious leaders, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” 227 00:23:36.980 --> 00:23:44.060 Jesus loved Peter when he said to him, “Get behind me, Satan!” 228 00:23:44.060 --> 00:23:52.400 Jesus loved the multitude when he said to them, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? 229 00:23:52.400 --> 00:23:55.200 How long shall I put up with you?” 230 00:23:55.200 --> 00:23:58.520 Jesus loved them when he said that. 231 00:23:58.520 --> 00:24:20.800 The Apostle Paul in the book of Acts was filled with the Holy Spirit of God when he said to Elymas, “You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?” 232 00:24:20.800 --> 00:24:26.940 Then Elymas was struck with blindness. 233 00:24:26.940 --> 00:24:32.000 We would not consider that nice. 234 00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:45.420 But you see, Christian love is giving sacrificially for the good of the other person, for the good of the other person. 235 00:24:45.420 --> 00:24:50.000 Sometimes the good of the other person does not come across as nice. 236 00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:52.640 Jesus was always loving. 237 00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:57.240 He was corrective, and he was loving. 238 00:24:57.240 --> 00:25:16.490 So love is willingly giving not because of any merit for the one loved, but resulting in action for the one loved. 239 00:25:16.490 --> 00:25:25.800 It is a love that has its exclusive source in God himself. 240 00:25:25.800 --> 00:25:34.140 So it is easy to think we are okay or not take this passage too seriously. 241 00:25:34.140 --> 00:25:36.900 But God takes it seriously. 242 00:25:36.900 --> 00:25:39.140 I think that is very clear. 243 00:25:39.140 --> 00:25:50.160 Jesus’ command for us to love one another is serious business with God. 244 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:58.240 To get an idea of how important this is, consider the verse that came just before it. 245 00:25:58.240 --> 00:26:07.880 Just before it says, “A new commandment I give you,” Jesus says, “Little children, I am with you a little while longer. 246 00:26:07.880 --> 00:26:16.820 You will seek me, as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come.” 247 00:26:16.820 --> 00:26:21.680 Jesus is leaving this physical world. 248 00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:38.540 The Lord Jesus Christ is about to depart from the world, and Jesus is the only true example of love that this world has ever seen since the fall of mankind. 249 00:26:38.540 --> 00:26:50.260 The world cannot see love when Jesus leaves, unless it sees that love through his disciples. 250 00:26:50.260 --> 00:26:51.700 So it is crucial. 251 00:26:51.700 --> 00:26:54.040 It is important. 252 00:26:54.040 --> 00:27:00.780 Jesus is going to prove his love on the cross that next day, but then he is going to ascend to heaven. 253 00:27:00.780 --> 00:27:05.610 How will the people know what true divine love is? 254 00:27:05.610 --> 00:27:11.660 They will have to see it in the disciples, or they will not see it at all. 255 00:27:11.660 --> 00:27:19.060 1 John 4:12 tells us, “No one has seen God at any time. 256 00:27:19.060 --> 00:27:25.560 If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.” 257 00:27:25.560 --> 00:27:29.400 The same idea. 258 00:27:29.400 --> 00:27:37.460 If the world is to see love, it has to see it in the life of the Christian. 259 00:27:37.460 --> 00:27:47.220 I mentioned earlier that this is a new commandment, and it is a new commandment because Jesus elevated it over the older commandment. 260 00:27:47.220 --> 00:28:01.980 Do you remember that other commandment that says, “Love your neighbor even as you love yourself”? 261 00:28:01.980 --> 00:28:15.990 Jesus said, “Love your neighbor, love your brethren, love your brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ as I have loved you.” 262 00:28:15.990 --> 00:28:17.470 Do you hear the difference? 263 00:28:17.470 --> 00:28:31.530 It is one thing to love a person the way that you love yourself, to look out for them the way you look out for yourself. 264 00:28:31.530 --> 00:28:42.480 It is something else completely to love another person the way Jesus Christ has loved you, the way Jesus Christ does love you. 265 00:28:42.480 --> 00:28:44.640 It is a radical difference. 266 00:28:44.640 --> 00:28:46.450 It is a new commandment. 267 00:28:46.450 --> 00:28:52.620 It is a higher standard. 268 00:28:52.620 --> 00:29:05.040 Because when Jesus said, “ This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you ,” in that same night, he says, “This is my commandment, love one another as I have loved you.” 269 00:29:05.040 --> 00:29:14.080 He continued by saying, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down his life for his friends.” 270 00:29:14.080 --> 00:29:19.300 Romans 5:7 says, “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. 271 00:29:19.300 --> 00:29:23.260 Yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die. 272 00:29:23.260 --> 00:29:30.240 But God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” 273 00:29:30.240 --> 00:29:45.170 Jesus introduced this dialogue with the disciples, first of all, by washing their feet, humbling himself before them, washing their feet, and he says to them, “The disciple is not above his master. 274 00:29:45.170 --> 00:29:46.960 You are to do what I am doing.” 275 00:29:46.960 --> 00:29:52.000 That is to love the way that Jesus loves means that you bend down. 276 00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:54.140 You sacrifice. 277 00:29:54.140 --> 00:29:58.460 You humble yourself before another person. 278 00:29:58.460 --> 00:30:11.360 To love like Jesus Christ does means that you are willing to sacrifice even your own life for other people. 279 00:30:11.360 --> 00:30:20.100 We get that, as those words from Romans 5 says, “For a righteous person, one might even dare to die.” 280 00:30:20.100 --> 00:30:30.720 There are plenty of examples of people who give their lives, have given their lives because of someone that they dearly love in their place. 281 00:30:30.720 --> 00:30:34.520 There are good examples of that. 282 00:30:34.520 --> 00:30:43.620 About 10 years ago, there was a man, Dwayne and Donna Johnson, a man and wife, and their two daughters. 283 00:30:43.620 --> 00:30:47.740 They lived in Colorado, and they had a perfect day planned. 284 00:30:47.740 --> 00:30:58.600 They went on the couple and their two daughters, teenage daughters, went on a day hike up a really popular mountain trail. 285 00:30:58.600 --> 00:31:02.240 But then the unexpected happened. 286 00:31:02.240 --> 00:31:06.000 There was a rockslide right at the summit, at the vantage point. 287 00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:11.320 When they get there, there is a rockslide, and these rocks start coming down. 288 00:31:11.320 --> 00:31:19.380 It killed Dwayne and Donna Johnson and the oldest of the daughters. 289 00:31:19.380 --> 00:31:32.900 But just before the dirt and the boulders swept down on them, Dwayne made a decision that saved the life of his daughter. 290 00:31:32.900 --> 00:31:36.300 She was 13-year-old Gracie. 291 00:31:36.300 --> 00:31:46.740 She was there, and she was trying to cover herself, but she said she was in the open, and her dad grabbed her, pushed her under a sheltering rock. 292 00:31:46.740 --> 00:31:54.840 Then just as the rocks started to fall, he sheltered her with his own body. 293 00:31:54.840 --> 00:32:05.820 So when the deputies came up through there, they heard her calling out under the rocks, and she was the only survivor. 294 00:32:05.820 --> 00:32:13.040 Very similar, Northwest Airlines flight back in 1987 crashed just after taking off. 295 00:32:13.040 --> 00:32:16.640 It killed 155 people. 296 00:32:16.640 --> 00:32:22.420 One four-year-old survived. 297 00:32:22.420 --> 00:32:27.740 When the rescuers came, she was walking around, and they thought that she had come from the outside. 298 00:32:27.740 --> 00:32:30.840 They did not think that she was on the plane. 299 00:32:30.840 --> 00:32:48.000 But what happened is that her mother sheltered her in that accident, sheltered the little child, took all of the blows on her own body, and she was protected. 300 00:32:48.000 --> 00:32:51.220 A person will die for someone they love. 301 00:32:51.220 --> 00:32:56.180 I would give my life for a number of people, particularly my children. 302 00:32:56.180 --> 00:33:00.140 I certainly would do that without thought. 303 00:33:00.140 --> 00:33:05.160 That is not a difficult thing. 304 00:33:05.160 --> 00:33:10.300 But Jesus died for us while we were yet his enemies. 305 00:33:10.300 --> 00:33:18.570 It is easy to love people in the church that are like us, that have things in common with us. 306 00:33:18.570 --> 00:33:31.920 It is something else to love people because God loves us, and his love is in us, and that love of God flows out through us. 307 00:33:31.920 --> 00:33:34.280 There are people who do it. 308 00:33:34.280 --> 00:33:38.280 There are Christians who have these kinds of examples of love. 309 00:33:38.280 --> 00:33:41.140 Adoniram Judson, the sacrifice. 310 00:33:41.140 --> 00:33:42.560 Read about his life. 311 00:33:42.560 --> 00:33:48.620 What he sacrificed and suffered for Jesus Christ in order to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a people. 312 00:33:48.620 --> 00:34:06.620 Or think about someone like Elisabeth Elliot, who goes back to the tribe of people who murdered her husband and the other members of that missionary group and ministers to those same people, telling them, “Come to the Lord.” 313 00:34:06.620 --> 00:34:17.840 People love with a sacrificial love, and we can love with a sacrificial love if Christ’s love is in us. 314 00:34:17.840 --> 00:34:18.710 You know what? 315 00:34:18.710 --> 00:34:23.300 That is the real ID. 316 00:34:23.300 --> 00:34:34.220 Jesus says in this last verse that we read, “By this, all men will know that you are my disciples.” 317 00:34:34.220 --> 00:34:42.680 This is the distinguishing mark that sets you apart from everybody else in this world, that tells them that you are real. 318 00:34:42.680 --> 00:34:45.380 This is the final apologetic. 319 00:34:45.380 --> 00:34:55.780 This is the argument that demonstrates the reality of the faith. 320 00:34:55.780 --> 00:35:01.800 This is the true mark. 321 00:35:01.800 --> 00:35:16.200 If someone knocked on your door, and they said that they are from the IRS, it would be a really good idea to take a good look at their ID and make sure they are who they say they are. 322 00:35:16.200 --> 00:35:19.600 You want to know, do not you? 323 00:35:19.600 --> 00:35:24.310 Well, here, God has given us an ID. 324 00:35:24.310 --> 00:35:29.920 It is his love that flows through us to others. 325 00:35:29.920 --> 00:35:35.950 The place it is particularly visible and is meant to be visible is in the body of Christ, in the family of God. 326 00:35:35.950 --> 00:36:06.750 We are to love the family of God with a mighty sacrificial love, with a love that gives, that sacrifices, that puts up and does the things that we do not necessarily want to do, because we are caring more about them, even if it is not appreciated, even when our love is slighted or twisted or not received. 327 00:36:06.750 --> 00:36:13.700 That is the way Jesus loves. 328 00:36:13.700 --> 00:36:20.920 If you go to an orchestra, which I like to do, but rarely do. 329 00:36:20.920 --> 00:36:36.020 If you go to a good orchestra, and before anything happens, the concert master comes out and strikes a note on the violin, and then the orchestra tunes. 330 00:36:36.020 --> 00:36:40.700 They all tune so that they all come into harmony. 331 00:36:40.700 --> 00:36:49.000 They come into harmony because they are all in tune with the note of the concert master. 332 00:36:49.000 --> 00:36:56.260 Jesus Christ is the master, and he struck the note. 333 00:36:56.260 --> 00:36:59.840 Are we going to tune our hearts to that note? 334 00:36:59.840 --> 00:37:03.540 Let us pray. 335 00:37:03.540 --> 00:37:12.920 Father, thank you for your mercy and kindness, and infinite love that you have shown us in Jesus Christ. 336 00:37:12.920 --> 00:37:35.690 We thank you, Father, that you loved us when we were unlovable, that you worked to our good, and out of abundant grace, you sanctify us, and ultimately perfect us so that we share the beauty of Christ. 337 00:37:35.690 --> 00:37:40.640 That is more than we can comprehend. 338 00:37:40.640 --> 00:37:45.380 Yet, Father, it is what we are to be. 339 00:37:45.380 --> 00:37:59.700 Help us, Lord, to take this truth, this commandment, this new commandment that Jesus has given, and Father, live to that standard. 340 00:37:59.700 --> 00:38:19.000 May we, in the display of our love for one another, may we be visible to this world, so that they will judge us rightly as true disciples, as the real thing. 341 00:38:19.000 --> 00:38:20.980 Thank you, Father. 342 00:38:20.980 --> 00:38:24.720 Do this work in us, we pray, and to your glory. 343 00:38:24.720 --> 00:38:26.720 Amen.