Love One Another

Today’s sermon is an unplanned part two to last week’s sermon on Isaiah 5. There were gaps in what I said last week. I said things that I need to clarify. I’m preaching on this and not moving on the Isaiah 6 because of some feedback that I received last week. I won’t embarrass my caller, but I do want to say, ‘Thank You’ for the call.

You’ll remember that I used Jesus’ love for us as our model of loving devotion for one another. He said, ‘A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’ [John 13.34,35] What I’d like to do is take this apart a bit and look at three aspects of Jesus’ love for us, three aspects of love that we are to imitate. After doing that I’m going to answer some questions that I’m guessing that you have. Some of my answers surprised me.

Let’s start with this. Jesus described Himself as a shepherd. He talked about how, as a good shepherd, He cares for His sheep. In that context He said, ‘The sheep hear [their shepherd’s] voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.’ This whole thing about names is a big deal in the Bible. Time and again we see that a person’s name was so much more than just a label. A name was to say something about the person. It was to be a reflection of something significant about him. This is highlighted when we see names changed. So, after God promises that he will be a father of a multitude of nations, Abram, ‘exalted father’, is renamed Abraham, ‘father of a multitude’. After a night spent in a wrestling match, Jacob, ‘schemer’ becomes Israel, ‘he strives with God’. And it’s when Jesus says, ‘Upon this rock I will build My Church’ that Simon, ‘he hears’, becomes Peter, ‘the rock’. A name in the Bible is important because it is about who you are. So, when Jesus says He knows His sheep by name, He’s saying more than, ‘I know your label.’ Instead, He is saying, ‘I know you, who you really are. And that’s because you are one of my sheep.’ A good shepherd knows his sheep. Jesus knows us. Each one of us. By name. Jesus’ flock – His Church – is not a bunch of faceless names to Him. He knows each of us and loves each of us one by one by one. There is an intimacy here that Jesus has with us, an intimacy that He also encourages us to pursue. He wants us to know Him in the same way that He knows us. And He calls us to know each other in the same way. Love strives to know the loved. Love is about the intimacy of persons.

Let’s move on. Here’s something else Jesus said. ‘I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.’ These are Jesus’ words to His closest friends right before His death. He promises His ongoing presence with His own – an interesting thing to promise on the eve of one’s death. And what was He talking about? The Spirit. Listen to the larger context. ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.’ Do you see what this says about His love for us? Jesus will not love from a distance. He promises to be near to us. He is with us as He loves us. And that is important because it is almost impossible to love from afar. A young married couple comes to you for advice. The wife is a student here in Erie, but the husband has been offered a great job in California. They figure they’ll be apart for a year or two until the wife can finish her obligations here. But they’ll call each day and visit during vacation times. They want to know what you think about their plan. I think we all agree that this is a really bad idea. For a marriage to flourish a husband and wife need to be together, spend time together. They need walks together, shared jokes, working through issues together, his coffee with her brownies, or just being in the same room while they read different books. Love – in a marriage or in any relationship – needs time together. ‘I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.’ To love as Jesus loves means being with the other person, spend time together. Nearness.

One more. This takes us back to Jesus’ comments about being a shepherd. ‘The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.’ When we hear this our thoughts quickly go to the Cross. And they should. And yet, Jesus’ laying down His life includes more than that. Before He could die on that Cross, Jesus had to empty Himself, and come to be among us as one of us. Throughout His life He was the grain of wheat that suffered tastes of death. He died to the love of His family who thought He was crazy. He died to a good reputation in His home when they were ready to throw Him off the cliff. He died to the enjoyment of a wife and children which was normal for everyone around Him. There were many good things that Jesus sacrificed for us and that long before the Cross loomed. Jesus sacrificed for us because of His love for us. Love sacrifices.

So, three qualities to Jesus’ love for us. Intimacy. Nearness. Sacrifice. We are loved people. Deeply loved. The fact that we are such sinners just adds to the wonder of that thought. And if this is the only thing that you take home from this sermon, it will have been a huge success. We. Are. Loved. This is a truth that changes so much. This Jesus, who loves us so, calls us to follow Him, to imitate Him. He wants us to love each other in the same sorts of ways that He has loved us. And, apart from any other benefits from this, our mutual love becomes our witness to the world. ‘A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

Now, let me anticipate some thoughts that you might have in response to what I’ve just said. The first is this. ‘You’re asking for too much. To do this is just too hard. I know that it’s a command of Scripture, but it’s just too hard. You’re asking too much.’ Well, what can I say? It is hard. In fact, it’s more than hard. It’s impossible. Think about this. Whatever Jesus calls us to will be impossible. Feeling the impossibility of obedience to some command is actually a sign that you’ve understood what Jesus is expecting. And obedience is impossible because of our sin. It will trip us up every time. To love another person like Jesus loves is simply not possible for us. No holy act is possible for us. And that’s why grace is so important. That’s why grace can never be left out. Jesus expects the impossible from us, but He also provides all that we need so that we can do the impossible. That’s the wonder of the Gospel. Sinners actually behaving like holy people, doing the impossible. So, if you are overwhelmed by what Jesus calls for, you’re on the right track. You’re getting it. You need Jesus to act, to give you the ability to love that you just don’t have. And that is something that you ask Him for, something you pray about. As you pray, He will act. We need to pray if we are going to love like Jesus loves. Depending on grace is so important. Without that you will either be crushed by your sense of failure or become proud because of you sense of success.

Here’s another possible response. ‘I see what you’re saying, but I really don’t have any more time or energy to do this.’ Well, the fact of the matter is that you might be exactly right. You might not have the time or energy to add more to your list. That might really be your situation. Think about the different ways in which we sin. Some are sins of the tongue, things that we say. Others are sins of the eyes, things that we look at. There are also sins of desire, discontent, laziness, overdoing. We have lots of sins. And they all need to be changed. However, it should be obvious that we can’t work on all of them at the same time. The Twelve had lots of sins to work on, but Jesus didn’t have them work on them all while He was with them. So, it may well be that Jesus is not calling you to work on developing loving relationships with more people right now. It may be that He wants you to be working on something else right now. It may be, in fact, that right now He wants you to do less and not more.

This has some important implications for us. Jesus does not expect you to become perfect by next week. So, He’s okay with the fact that you still sin and will continue to sin. Now, I realize that if you take my last sentence in the wrong sense it is heresy. But if you take in the right sense, then it is extraordinarily freeing. So, let me repeat it. Jesus is okay with the fact that you still sin and will continue to sin. Relax. There’s grace for sinners. One thing that this means is that not every part of every sermon is intended for every person who hears it. So, consider this situation. After prayer and thought you come to a conclusion. ‘Jesus has called me to work on this area of my life.’ And then, come Sunday, I preach a sermon on some other area you need some work in. You just might conclude that you’re not going work on that other area I preached about until that first one is properly dealt with. And you might be right about that. As the Spirit leads you – and that’s not empty Church talk! – as the Spirit leads you, follow. Work on whatever He is pointing out in your life. Just because I preach a sermon on some topic doesn’t mean that dealing with that issue automatically becomes the top priority for your life. And that brings us back to the importance of choices. Pray. Think. Discuss. And listen to the Spirit. Then choose what you will do. It may well be that these sermons on loving relationships with the church aren’t meant for you. Or maybe they are. Choose. Maybe your prayer needs to be, ‘Lord, I know that I sin in this area, but I really think that You want me to focus on what You pointed out to me last month. Bring me back to this at the right time.’ So, not every part of every sermon is intended for every person who hears it. Having said that, there will always be something helpful in each sermon for you. It may be some throwaway comment I make. Or it may be the main point of it all. But the Spirit will have something for you each Sunday. It may be a promise to enjoy or command to take more seriously or just a different way of looking at things. It just may be another opportunity to be stunned by the beauty of Jesus and His Gospel. But you must listen for it. And as you do listen, choose wisely. Jesus is here. He is watching. He will bless your efforts, giving you all you need to follow Him well.

One more. ‘I understand what you mean by working at loving relationships, imitating Jesus in this. I do have a relation with someone that reflects Jesus’ kind of love. But that person isn’t a part of FRC. Why do I need this kind of relationship with someone here?’ My answer has a couple of levels to it. I start with this question. What does it mean to be a church? I think that we can agree that being some sort of Sunday preaching and teaching center isn’t good enough. Just doesn’t fit with the New Testament’s description. A church is supposed to be more than that. So, here’s part of an answer. A church is a group of people who, because of their love for Jesus, love each other and that for the sake of the world. Remember where this all started last week: mission. Jesus expects us to change the world. His prime weapon to change the world are His churches. And one key weapon that we have as a church is our love for one another. So, a church is where the love of Christians for each other is on display before the world in order to draw them to Jesus. That’s not the whole story, but it gets at part of it. So, to quote the Apostles’ Creed, I believe in the Church. Having said all of that, do I think that you should drop those close relationships that you have with others so you can start working on that with people here? That doesn’t sound right, does it? Once again, we’re faced with the messiness of trying to be faithful disciples of Jesus, faithful members of His churches, in a broken world. It’s not easy. I remember a missionary problem. A man with multiple wives was converted along with his family. So, what about the polygamy? Does he divorce all but one wife? If he does the others will either starve or become prostitutes. The resolution was that he was to remain married to them all while understanding that monogamy is the only right way. There are those who think that solutions are easy. All you need to do is follow the rules. They’re wrong. We’re supposed to be working on deep, loving relationships within the church. But sometimes we can’t. So, let me encourage you to hold on to these deep love relationships that you have. Enjoy them, even though that might mean that there is no time or energy left to develop something like that here. But if somehow the Spirit opens the way to develop that kind of relationship with someone here, then pursue it at that time.

Let me pull this together. I sincerely and passionately believe in the church as the place where the love of the saints for one another proves the Gospel to the watching world. Unbelievers will see this love and be convinced by this love because it is something that they cannot do. They will come to Jesus because they see a love that is humanly impossible. I believe that. I believe that that is the goal for every church. That’s one of the things that made the church in the early part of Acts so powerful. But there are many, many obstacles that stand in the way. And we won’t be able to remove them all. In fact, if we remove any of them it will only be because Jesus has acted and given us the ability to beat down some sin. And so, we keep at it, for the sake of Jesus, who has loved us so, and for the sake of a world that needs to see the Gospel before they will believe it.