Everyone Will Know

INTRODUCTION:

For the last two months we’ve been in a series on the local church. We’ve studied God’s design for the local church, why the Church matters and what matters in the Church.

Churches matter because they are God’s plan A for advancing his redemptive purposes in the world.

Christ has given the Church certain gifts to help them accomplish that task: ordinances (like baptism/Lord’s Supper), offices (pastors/deacons), the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.

We’ve examined these four pillars throughout this series and last week we saw how abiding in the Gospel fuels our worship and how worship fuels our mission.

This week I’d like to try and tie all of those themes together. What does it look like when a healthy church with a healthy structure and a healthy culture hit on all cylinders?

The Sigil of the Church

Jesus summed it up in a single word. The distinguishing mark of every follower of Jesus. The sigil that every local church carries into battle. The fundamental core value that sets the church apart from literally ever other institution in the world.

What is that thing? It’s LOVE. Love is the essential ethic of the Christian faith.

John 13:34–35 (CSB)

34 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

This command from Jesus - properly understood and joyfully obeyed - would enable the Church to change the world.

It would position our church to change our city. It would increase our effectiveness in making disciples and increase our joy in following Jesus if we could just learn to better love one another.

It’s the most counter-cultural, supernatural, barrier-breaking action that any of us could do.

All You Need Is Love

We’ve all heard the song.

“What the World needs now. Is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing, there’s just too little of.”

The love the world REALLY needs is not “sweet love.” It’s God’s love. God’s love is what will change a life and it is God’s love that will heal this world.

As followers of Jesus we’ve been invited into that love and commissioned to display that love to the ends of the earth.

A local church, shaped and characterized by Christ-like love, shows the world that the Gospel is true and Jesus can save.

If, upon hearing that, you rolled your eyes or dismissed the claim - it’s because your vision of what true love is and your experience of what true love can accomplish has been more shaped by the culture than it has the truth of the Gospel.

Our culture has watered down the idea of love so that it’s a subjective, individualistic, wishy-washy sentimentality. The power of love - as traditionally understood - (certainly from a Christian perspective) has been robbed of its glory and value.

So for the next few minutes I want us to meditate on this passage to understand what this “Christ-like” love IS and how our church can commit itself to displaying that love to the world.

A New Commandment

To begin, notice that Jesus describes this commandment as a “new command.” That’s interesting.

Those of you who know your Bible know that the command to “love one another” is not a “new command.

Lev 19:18 “Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.”

When the religious leaders quiz Jesus on the greatest commandment he references the Shama (Deut 6:4-5) followed by Lev 19:18 “Love your neighbor as yourself.” So the command to love one another isn’t new.

What’s New?

The newness of this new commandment is that it’s connected to the New Covenant. “As I have love YOU....” Jesus says.

How did Jesus love them?

Well there are a whole host of ways that Jesus loved his disciples but if we just take the surrounding context of John 13 we can see at least two fundamental ways.

Each of these examples shows what’s new about the New Covenant and therefore what’s new about this New commandment.

Example: Feet Washing

Right before this command Jesus is eating dinner with his disciples. He knows he’s about to die. He’s knows he’s the heaven sent Son of God about to die on the cross for the sins of the world. He’s the most powerful person in the room. Could’ve called down a myriad of angels to overthrow Rome and establish and earthly kingdom then and there.

Instead of doing all of those things he takes off his outer clothing, takes a towel around his waist and begins to wash his disciple’s feet. (John 13:4-5)

Through this act of foot washing Jesus is modeling the kind of love he’s asking his disciples to give to one another.

Was Jesus required to demonstrate this act of grace? No. Did the disciples deserve to receive this kind of grace? Absolutely not! (see Peter).

Jesus is modeling that this new covenant love is a love that is graciously given even to the undeserving.

It’s a love that takes people who are in a position of power and motivates them to play the role of the servant.

It’s a love that advances through humility and sacrifice not greed or pride.

The kingdom of Jesus is upside down and inside out. It’s not like the kingdoms of this world.

Example: Crucifixion

Later in John’s Gospel, Jesus is going to display his love for his disciples by laying his life down as a substitutionary sacrifice and atonement for sin. He will die in our place for our sin and even say of his executioners “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

The death of Jesus on the cross put an end to the sacrificial system and the demands of the Law. Jesus perfectly fulfilled those demands through his sinless perfect life and then received the penalty for our sins through his substitutionary death.

Through the cross we see we’re far worse off than we could’ve ever imagined but we’re simultaneously far more loved than we could’ve ever dared to hope.

That’s what’s new about the New Covenant. Unlike the blood of bulls and goats shed under the Old Covenant through the sacrificial system - the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sins - past and present - big & small - because it was the sinless Son of God who died for us.

The whole point of the old covenant was to prepare us and point to the New.

Because of the cross, our love for others doesn’t stem from duty bound fear (If I don’t obey Jesus won’t love me.) Our obedience flows from a place of joyful gratitude for what Christ has done for us even when we didn’t deserve it.

As the old hymn puts it, “Love so amazing so divine. Demands my soul my life my all!”

New Power/Pattern

In other words, what’s new about this New Commandment is that it has a new PATTERN after which it is to be modeled and it has a new POWER through which it’s carried out.

In the New Covenant,

POWER/PATTERN: Jesus is both the power and the pattern for how we are to love one another.

REASON/RULE: He’s the reason WHY we love but he’s also the rule for what the love is supposed to look like.

SOURCE/STANDARD: The source from which true love is born and the standard against which genuine love is measured.

How Jesus Loves

Aren’t your thankful for the love of Jesus in your life?

Aren’t you glad he loves you when you aren’t very lovable?

That he hears you even when you don’t always listen to him?

Aren’t you glad he doesn’t give up on you even though you’re prone to sometime give up on him?

That’s what new about the new commandment. As I have loved YOU so you are to love one another.

What Is Love?

Now that we know what’s new about this new commandment, let’s look at the actual commandment. “love one another.”

"What is love?” What does Jesus mean by love? Because not everybody means the same thing when they use that word.

Is it love “sweet love” like the song talks about? Or does Jesus mean something else when he uses the word love?

Our culture throws around the word love all the time. We LOVE Taco Bell and we LOVE our children. Are those loves the same? Of course not!

Teenagers fall in love with their first girlfriend or boyfriend but is that love the same as the kind of mature love you see in a 50 year marriage? Of course not!

Little children LOVE their parents but that love is self-centered and flows out of their desire. God loves the world enough to send his son to save it . That love is self-giving and flows from his goodness.

As C.S. Lewis says, “gift-love” and “need-love” are not the same thing.

So what is love?

Greeks On Love

The Greeks had four different words for love. Storge, Phileo, Eros and Agape.

Storge = love that flows from familiarity. It’s love that you feel with your family or Ala Mater.

Philia = love that flow from friendship. It’s the bond formed between people who share a common set of values or interests. You don’t get to choose your family. You DO get to chose your friends.

Eros = love that flows from desire. It’s the “in love” feeling you get when you love a particular person in a particular way unlike any other love you have.

Agape = love that flows from God himself. It’s the opposite of desire because in God there is no lack of anything.

Agape love finds it’s origin in God himself. It flows from his goodness and perfection and aims to bring that same goodness and perfection in it’s object.

This is the word that Jesus uses when he tells his disciples to “love one another.”

Jesus Showing Love

We see this love on display in the life of Jesus throughout the Gospels. It was this love that was put on display in the sending of Jesus to save us from our sins.

John 3:16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

Do you see? It flows FROM God and is given to the world so that those who believe might become LIKE God.

There are so many more examples of this love throughout the Gospels.

It was love that moved Jesus to take a loaf of bread and handful of fish to feed a group of 4,000 people. (Matt 15:32)

It was love that moved Jesus to say to a man with Leprosy, “I am willing … be clean.” (Mark 1:41)

It was love that moved Jesus to heal a marginalized woman who had been suffering for 12 years with bleeding that wouldn’t stop. (Luke 8:45)

It was love that moved Jesus to say to a blind group of beggars, “open up your eyes… now you can see.” (Mat 20:34)

It was love that moved Jesus to say to a grieving widow who had lost her one and only son, “Don’t grieve, mother.” and then to the young man“Get up!” (Luke 7:13-14)

It was love that moved Jesus to say the same thing to Jairus’ daughter (Luke 8:54) and Martha’s brother Lazarus. (John 11:43)

It was the LOVE of Jesus that moved him to associate with the marginalized, open blind eyes, cleanse the leper’s wounds, heal the sick and raise the dead.

It was love that moved Jesus to being whipped and beaten into a bloody pulp by the Romans.

It was love that moved Jesus to take the nails in his hands and the thorns on his head.

It was loved that moved Jesus to say to his very executioners “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

That’s the kind of love the world needs now.

As the old hymn says, “When nothing else could help.... LOVE LIFTED ME!

THAT is the kind of love our world needs to see today. That’s the kind of love Jesus says, “when you give that love to one another you’ll prove to the world you belong to me.”

Attracts & Repels

But here’s what you need to know. This love attracts and repels people at the same time!

God’s love always does both. It attracts and it repels. Jesus did both. Some loved him and others crucified him. That’s the polarizing power of God’s love.

I think the biggest reason that God’s love attracts us and repels us at the same time is because God’s love begins and ends in HIMSELF. It’s like a boomerang.

Love begins in God because he’s the creator. The Godhead shared an ultimate and infinite love between Father Son and Holy Spirit. As creator - all things - physical and metaphysical begin with him.

But he’s also the end of true love because God is the ultimate expression of that which is true, good and beautiful. Love seeks after that which is true, good and beautiful and God is the ultimate source and end of those three things.

God is the source of true love. But he is also the object of true love. Agape love is like a boomerang that begins and ends in God.

Too much self-love can make a sinful person arrogant and egotistical. But God cannot love himself too much because God is the unique and ultimate source of truth, goodness and beauty.

That’s why the Bible says “we love because he first loved us.” Our love for one another must stem from the God’s love for himself and his creation. Any other source would a counterfeit love that doesn’t produce the same results that God’s love does.

Desire For / Cultivation Of

So if our love for one another finds it’s essence in God’s love for us. How should we define the love we’re called to give one another?

Agape love is the desire for and cultivation of holy goodness in the beloved.” Every word in that definition is important.

I think everybody agrees that love seeks after the good of the beloved but that good must be defined.

God himself is the ground all all truth goodness and beauty so it’s a holy goodness that love seeks after in the beloved.

Love both desires and cultivates. Or you might say, “celebration and cultivation of the good.” It recognizes goodness and gives itself in response. It also cultivates goodness by acting towards the beloved in ways that perfect it.

Imagine, for a moment, a person that you love. You can intuit that such love is affirming and affective. It affirms the truth, goodness and beauty that already exists in the beloved while also seeking to affect greater levels of that truth, goodness and beauty.

Why It’s Both/And

That’s why God’s love for us is attractive AND repulsive.

It’s attractive because in God we discover our value. We are made in his image. The crown of creation. We are far more loved than we ever dared hope.

But in being loved by such a holy God we also see our lack of holiness. We see our need for cultivation. We come to understand if we allow ourselves to be loved by this God that such love is going to transform us and change us into something better.

That change can be painful and unsettling so we sometimes try and reject it. But we deep down we know we were made for something more and that God’s love - if fully embraced - would perfect us into that greatness.

Why This Matters

So what does all of this mean for us? This is a series on the local church. Love is the distinguishing mark that we belong to Jesus. So Jesus says “love one another.”

It’s relevant to this series because the “one another” Jesus is talking about is the Church. In particular, it’s applies to the relationships within THIS local church.

Jesus isn’t saying “love everybody” with agape love. He’s saying to his disciples in particular (Judas having left) - love each OTHER in this way.

Why? Because this is how you’re going to show the world that the Gospel is true!

John 13:35 (CSB)

35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Remember, that’s the purpose of the Church. We advance God’s redemptive purpose through how we live our life in community.

God created this local church so that we might powerfully display God’s agape love.

Faith Working Through Love

One of my favorite passages in all of the Scripture is Galatians 5:6.

In the book of Galatians Paul is rebuking a group of legalists who had made the Christian faith all about following a bunch of extra rules and fences.

They were trying to force Gentile believers to measure up to the standards of the Old Covenant law. Paul’s response was clear and strong.

When you add to the Gospel you begin to preach another Gospel. It’s not Jesus plus anything.

Here’s how he phrases it in Galatians 5:6

Galatians 5:6 (CSB)

6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.

If I had summarize the job description of a local church or an individual Christian, those four words are what I’d use: faith working through love.

If we believe what we say we believe about Jesus - then that faith ought to express itself in our actions. And the fundamental attribute of EVERYTHING we do - especially in these four walls - is love.

Faith. Working. Through. Love.

The Vision Frame

A few weeks ago I showed you our vision frame. This vision frame is really just a structure to show how faith works through love in our church. Love for God, love for one another and love for the World.

Remember what we said - agape love is the desire for and cultivation of “holy goodness” in the the life of the beloved. Love celebrates and love cultivates.

What does this look like in our discipleship pathway?

Our worship gatherings are an environment through which we grow in our love for God. We express our desire for God and we celebrate the goodness of God in our singing, preaching, prayers and response.

Our small groups are an environment through which we grow in our love for one another. We bring the truth of God’s Word to bear on our lives but apply that Word to our life together.

When the light of God’s truth begins to shine on your life (whether in worship or in a group) you have a choice to make. You can make yourself vulnerable - allowing God to expose the ugliness in your life, confess that sin and allow his love through the Church to heal you. Or, you can close yourself off and reject that love and remain in your brokenness.

God has given us the local church as a gracious gift so that His love can be unleashed in our life.

Our ministry teams provide an environment through which our faith can go to work. Our acts of service in the church are acts of love for God for one another and for a lost and dying world.

When you serve on a ministry team to go share the Gospel whether its Brazil or South Abilene, it’s the love of Jesus that should compel and motivate your actions.

We are a people of faith - We believe Jesus is LORD - and we express that faith through acts of love. That’s the distinguishing mark.

And not love like our culture thinks of love. It’s agape love. It’s a love that desires and cultivates the holy goodness that is found in God alone.

That’s the kind of love that’s going to heal your marriage. That’s the kind of love that’s going to heal your brokenness. That’s the kind of love that will one day heal this world.

We have been invited - by God’s grace - to display that love to one another for the sake of a lost and dying world.

Conclusion

So as we prepare our heart’s for the Lord’s Supper I want to call us to recommit ourselves to being that kind of church.

In being reminded of God’s great love for us through Christ. Let us also recommit ourselves to his plan A for displaying that love to the rest of the world.

I want to close with two points of application for every single one of us.

First, as a church, if we’re going to experience God’s love for us - we must embrace vulnerability.

I know vulnerability is a scary thing. I know anytime you get close to God or experience the presence of God the light of his truth exposes an ugliness in you that you don’t want others to see and you don’t want to look at yourself.

But you’ll never be healed by God’s love if you don’t let him get close. You’ve got to become vulnerable. You’ve got to open up.

I love the quote by C.S. Lewis

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give it to no one and nothing, not even an animal. You must carefully wrap it round with hobbies and little luxuries and routine and avoidances of entanglement, and then lock it up in the casket or coffin of your own selfishness. And this means that in the long run, the alternative to tragedy, or at least to the threat of tragedy, is damnation, for in that casket – safe, still, and unventilated in the darkness – it will go bad; not broken, but finally unbreakable, impenetrable, resistant to all good and joy….

The second application is to those of you who are members of this local church or those who are debating on membership but haven’t pulled the trigger. It’s also for those who are members but who haven’t really assimilated into the life of a small group.

If we’re going to express God’s love to the world we’ve got to embrace accountability.

I know in our culture this is a curse word. The idea of commitment and responsibility are anathema to a younger generation. But it’s the only way real love can flourish.

Not only must we open ourselves up to be seen. We must also partner together to become holy.

Agape love desires and cultivates holy goodness in the life of the beloved. That cultivating work happens when you invite another person to hold you accountable to the man or woman you’re supposed to be.

At the widest level - this is why church membership matters. You’re making yourself accountable to a faith family. You’re entering a covenant in which you’re saying “I desire to help this family grow in grace and I desire for this faith family to help me grow in grace.”

At a smaller level this is why small groups are so important. Vulnerability and accountability can’t really happen in rows. It takes place in a circle. Where people know your name, your story and your struggles. So if you haven’t made that step. Today’s a good day to do so.