Sermon Tone Analysis

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.