A New Commandment - Feb. 5th, 2023

Formal Elements / Descriptive Data

Text: a complete thought-unit of Scripture providing the sermon’s basis

John 13:31–35 KJV 1900

Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Central Idea of the Text (CIT): details of text summarized in a complete, past tense sentence

Out of Christ’s love for Christians they are given the commandment to love one another. Christian discipleship is grounded in the work of God (not one’s own work) and is an expression of the nature of God himself. [ZECNT]

Proposition: major idea of sermon summarized in a complete sentence using present, active, future indicative or imperative mood; in direct relationship to the CIT

Given that we are commanded to love one another, I seek today to compel you to challenge your definition of that love.

Statement of Purpose:

(1) Major Objective (MO) – only ONE of six possible (doctrinal, devotional ethical, evangelistic, consecrative, or supportive)

Ethical

(2) Specific Objective (SO) – focuses on only one; calls for specific action (“I want my hearer to . . . “)

Be challenged to take an inventory of whether, why, and how they are seeking daily, actively to walk complicit to Jesus’ New Command.

Title (Topic/Name): 2 to 4 words with a key or arrow word usually common to all major ideas; innovative, interesting, contemporary; indicative of general sermon content; not sensational or cute

Informal Elements / Rhetorical Data

Introduction:

Footprints of Discipleship

—JOHN 13:35 “35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

Have you ever tried to follow your dad as he walks through the snow or across the sand? Have you tried to step only in the footprints that he has made? Not an easy task! You have to stretch your legs as far as they will go to reach his footprints!

But by following in his footprints, you know which way to go. That’s what following God is like. It’s called discipleship.

As a Christian, you need to follow in someone else’s footprints. A parent, grandparent, or teacher. That person’s footprints show you the right way to go, what to say and do as a child of God. No one has to walk this path alone.

Did you know that you also leave footprints for others to follow? Even though you are young, you can lead others to Jesus—a younger child, a friend, or someone who is just learning about Jesus. Part of discipleship is not letting someone walk this trail alone.

Growing in Grace

Trace around your feet on a piece of construction paper, and then cut out the footprints. Ask your mom or dad to do the same. Which ones are bigger? The feet of the grown-ups are—they’ve been growing longer. Your faith should be the same way. The longer it grows, the bigger your “faith footprint” will be. [John C.Maxwell]

Get Attention/Raise Need/Orient Theme/State Purpose

- strong, attractive, and interesting opening sentence

- personal and social material; personal bridge; social bridge

What the Bible says about Love!

(Romans 13:8–10)

From cover to cover “love” is the theme of the Bible. God’s love for mankind runs throughout the pages of the Bible. It is best summed up in His sacrificial love towards us found in John 3:16 which says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to earth to die for us and in our place and for our sins so that we could be redeemed. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Because of what He’s done for us and His great love for us, we are to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. God deserves our love! The Bible speaks much about our love for God. It is because of His love for us that we can and should love Him. 1 John 4:19 says, “We love Him because He first loved us.”

The church is to:

→ love God supremely,

→ worship God exclusively,

→ serve God faithfully,

→ minister for God fervently,

→ and witness for God passionately, all because of His love for us and our love for Him.

God’s love for us is an inexhaustible subject. Our love for God can be expounded on for the rest of our days. But the Bible also has much to say about another “love.” The Bible has much to say about our love for one another.

→ Our love for one another is not to be superficial, but supernatural.

→ Our love for one another is not to be phony, but fervent.

→ Our love for one another is not to be elusive, but to be exhibited.

A young lady wrote to her former man:

Dearest Johnny,

No words could ever express the great unhappiness I’ve felt since breaking our engagement. Please say you’ll take me back. No one could ever take your place in my heart, so please forgive me. I love you, I love you, I love you!

Yours forever, Marie.

P S. And congratulations on winning the state lottery. [Jack Andrews]

- textual material (CIT); textual bridge

Structure and Literary Form

As the first of eight sections of the farewell discourse, [these verses are] part of the fourth (and longest) substantial monologue in the narrative proper. A monologue (see Introduction) is similar to a dialogue in that it is set in the context of an engagement and conflict, but rather than engaging point-for-point it allows for a lengthy argument. A monologue can contain elements of rhetoric, challenge, and conflict, but it does so in a sustained presentation.

This [passage] functions like a prologue. The first and last sections of the farewell discourse serve as a frame and inclusio [or bookends] for the entire monologue. (The logic behind seeing a prologue (13:31–38) and an epilogue (16:25–33) framing the discourse proper is rooted in the nearly identical content in each pericope, serving to connect the entire monologue together. For not only do both pericopae include the question of where Jesus is going and the affirmation of where he is from (13:31 and 16:28), but also both include the reaction of Jesus to Peter and to the disciples alike regarding betrayal or abandonment (13:38 and 16:32).1) This first section of the farewell discourse introduces the disciples to Jesus’s depiction of life in his person and the covenantal transition that is taking place through His work. In His opening statement Jesus explains the nature of his glory and its most vivid expression: commitment and love.

[1 Boyle, “The Last Discourse,” 217.]

[Edward W. Klink III, John, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016), 602.]

Out of Christ’s love for Christians they are given the commandment to love one another. Christian discipleship is grounded in the work of God (not one’s own work) and is an expression of the nature of God himself. [ZECNT]

- focus the sermon’s intent (Proposition)

Given that we are commanded to love one another, I seek today to compel you to challenge your definition of that love.

- relational and transitional material; structural bridge

Be challenged to take an inventory of whether, why, and how they are seeking daily, actively to walk complicit to Jesus’ New Command.

Body – Development – Outline:

I. State major idea drawn directly from the text, in a brief, complete sentence using present active, future indicative or imperative mood, strong verbs (avoid “to be” and its forms); (vs ?)

I. His Departure (Jn. 13:31-33)

Explanation (EXP): from only the selected text; 3rd person pronouns; past tense; express the “then-ness” aspect of the text itself in its historical context

A. His Glory (Jn. 13:31-32)

John 13:31–32 KJV 1900

31 Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him.

Oliver B. Greene points out:

Here we come to a distinct break in the narrative. Judas withdrew himself from the company of the other disciples and went out into the night. Immediately the Lord Jesus speaks as one relieved from a great burden. There is a distinct difference in the tone of all that He says from this point on.

With the countdown to the cross having begun, the disciples were instructed accordingly.

[Glen Spencer Jr., The Gospel according to John, vol. 2, Expository Pulpit Series (Wordsearch, 2019), 47.]

Note - the “Outside Time-ness” of Jesus’ glorification.

The theology of this statement can also be explained: “The glorification of the Son of Man is therefore past, present and future: any logical distinction between these tenses breaks down, since the significance of the Death and of the Coming of the Spirit to the believers, events in time as they are, cannot be limited to their event.”12

[12 Hoskyns, Fourth Gospel, 450. Cf. Dodd, Interpretation, 403.]

[Edward W. Klink III, John, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016), 604.]

B. His Going (Jn. 13:33)

John 13:33 KJV 1900

33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.

Note - “Little children”

Illustration (ILL): fresh, interesting, believable, clearly shed light on this specific portion of the text and on this particular idea being developed; use different sources (use only 1 personal and 1 biblical ill. per sermon)

Use the Biblical Illustration that Jesus used, point out the difference between the religious leaders and the disciples (“now” . . . “afterward”).

Application (APP): specific; carry out the stated purpose expressed in the major and specific objectives; 1st and 2nd person pronouns; action-centered; relevant; express the “now-ness” aspect

The Glory of the Cross

Jesus begins his farewell discourse with an emphatic description of the glorification of the Son of Man (vv. 31–32). In these verses the glory of the Son of Man—a title that itself magnifies the glory of the one who bears it—is expressed in his death on the cross. The cross, which proleptically includes the resurrection and ascension of Christ, is the place where the work and person of the Son, the very purpose of the Son’s mission to the world, is affirmed and given its approval. The glory of the cross is so rooted in God that it is beyond time; it is “omnitemporal” because its effects interpenetrate past, present, and future. The cross is the place and time when God fully accommodates himself to his creation, where the light overcomes the darkness and death procures life. The church now sees this place of death and darkness as the manifestation of its life and light. What the world sees as shame the Son receives as “joy” (Heb 12:2). This is the gospel: the cross of Christ is life not death for us, and this “great reversal” is the ultimate expression of God’s love for the world (cf. 3:16). That which was “an instrument of human cruelty and injustice became a sign of tenderness and victory.”31

[31 Stevick, Jesus and His Own, 99.

Edward W. Klink III, John, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016), 608.]

Transitional Sentence (TS): sentence indicates change and progression to next major idea; use the unifying word

Having considered what Jesus said about His Departure, namely, His glorification, and where He was going, now consider,

II. Our Discipleship (Jn. 13:34-35)

EXP:

A. Our Loving (Jn. 13:34)

John 13:34 KJV 1900

34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Jesus reminds His disciples of the necessity of loving one another. He is speaking of genuine love. Judas had not exhibited genuine love for Christ, so He gives His disciples an admonition. J. Carl Laney wrote:

The betrayal by Judas was a sin against love. Instead of showing love for the one who had extended grace and friendship, Judas responded with deception and hostility. It is in the context of Judas’s sin against love that Jesus reveals to His disciples the mark of the Christian.

The greatest demonstration of love this world has ever known is the cross of Calvary. The evidence of God’s unwavering love is the sacrifice of His Son for the sin of a lost world.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Christ’s death demonstrated God’s unconditional love for us. Calvary’s cross is the undeniable proof of God’s love. We are told that …

The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. (Romans 5:5b)

You will notice that it is not our love, but the love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts. We are incapable of loving as we ought to. Therefore, God enables us to love others as we ought. It is our responsibility to love people.

[Glen Spencer Jr., The Gospel according to John, vol. 2, Expository Pulpit Series (Wordsearch, 2019), 48–49.]

Jesus called this a “new command,” although the commandment to love was as old as the Mosaic revelation. He did so because his radical love demanded a new object and a new measure. The object was now “one another.” The Jews had watered down the Mosaic teaching so they could love whom they wanted and hate whom they wanted. But Christ changed the object from “neighbor” to “one another.” This was a radical new commandment. The world at that time was divided by prejudicial divisions that make many of our differences pale by comparison—master and slave, Jews and Gentiles, and so on. The Greeks regarded Jews as barbarians. The Jews had the reputation of being haters of the world. There was also a vast chasm between men and women. The world seemed helplessly alienated. Alexander Maclaren describes what happened because of Christ’s command:

Barbarian, Scythian, bond and free, male and female, Jew and Greek, learned and ignorant … sat down at one table, and felt themselves all one in Christ Jesus. They were ready to break all other bonds, and to yield to the uniting forces that streamed out from his Cross. There never had been anything like it. No wonder that the world began to babble about sorcery, and conspiracies, and complicity in unnamable vices. It was only that the disciples were obeying the new commandment, and a new thing had come into the world—a community held together by love and not by geographical accidents or linguistic affinities, or the iron fetters of the conqueror .… The new commandment made a new thing, and the world wondered.5

It was as a band of brothers and sisters that the church conquered the world. It was a glorious band of brothers and sisters that sailed the oceans and marched through the continents to both dungeon and throne with the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ! One of the reasons they succeeded is that mankind, severed from one another, longing to come together, witnessed real love among the followers of Christ—and especially among believing Jews, the narrowest, most bigoted, most intolerant nation on the face of the earth.

[5 Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture, Vol. 10 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1974), pp. 227–228.]

[R. Kent Hughes, John: That You May Believe, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1999), 325.]

B. Our Witness (Jn. 13:35)

John 13:35 KJV 1900

35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

ILL:

Here Jesus identified genuine love as the unmistakable hallmark of Christianity. When God’s people love as they ought, it has a powerful effect on others. When the Jews saw Jesus weep at Lazarus’ grave, they remarked …

Behold how he loved him! (John 11:36)

When these Jews saw Jesus weep, they saw love in action. The Jews recognized the great love of Jesus for others. Sincere Christian love for others can have a powerful impact on those who witness it. J. C. Ryle said:

That of all the graces, love is the one which most arrests the attention and influences the opinion of the world.

Our love and care of one another gives the lost world a picture of God’s love for them. We need to ask ourselves the question, How am I representing Christ? The proof of being a genuine Christianity is our love for one another.

[Glen Spencer Jr., The Gospel according to John, vol. 2, Expository Pulpit Series (Wordsearch, 2019), 50.]

APP:

The Love Commandment

As much as the plan of God had always involved the arrival of Jesus, so also did it always include his departure. The departure of Jesus initiates the fullest expression of the love of God for the world, for in the new covenant Christ’s love for the world transitions to the body of Christ’s love for the world, beginning with the new commandment to love one another (v. 34). The plan of God had always been to share the love between the Father and the Son with the children of God and ultimately the world. The people of God are not only the recipients of the love of God but also become the expression of the love of God in the world. The Christian life and mission is centered upon and compelled by this new commandment. In this way the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament, and even Jesus’s summary of the Ten into two—love of God and neighbor—find their truest expression in this single love commandment. When we love God, we are able to love one another, and when we love one another we love God. These are not the same thing, but they have the same source—the love found among and between the persons of the Trinitarian God. Quite simply: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

[Edward W. Klink III, John, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016), 608.]

Conclusion:

- forceful, attractive, interesting

- motivational in reporting God’s action (good news)

- possible recapitulation of major ideas or proposition

- in harmony with stated purpose in MO, SO, and all APP

- encourage the hearer in his/her response

The new covenant brings with it the new life in the Holy Spirit which will as never before enable the fulfilling of the law.33 It is ‘new’ also in the sheer depth and demand of the summons to love which Jesus issues. In the light of the cross all other descriptions and definitions of love pale into insignificance. Here indeed is love ‘so amazing, so divine’ (Isaac Watts). Yet according to Jesus this is the norm for Christian community.

Jeremiah 31:33–34 KJV 1900

33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, And write it in their hearts; And will be their God, And they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: For they shall all know me, From the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: For I will forgive their iniquity, And I will remember their sin no more.

Ezekiel 36:26–27 KJV 1900

26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Romans 5:5 KJV 1900

5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Galatians 5:22 KJV 1900

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

[Bruce Milne, The Message of John: Here Is Your King!: With Study Guide, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 206.]