Stumbling Block - Week 5

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- Today we are in the second last week of our series “Stumbling Block”, where we are talking about the things that get in the way and block people out of a relationship with Jesus.

- No matter what you believe, no matter where you’re coming from, chances are you understand what I mean when I say that there are things that churches and Christians do that make Jesus seem less appealing, rather than more appealing.

- There are things that churches and Christians do that push people further away from Jesus, rather than drawing them closer to Him.

- But when Jesus walked on the earth, people who didn’t believe what He believed, found themselves captivated by Him.

- They followed Him.

- They listened to Him.

- They were interested in Him.

- Some loved Him, others hated Him.

- But nobody could ignore Him.

- Why can so many people ignore churches and Christians today?

- What stumbling blocks are in the way, and how can we remove them?

- And the entire premise of this series, is this idea that we don’t have to do anything crazy and never-before-seen to remove these stumbling blocks, but we actually have to get back to what Jesus told His followers to do (something that’s been lost in all of the church noise in our culture for far too long).

- It’s not a “new” idea (at least not in 2024), but we need to get back to the “new” that Jesus came to introduce and unleash upon our world.

- And so, last week, we saw how Jesus redefined the greatest commandment (by saying there are two), and then He redefined the word “neighbour” (by breaking down barriers that keep His followers separated from anyone else).

- And all of this was pointing to the “new” (hinting at the “new”) that Jesus came to bring to the world – and to us.

- Jesus came to fulfill (complete) the old (not abolish it), and bring about something completely brand new.

- And, as we’ve also already seen (a few weeks ago), on the night of His arrest, Jesus also took the ancient Jewish tradition of Passover, made it all about Him, and used it to announce that His “new” was now beginning.

- And the new and the old had a lot of differences.

- The old was a suzerain-vassal, while the new was a royal grant.

- The old was a conditional contract between two parties of different statuses.

- The new was an unconditional promise made by one party to the other.

- The old was vertically based, while the new was horizontal in emphasis.

- There were plenty of differences between the old and the new.

- But there were also some similarities.

- Specifically, both the old and the new covenants came with terms and conditions.

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- Ancient covenants, just like modern contracts, always came with terms and conditions (think your cell phone contract, which I’m sure you read every word of before signing).

- You know, there’s no lie more common in our culture today than when we check the little box that says “I have read, and I agree to the terms and conditions” (and then we’re surprised to find out what that app has been doing with our data, even though we said we read and understood and agreed to it before we were allowed to use it).

- But terms and conditions aren’t something new to our world that just apply to Facebook wanting to sell our personal information to questionable online retailers.

- Terms and conditions go back a long way.

- And, as it turned out, on the night when Jesus claimed that His new covenant was beginning, Jesus gave the terms and conditions for His new covenant.

- Or, more specifically, Jesus gave the term and condition for His new covenant.

- And that’s what we’re going to be focusing on this morning.

- And so, we’re back at the Passover meal with Jesus and His disciples.

- And Jesus has forever changed the Passover by making the bread and juice about Himself.

- And Judas has just slipped away.

- Jesus knows that His time is running out, and so whatever Jesus still needs to say to His disciples, He needs to say right now.

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- John 13:31-33

o As soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, “The time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory, and God will be glorified because of him. And since God receives glory because of the Son,

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o he will give his own glory to the Son, and he will do so at once. Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can’t come where I am going.

- Now, some of the disciples were so confused by these words that perhaps they stopped listening to the rest of what Jesus would say

- “What do you mean you’re leaving?”

- “What do you mean we can’t come with you?”

- “Why not?”

- “What’s going on?”

- “What are you talking about Jesus?”

- “This doesn’t make any sense, this isn’t what the Messiah is supposed to do.”

- But, in the midst of the confusion, Jesus continued:

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- John 13:34a

o So now I am giving you a new commandment:

- Now, if any of them were still listening, they maybe thought to themselves “New command?”

- “No thanks! We don’t need any new commands!”

- “We’ve got hundreds of commands already, and they keep us busy enough trying to follow all of them as best we can.”

- Besides, hadn’t Jesus already reduced the entire list of commands down to two (love God, love your neighbour, all the law and prophets hinge on these)?

- Why a third command?

- Why a new command?

- Why now?

- But, as they would find out, Jesus wasn’t about to add a command to an existing list of commands.

- He was doing something far more significant, something brand new.

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- John 13:34a

o So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other

- “Jesus, I hate to break it to you, I hate to spoil this big moment of yours. But this isn’t new.”

- “This is very old.”

- “You’ve already told us about this, quoting from the Mosaic Law. Remember? Love your neighbour as yourself?”

- But Jesus isn’t finished.

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- John 13:34

o So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.

- In this moment, Jesus took an old covenant idea (love your neighbour as yourself), and He raised the bar.

- Now, for most of us who are followers of Jesus, when we read about Jesus saying “as I have loved you” what do we think about?

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- The cross.

- Of course we do.

- But, put yourself in this room, just after that first brand new Passover that is now all about Jesus.

- Because, in that room, nobody thought about the cross.

- Because the cross hadn’t happened yet.

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- When Jesus said “Just as I have loved you” no one in that room thought about the cross.

- Rather, they would have thought back to the past 3-ish years they’ve spent with Jesus.

- All the memories.

- All the miracles.

- All the laughter.

- All the difficulty.

- All the sacrifice.

- Jesus’ disciples heard “Just as I have loved you, you should love each other” and their minds must have gone to specific instances, specific memories, that stood out for when they most felt the love of Jesus.

- Maybe Matthew remembered how loved he felt when Jesus called him away from the sinful, despised, and shameful (even if it was financially prosperous) life of a tax collector.

- And, in that moment, Matthew understood that Jesus was telling him “Matthew, for the rest of your life, extend that same kind of love and welcome and acceptance to everyone you can – no matter how sinful, despised, and shameful they appear to be.”

- Maybe Nathaniel, thought about his introduction to Jesus, and maybe what he heard Jesus saying to him was something like this:

- “Nathaniel, do you remember how you made fun of my home, my family, my culture, when you said ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ And do you remember how I called you to follow me anyways?...

- “Nathaniel, that kind of grace and forgiveness, that is what you are to show to everyone you can, for the rest of your life.”

- Every single one of them had memories, many memories, that would have come to their mind.

- Times when Jesus had shown His love for them.

- And, with all of those memories going through their minds, Jesus says “Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”

- And, even though He didn’t say it, perhaps Jesus was thinking to Himself “and guys, even with all of those memories you have of experiencing my love for you, even with everything we’ve been through together over the last few years, compared to what’s coming in the next few days, you haven’t seen anything yet.”

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- And, with what would follow in the next few days, that would give even further meaning to Jesus’ new command of “Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”

- Jesus is bringing about the terms and conditions (the term and condition) of His new covenant.

- But, unlike the old covenant, this wouldn’t be written on stone tablets, this would be written on their hearts (the hearts that had seen, felt, known, and experienced Jesus’ love personally).

- Unlike the old covenant, this wouldn’t be difficult to memorize.

- The one commandment.

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- The new commandment.

- Far less confusing.

- Far more demanding.

- Far less complicated. Far more costly.

- Receive and experience the love of Jesus, and then let that love flow through you, by the power of His Holy Spirit, into the lives of everyone around you.

- That’s what it means to follow Jesus.

- That’s the one command that matters.

- Now let’s take this a little bit further.

- When Jesus completed and fulfilled the old covenant (“It is finished”), that also meant that Jesus completed and fulfilled the old covenant terms and conditions (which is why the Temple curtain was torn in two).

- Jesus completed and fulfilled the old covenant commands.

- And the beginning of Jesus’ new covenant means the beginning of Jesus’ new command.

- Because Jesus didn’t issue His new command as one to be added to the existing list of hundreds of commands.

- Jesus did issue His new command as a replacement for everything in the existing list of hundreds of commands.

- Including, the 10 Commandments.

- You know, back when I was in Bible College, I went to do my internship at a church named… OneStop Life Centre (it used to meet over in the Assiniboia Park gym).

- And, during that internship, I met a pastor in Weyburn, who was a pretty young guy, and we started to hang out.

- I thought it was to become friends, to get to know each other.

- But, this guy was meeting for a different purpose.

- Because this pastor passionately believed that it is Biblically correct (Biblically necessary) to meet on Saturdays.

- And so I wanted to get together to build a friendship, but he wanted to get together with me to convince me that I needed to change to Saturday church, otherwise I was in big trouble with the Big Man upstairs.

- And I remember at one point our conversation turned to the 10 Commandments.

- And, when he got to the main point of his argument, he pointedly asked me, “why do you think that we only need to follow 9 of the 10 commandments now? While completely ignoring the commandment about honouring the Sabbath day?”

- It’s a good argument.

- But I don’t think he was prepared for my response.

- He perhaps thought I would argue for a new definition of what the “Sabbath” meant (and then he could show me that Biblically speaking the Sabbath command is very clearly about Saturday – and it is, he would have won that argument).

- But I didn’t argue for a new definition of the Sabbath.

- Instead, I said this.

- “Well, to be honest, I don’t think Christians are actually under any of the 10 Commandments.”

- “It’s not that we need to obey 9 of them but for some reason get to ignore 1 of them.”

- “It’s that we aren’t under any of them anymore.”

- Follow with me here.

- Jesus fulfills, completes, and replaces the old covenant with the new covenant.

- And, Jesus fulfills, completes, and replaces the old commands with the new command.

- And that means that if we want to participate in Jesus’ new covenant, we are not required to obey the hundreds of commands that God spoke to Israel through Moses.

- But we are required (we are commanded) to obey the new command that Jesus issued as the term and condition of His new covenant.

- Just as Jesus has loved us, so we are to love each another (remembering that Jesus has already blown the doors wide open on who the “one another” are, who the “neighbour” is).

- “Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”

- Far less confusing.

- Far more demanding.

- And we’ll come back to my conversation with my fellow pastor in just a few minutes, but let’s get back to Jesus issuing His new command – the term and condition of His new covenant.

- Because, Jesus wasn’t done talking yet.

- And the significance of what Jesus would say next, cannot be overstated.

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- John 13:34-35

o So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

- Now, in terms of the old covenant, there was one particular command that “proved” you were in that covenant (particularly for the gentlemen).

- It was the sign of circumcision (just one more reason why you should be thankful that it’s not your covenant, and not your commands).

- And, just as circumcision was the proof that a man was submitting himself to the old covenant, so this type of generous and sacrificial love is the proof that a man or woman is submitting themselves to the new covenant.

- This is the sign to the world that we follow Jesus.

- This is all the proof they need to see to know where our allegiance lies.

- This is the one command that would unite everyone who wants to follow Jesus and be a part of His new covenant.

- This is the one distinguishing characteristic that sets followers of Jesus apart from the rest of the world.

- Or, at least, it’s supposed to be.

- And there is the key to our stumbling blocks.

- Five weeks of talking, five weeks of build up, to get to this point.

- Because if there is anything, disguising itself as Christianity, but it keeps us from generously and sacrificially loving one another and loving others around us, then it is a stumbling block, and it is in the way.

- “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

- Please listen to me, please hear what I’m saying.

- I know some of what I’ve said in this series has been challenging.

- I know some of it has got you thinking.

- I know some of it you’re still not sure if I’m right about.

- I know some of you are still thinking “what do you mean we’re not under the 10 Commandments anymore? I can’t get behind that!”

- But please hear me on this.

- People should not know we are followers of Jesus because of what we repeatedly tell them we believe.

- People should not know we are followers of Jesus because we tell them about all of the things we don’t do, all of the things that we don’t support.

- People should not know that we are followers of Jesus because of how offended, persecuted, and marginalized we think we are (we pretend we are?).

- People shouldknow that we are followers of Jesus because – even if they don’t agree with us – they have never been shown such love, such sacrifice, such generosity, such forgiveness, such grace, as they have seen when they interact with us.

- Our faith is displayed as genuine, our relationship with God is confirmed as real, not based on how people see us relate to God, but rather by how they see us relate to those around us.

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- Again, we’ve seen that when it came to the “old” way of life, it was a very vertical approach.

- Love God, and to show you love God, you obey His hundreds of commands.

- But Jesus didn’t begin His new covenant and His new command by pointing up to the sky.

- Jesus began His new covenant and command by pointing to Himself.

- It was no longer between just each individual person (or the individual nation of Israel) and God up in the sky.

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- It was now between Jesus, us, and everyone around us.

- From vertical, to horizontal.

- Getting closer to God would no longer be primarily about struggling to worship and know a God who was up there somewhere.

- For Jesus followers, now it’s all found in the person (the life, the death, the resurrection, the infilling of His Spirit) of Jesus.

- And, for followers of Jesus, they demonstrate their allegiance to Jesus, they demonstrate their devotion to Jesus, by putting the person next to them ahead of them.

- Listen to me, hear me, please understand this.

- If you are following Jesus then you need to know this.

- If you aren’t following Jesus then I want you to know something that maybe Christians around you haven’t done a great job of showing you.

- Jesus followers don’t primarily show their love for God by separating themselves from the rest of the world and looking up.

- Jesus followers primarily show their love for God by going out into the rest of the world (that God created and that God loves and that God pursues), and by looking around.

- That’s why, every week since 2024 began, we have been ending our services with this simple (but profound) statement (that I stole from Pastor John Drisner in Saskatoon): “We’ve had a church service. Now go and be the Church.”

- Because it’s in the day-to-day details of our lives, it’s in the nitty-gritty of who we are when we’re at school, at work, with friends, with family, with “neighbours”,

- It is then that our faith is displayed – for better or for worse.

- What we do in here, how loudly we sing in here, how much we “amen” the pastor’s sermons (and by the way, it kind of ramps me up, so please go ahead and do it more!),

- But what we do in here doesn’t matter nearly as much as what we do out there.

- When Jesus tells us to love others as He has loved us, He is not commanding us to “feel” something. He is commanding us to “do” something.

- Jesus, in His big talk with His closest followers, as He prepares to head to the cross imminently, doesn’t spend His time telling them what theological positions they need to hold and defend and argue and divide over.

- He gives them one thing to do.

- To love others (to love their neighbours) the same way that He has loved them.

- Followers of Jesus don’t follow Jesus because we are afraid of hell.

- Followers of Jesus don’t obey Jesus because we are forced into submission.

- Followers of Jesus follow Jesus because His love inspires us (it motivates us, it changes us).

- The God who is Love itself resides within us through His Holy Spirit (He makes us His Temples), and it changes how we treat everyone we interact with.

- We don’t love Jesus because He is King (even though He is).

- We love Jesus because He loved us first.

- And, as He went to the cross, Jesus demonstrated His love for us in a way that took everyone’s breath away (including His own).

- And, it also took everyone’s excuses away.

- Because, as Jesus loved us (and continues to love us), we are to love others.

- And that sort of love will prove to the world that we are a disciple (a student, a follower) of Jesus.

- I’ve heard that for many people who have stumbled away, walked away, left the faith, particularly for those who were raised in the church, they sometimes say something along the lines of this:

- “It’s not just that I don’t believe it, it’s that I don’t think my parents/friends/grandparents/whoever actually believe it themselves. Because they go to church, and they sing and they cheer for Jesus, but then at home (at work, at school, wherever), they are a completely different person from the God they claim to serve.”

- That’s tragic.

- And that’s unnecessary.

- This is what people should be saying about followers of Jesus instead:

- “I don’t know if I believe what they believe, I don’t know if I agree with what they’re saying about that Jesus guy… but I have never experienced someone care about me the way that they do. So they must believe it’s true!”

- This is the new covenant.

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- This is the new commandment.

- Far less confusing.

- Far more demanding.

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- Last week we talked about how many people (possibly many of us) have asked a version of this question before: “Is _____ a sin?”

- “Is it ok for me to do ______?”

- “Is it wrong for me to do ______?”

- But instead, I want to encourage us to stop asking questions like these, and to ask a better question instead.

- A question that will help guide every moral decision, relational decision, ethical decision that we find ourselves needing to make for the rest of our lives.

- A question that moves us away from finding ways to justify our action (or inaction), and snuggle up as close to sin as we possibly can without crossing over the line (or by pursuing righteousness in a way that’s all about us).

- A question that pushes us towards Jesus’ new command, and allowing it to be the single guiding ethic for our entire lives.

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- “What is the loving thing to do?”

- This clarifying (and terrifying) question should guide our consciences, our actions, our interactions, our decisions, our giving, our relationships, our parenting, our behaviour at school or work, our engagement with the culture around us (in person and on social media).

- This question takes away our right to argue “But the Bible doesn’t say that this is wrong!” “But the Bible doesn’t say that I can’t do this or that!”

- This question also takes away our right to weaponize the Bible to beat people over the heads with what we believe.

- This question takes away our loopholes and exposes our hypocrisy.

- This question demolishes stumbling blocks.

- This question is simple, and yet it is inescapable, and it is demanding.

- What is the loving thing to do?

- How can we love others the way that Jesus has loved us?

- Because Jesus’ new command provides us with a new answer to an old question.

- Jesus’ new command forces us to change our answer to the question of “why?”

- “Why obey?”

- “Why forgive?”

- “Why tithe?”

- “Why tell the truth?”

- “Why do all of those things we were taught to do when we were kids?”

- And, under old covenant terms and conditions, the question of “why” was answered in a vertical manner.

- Why obey? Because God will bless me if I do.

- Why forgive? Because the Bible says so!

- And chances are none of us need to look very far to see these old terms and conditions seep into our Christian churches, our Christians beliefs, our Christian behaviours.

- “I’ll do what God wants, as long as I believe that it’s what’s best for me.”

- This is the mixing and matching stumbling block of adding old things that Jesus has fulfilled into the new that He came to introduce.

- Because, under the new covenant term and condition, the question of “why” is now answered in a horizontal manner.

- Why obey? Because we’ve already been given so much, and that inspires us to give to others around us.

- We don’t obey because the Bible says so. We obey because we’ve experienced the life-changing (eternity changing) love of Jesus.

- Let’s go back to my visit with the Saturday-church-service pastor.

- When I told him that Christians aren’t required to obey any of the 10 Commandments, what do you think his response was?

- His response is maybe what you were thinking when I said it (and this will save you from having to e-mail me or call up a council member to express your concern for me and my wayward beliefs).

- Because he said “Are you saying that it’s ok for Christians to murder?”

- “Are you saying that Christians are allowed to steal and commit adultery?”

- And I told him “No! Absolutely not!”

- But, here’s the difference, and here’s what we need to understand.

- Christians don’t obey “Thou shalt not murder” because it was written on a stone tablet for the nation of Israel thousands of years ago.

- Christians don’t murder because – and follow with me here – it’s not the loving thing to do.

- Christians don’t commit adultery because that is not the kind of sacrificial, generous, putting-others-first love that Jesus showed to us, and then fills us with His Holy Spirit so that we can go and love others in that same way.

- Christians don’t honour our fathers and mothers so that we can live long in that land that God has given us (besides, God hasn’t given us any land in the first place, unless that promise is about being allowed to live long in our parents’ basements, but that sounds more like a punishment than a reward).

- We honour our fathers and mothers, because that’s the loving thing to do, because that’s what’s best for them.

- Every promise we need today is found within the context of Jesus’ new covenant. It’s a better covenant.

- If we can’t find what we’re looking for there, we shouldn’t go looking for it elsewhere.

- The New Testament, the Christian Scriptures, are filled with examples of how to apply this one term and condition of Jesus’ new covenant.

- There aren’t thousands, hundreds, or dozens of commands throughout the letters of Paul, Peter, James, and others.

- But there are plenty of examples of how to put this one commandment into practice, how to do the one and only thing Jesus commanded His followers to do.

- Whenever we are in a situation, whenever we need to make a decision on what to do, here’s what our thought process should be:

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- What would be best for others?

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- That’s the loving thing to do.

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- So that’s what I’m going to do.

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- Because that’s how Jesus has loved me.

- Old covenant terms and conditions forced Israel to look up, and make sure things were right between them and God (and usually they weren’t anyways).

- But the new covenant term and condition forces us to look around, to the person right in front of us, and show our devotion to Jesus with how we treat with (and interact with) them.

- We began our series about a month ago talking about how it’s baffling that more people in our culture don’t go to church.

- Others around the world sacrifice so much just to grow close to Jesus, and our buildings sit empty week in and week out.

- People live right next door to a church building, and they will never walk over and check it out.

- Why?

- What stumbling blocks are in the way?

- Maybe it’s the mixing and matching.

- Maybe it’s the addition and confusion.

- Maybe it’s the fact that we haven’t prioritized (and we haven’t demonstrated) Jesus’ one new command – to love as He has loved us.

- Maybe it’s because we aren’t doing the one thing that Jesus said would prove to the world that we are His disciples.

- What if we got back to the basics?

- What if we got back to THE new command of Jesus’ new covenant?

- Jesus’ new command changed the world once.

- And it could again.

- But, if it’s going to, it has to start with us making every single decision based on one question.

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- What is the loving thing to do?

- It’s far less confusing. Far less complicated.

- What is the loving thing to do?

- Go and do it, out of the overflow of the love that Jesus has given to you.

- Close in prayer

- (*) Now What

- Benediction: “We’ve had a church service. Now go, and be the Church.”

Scripture:

- John 13:1-35

- Philippians 2:1-11

- 1 John 4:7-21

- 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

- Hebrews 8:1-13

Prayer:

- Pray that God’s love would change you (and continue to change you) from the inside out. Pray that His love would flow through you into the lives of as many people as possible this week.

- Pray that God would help you stay focused on His command to love others around you. Pray that you would not get distracted by the many things that try to pull you away from this one main calling He has for your life (to love others).

Discussion/Reflection:

- Jesus said “Just as I have loved you, you should love each other” (John 13:34). Do you really believe that this one command is the primary thing that Christians need to be concerned with? Why or why not?

- Jesus also said “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciple” (John 13:35). Do you think this is true for many Christians/churches today? Why or why not? What are some of the things that people look to as “proof” for whether someone is following Jesus or not?

- Jesus’ new command for His new covenant is far less confusing, but far more demanding. How is making this one command the focus of your life helpful in simplifying the demands/rules often associated with Christianity? How is mixing and matching old and new together less demanding?

- In His new command, Jesus doesn’t shout orders from a position of authority, but rather He inspires obedience through His own personal example. When thinking about your own relationship with Jesus, are you more prone to follow Him based on fear/authority (ie: “I am a Christian because I don’t want to go to hell”) or based on love/relationship (ie: “I am a Christian because I love Jesus”)?

Now What Next Step:

- “What is the loving thing to do?”

- As you go about your week, in as many interactions with others as possible, ask this question before you take an action or make a decision.

- With family members, friends, co-workers, classmates, and complete strangers, try to let all your relationships be governed by you seeking to do “the loving thing” as often and as frequently as possible.

- When you fail (and we all will), don’t be discouraged.

- Apologize. And try again.

- This week, prove to your world that you are a follower of Jesus by how well you love the people around you.