Marks of a Christian
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Marks of a Christian
Marks of a Christian
31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. 32 If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself and will glorify Him at once. 33 “Children, I am with you a little while longer. You will look for Me, and just as I told the Jews, ‘Where I am going you cannot come,’ so now I tell you. 34 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” 36 “Lord,” Simon Peter said to Him, “where are You going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you will follow later.” 37 “Lord,” Peter asked, “why can’t I follow You now? I will lay down my life for You!” 38 Jesus replied, “Will you lay down your life for Me? I assure you: A rooster will not crow until you have denied Me three times.
31-38
What marks your identity as a Christian?
A Lapel pin
A gold cross on a chain
A bumper sticker — “I’m not perfect, just forgiven.”
A stack of T-shirts
In themselves, these are not bad to have, so don’t think I’m against them. But you do realize they are superficial?
What truly matters is your internal, spiritual, character related signs that mark you as a true believer.
In in this section of , Jesus gives 3 Distinguishing Marks of a Christian:
An Unending Preoccupation for God’s Glory
An Unfailing Love for God’s Children — and
An Unswerving Loyalty for God’s Son
I. Preoccupation for God’s Glory
I. Preoccupation for God’s Glory
“When he had gone out.”
Judas was now banished from the group and sent out to do what he purposed to do — betray the Son of God. And now Christ turns His attention to the 11 remaining disciples and the first thing He says is
31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. 32 If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself and will glorify Him at once.
A Christian is marked first and foremost with a preoccupation for God’s Glory. He’s preoccupation is not himself and his own fame, fortune, or honor — but God’s Glory. His goal for his own life is that God be glorified in him and that people praise God by the way he lives.
Jesus taught this by precept and example as illustrated in these first two verses.
This is the moment of all that the Father sent Him to do. He has but to go to the cross and die and then it is all finished. His own humility of love demonstrated His preoccupation for the Glory of His Father.
“Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him.”
It was His own glorification that glorified His Father. His incarnation, life, preaching, teaching, miracles, death, burial, resurrection, exaltation, and return — All encompassed the totality of Christ’s glorification and the Glory of God and His redemptive plan.
A preoccupation of God’s Glory — first is to proclaim that message.
How did this glorify God?
God’s glory is wrapped up in and manifested in His attributes.
You remember when Moses asked to see God’s glory and what did God do? And God responded;
19 He said, “I will cause all My goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name Yahweh before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”
Exodus 33:19
At the cross, all the stunning perfections of God’s goodness were manifested.
He manifested His power in that He broke the power of sin and death in His own death.
He manifested His justice in not neglecting His justice on sinners, but by crushing His own beloved Son for their sin.
He manifested His holiness by satisfying His own holy demands of holiness through this perfect sacrifice.
He manifested His faithfulness when Christ, the sinless One, was offered on the cross to receive the full and final wages of sin — even though it cost Him His own Son.
He manifested His love by dying for you.
God’s Glory is beyond comprehension and words.
Christ’s glory on what He did on the cross was, as John MacArthur describes it — a Sublime Glory. But the Father did not stop there. There would be the resurrection, the ascension, the exaltation, and His triumphant return.
32 If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself and will glorify Him at once.
This means that even today, Christ’s greatest glory is yet Future.
The promise of future glory meant that He had to leave His disciple.
This is why He says in verse 33 —
33 “Children, I am with you a little while longer. You will look for Me, and just as I told the Jews, ‘Where I am going you cannot come,’ so now I tell you.
Why did He say, “Just as I told the Jews?”
34 You will look for Me, but you will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
John
In
21 Then He said to them again, “I’m going away; you will look for Me, and you will die in your sin. Where I’m going, you cannot come.”
This is not what He tells His disciples. And it’s significant that He doesn’t warn His disciples like He did the Jews. Why? Because they weren’t in their sins. He was leaving them and they would miss His physical nearness, but He was going to the Father. And though He was leaving and this would be for God’s Glory — both the Son and the Father — He was not leaving them uncared for.
The Spirit would come! He’s known as the Comforter.
But this is a message to reassure them. He knows that below the surface of their immediate fears and confusion — their deepest concern was for His glory. And so He is focusing their attention on God’s Glory.
The preoccupation of God’s glory is a Mark of a Christian. It’s a burning passion we inherit from our Lord Himself.
II.
Another Mark of a Christian is a love for God’s Children.
II. Love for God’s Children
II. Love for God’s Children
34 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:34-35
I think these words had a tremendous impact on the Apostle John that he made them his life’s message.
11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another,
As children of God we have a new God-given capacity to love.
Christians don’t need someone in our homes enforcing laws. We are like David —
97 How I love Your instruction! It is my meditation all day long.
Why?
Because God has written His law on our hearts.
33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put My teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.
Jeremiah 31:3
14 For the entire law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.
This Mark of a Christian to Love God’s Children really comes down to this — Love one another Just as I have loved you.
That’s an extreme standard. Jesus’ love is holy, selfless, sacrificial, gracious, unconditional, understanding, and forgiving.
What marks a Christian is not an obsession with impressing the world by imitating the world, but loving one another.
Notice this last statement.
35 By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
How will people know you’re a Christian?
By the love you have for one another.
How do we show this love?
Confessing our sin, our wrong doing, to the one we have wronged and asking for forgiveness.
By Forgiving those who have wronged us.
1 If any of you has a legal dispute against another, do you dare go to court before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?
1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians
7 Therefore, to have legal disputes against one another is already a moral failure for you. Why not rather put up with injustice? Why not rather be cheated?
Real love is that costly.
Finally — a Mark of a Christian is one who has loyalty for God’s Son.
III. Loyalty for God’s Son
III. Loyalty for God’s Son
36 “Lord,” Simon Peter said to Him, “where are You going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you will follow later.” 37 “Lord,” Peter asked, “why can’t I follow You now? I will lay down my life for You!” 38 Jesus replied, “Will you lay down your life for Me? I assure you: A rooster will not crow until you have denied Me three times.
Loyalty for Christ is marvelously illustrated in Peter. This is really amazing since the text begins with the departure of Judas to betrayal and ends with the Lord’s prophecy of Peter’s denial of Christ. Peter had faltered and embarrassed many times, but this night tops them all. This would be his most monumental of failures. And yet he proves himself to be a true disciple of Christ, whom he loved.
Peter gives a promised loyalty — “I will lay down my life for You!”
True discipleship demand a practiced loyalty, one that is operating, functional, and persistent, holding up under every pressure.
Peter’s heart burned with love for Christ, but his boasting was foolish. His refusal to accept Jesus’ words was stubborn pride, not loyalty.
Certainly, Jesus’ answer was shocking. And when Peter did deny the Lord 3 times and the rooster crowed, he was overwhelmed by the reality of his ultimate failure in loyalty.
He wasn’t alone though. In Matthew’s account, we read that when Peter responded “Even if I have to die with You, I will never deny You!”
35 “Even if I have to die with You,” Peter told Him, “I will never deny You!” And all the disciples said the same thing.
Matthew 26:35
But within the hour, we read in verse 56
56 But all this has happened so that the prophetic Scriptures would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted Him and ran away.
We have some warnings of Disloyalty.
What causes Disloyalty?
Boasting. Peter was warned by the Lord Jesus that the Devil demanded to have you to sift you like wheat, but I prayed for you. Peter’s response — “Lord,” he told Him, “I’m ready to go with You both to prison and to death!” Peter boasted in what he would do, not in God.
Luke 22:
33 “Lord,” he told Him, “I’m ready to go with You both to prison and to death!”
Too little Praying. While Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter and the other disciples fell asleep 3 times when Jesus commanded them to pray — “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” Peter later wrote — “Be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.”
Acted too Fast. When they came to arrest Jesus, Peter took out his sword and cut off the ear of the Priest’s slave. He continued not to listen to the Lord Jesus. He acted in fear or pride, but certainly not in God’s will. Jesus rebuked him before when Peter responded to Jesus words that he would be killed and raised the third day. “Oh no, Lord! This will never happen to You!” Jesus said, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me because you’re not thinking about God’s concerns, but man’s.”
Followed too Far Away. When they arrested Jesus and took Him into the High Priest, Scripture says in — “Peter was following at a distance.”
The end result was cowardice and not loyalty.
7 Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be serious and disciplined for prayer.
What are you looking to mark yourself as a Christian?
Is it God’s Glory, love for God’s children, and Loyalty for Christ?
How deeply commited are you in these?
