Fundamentals of Following Jesus Christ
Fundamentals of Following Jesus Christ
The Gospel of John
John 15:17-27
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - September 27, 2017
(Revised March 23, 2020)
BACKGROUND:
*Please open your Bibles to John 15. It never ceases to amaze me that God devoted over a fourth of John's Gospel to one night in the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It was the night before the cross, and John talks about this night all the way from John 13:1 to John 18:27. The amount of time God's Word devotes to this night highlights how important it is to know and live by the things our Savior said.
*When time is short, godly wisdom compels us to focus on the most important issues of life. And that's what Jesus did in the hours before He died on the cross. He focused on the most important things. And in tonight's Scripture, Jesus focused some fundamentals of following the Lord. Please think about that as we read vs. 17-27.
MESSAGE:
*Fundamentals are important in life. About two weeks after I got my driver’s license, I was driving on the Upper River Road in Macon, Georgia. It was a very hilly, curvy, dangerous, country road. My girlfriend’s father had been killed in a wreck on that same road.
*Coming home one day, my back, right wheel went off the edge of the road. It was a drop-off of about six inches. And I didn’t know enough to slow down before I got back on the road, so I overcorrected.
*I wound up on the wrong side of the road, and a lady was coming right at me, head on. She was so close that I could see her 5-year-old grandson standing on the front seat beside her. (It was 1967.) She was so close I could see the terrified look on her face. Then, at the last possible second, I jerked the wheel, and I missed her. But I flipped over into the ditch, with the window open, and no seatbelt on.
*By God's grace, I walked away with only a scratch on my arm. But it could have been the worst for us all, and many young drivers have died making the same mistake. Fundamentals are important in life. But the most important of all are the fundamentals that come from God. And in tonight's Scripture Jesus focused on three fundamentals of following the Lord.
1. THE FIRST IS HIS COMMANDMENT FOR CHRISTIANS TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
*Jesus repeated this commandment in vs. 17 where He said, "These things I command you, that you love one another."
[1] NOTICE THAT THIS LOVE COMMANDMENT IS CRUCIAL.
*Closing in on the cross, there was nothing the Lord stressed more than His commandment for Christians to love one another. It was amazing for me to find out how many times God's Word tells us to love one another, not 2 or 3 times, but 16 different times in the New Testament.
*Jesus began on this same night and in John 13:34-35 He said:
34. "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another."
35. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.''
*Then in John 15:12-14, Jesus said:
12. "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
13. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
14. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you."
*For a few more examples, in Romans 13:8, Paul said, "Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law."
*In 1 John 3:11, the Apostle John said: "For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another."
*In 1 John 3:22-23, John said:
22. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
23. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.
*And in 1 John 4:7-12, John said:
7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
10. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.
*Why do you think God's Word repeats this commandment so many times? One reason why is because Satan does every thing he can to pull Christians apart. Another reason why is because we have a hard time applying the love commandment in our lives. We struggle against our old, self-centered, sin-nature.
*I think of the Apostles fussing about which of them was the greatest. Mark 9:33-35 tells us that the disciples had been in an argument as they traveled down the road with Jesus.
33. Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, "What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?''
34. But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest.
35. And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.''
*This incident in took place maybe 8 or 9 months before the cross. But this wasn't the only time the disciples argued about who was the greatest. In Matthew 23:11-12, just days before the cross, Jesus had to tell them again, "He who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
*Then in Luke 22:23-27 just a few hours before the cross, even after the first Lord's Supper:
23. They began to question among themselves, which of them it was who would do this thing (i.e. who would betray Jesus).
24. But there was also rivalry among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest.
25. And He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called 'benefactors.'
26. But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves.
27. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves."
*At times the Apostles struggled to live by the Lord's love command. I also think of the terrible disagreement between Paul and Barnabas in Acts 15:36-41, the church divisions recorded in 1 Corinthians 1:10-18, and the disagreement between Euodia and Syntyche recorded in Philippians 4:1-3.
*There Paul pleaded for loving harmony and said:
1. Therefore, my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved.
2. I implore Euodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.
3. And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.
*Many times, we fail to apply the Lord's love commandment in our lives. There is no telling how many churches have divided and died because some of the members demanded to be in charge. "This is MY church, and we're going to do it MY way!"
*Scott LeFebvre told about a church that completely died, and it happened in part because of an incident in the church kitchen. A new family had come to take part in their first pot-luck dinner. The wife cheerfully brought her red Jell-O salad to the kitchen. Then she headed to the fellowship hall to join her family.
*Later, when everybody started down the serving line, her husband innocently asked, "Where's our salad?" "There must be some mistake," she said. "I'll find out what happened." So, his wife went to the kitchen to check. She got there just in time to see a lady dumping her salad down the garbage disposal. "What are you doing?" She asked. "That's my salad!"
*Without batting an eye, the woman looked up and said, "You're new to this church. You'll soon learn we use only real whipped cream around here, not Cool Whip." Then she hit the switch and the salad gurgled down the drain. But eventually, so did the church. (1)
*Many Christians have completely dropped out of church because of ugliness like that. And I've heard testimonies from Christians who talked about how horribly they had been treated by other people in church. What a tragedy! That's why the Lord frequently tells us to love one another.
[2] IT'S A CRUCIAL COMMANDMENT. IT'S ALSO A CRUCIAL SIGN.
*That's what Jesus said back in John 13:35 where He said, "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.''
*An English author named Rita Snowden told of a visit to a village near Dover. There she sat drinking tea at a sidewalk café, and suddenly she felt like she was surrounded by thousands of flowers. A wonderful aroma drifted through the street.
*Rita asked the café owner where the sweet smell was coming from. He told her that a perfume factory was located close by, and the workers were carrying the aroma with them as they walked home from work. (2)
*Christians: We are commanded to carry the pure, loving aroma of Jesus Christ wherever we go. That makes sense, because 2 Corinthians 2:14-15 says:
14. Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.
15. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
*We are supposed to carry the fragrance of Jesus Christ wherever we go. And our love for each other is a big part of that fragrance. It's a crucial sign to those around us that we belong to Jesus.
*If we don't sincerely love one another, people will miss the sign. And they may never make it to Heaven. So Jesus reminds us of His commandment for us to love one another. It's fundamental.
2. THEN THE LORD REMINDS US OF THE COST OF FOLLOWING HIM.
*In Luke 14:27-30 Jesus told a parable about counting the cost of following Him. And Jesus said:
27. . . Whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
28. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it
29. lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all who see it begin to mock him,
30. saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'"
*Back in Luke 9:23-26 Jesus had already said this to His disciples:
23. . . "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
24. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.
25. For what advantage is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?
26. For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels."
*There is a cost to following our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and part of the cost is that some people are going to hate us. Jesus reminds us of this truth here in vs. 18-21. Here He said:
18. "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.
19. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
20. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
21. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me."
[1] WHY DO THEY HATE US?
*In vs. 18-19, it's because we belong to the Lord, and in vs. 21, it's because they don't know the Lord.
*On January 15, 2020, Christianity Today reported that "somewhere in the world, 8 Christians are killed every day because of their faith. Eighty-two churches or Christian buildings are attacked every week. And every month, 309 Christians are imprisoned unjustly."
*The 2020 World Watch List shows the worst 50 countries where Christians are persecuted. In those nations 260 million Christians suffer high to severe levels of persecution. One of every 8 Christians worldwide are facing persecution. (3)
*I saw one tragic example of cruel hatred in a September 2017 prayer request from the "Voice of the Martyrs" website: "Pray for the Family of Sharoon Masih. Sharoon was a Christian teenager in Pakistan. And he was recently beaten to death by Muslim classmates after being accused of drinking from the same glass as a Muslim.
*Sharoon had started classes at the exclusive boy's government school just three days before his murder. He had been admitted based on high grades, and was the only Christian in his class. A teacher in the room at the time of the attack said he didn’t notice the incident because he was reading a newspaper." (4)
*In vs. 21 Jesus said, "All these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me." Thank God for the freedom we still have in the United States! But there are many Jesus-hating people in our country too. And they also hate us, because we belong to Jesus.
[2] JESUS GAVE US THE REASON FOR THEIR HATRED. HE ALSO GAVE THE RESULT OF THEIR HATRED.
*In vs. 22-24, it's their doom and eternal punishment. Here Jesus said:
22. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
23. He who hates Me hates My Father also.
24. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.
*Here Jesus was directly talking about the Jewish leaders who stubbornly rejected Him. But what the Lord said about them applies to everyone who rejects Jesus as Lord and Savior.
*And what the Lord said in vs. 22, may sound odd: "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin." That might sound odd to us at first. But it simply means that on top of all their other sins, the Christ-haters add the greatest sin of all: Rejecting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. They rejected the only possible hope for their salvation, and they had no covering for their sins.
*But Christians: We have Jesus Christ! We have the precious blood that He shed when He died on the cross for our sins! And think about what Jesus said at the beginning of vs. 22: "If I had not come. . ."
*If Jesus had not come, it would have been horrible for us forever! If Jesus had not come, there would have been no peace, no joy, no hope, no forgiveness and no Heaven for us. But Jesus did come for us, because He loves us! And He did die on the cross for our sins!
*How foolish it is to reject our risen Lord and Savior! But many do. And the results of their hatred? -- It's the perishing of the lost, and in vs. 25, it's also prophecy fulfilled. Here Jesus said, "But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'"
*We must understand that those men were not forced to hate Jesus because it was prophesied. No. They hated Jesus, because they were selfish, self-righteous and wanted to be in control. But God, who sees the end from the beginning, looked down the corridors of time and knew those men would hatefully reject His Son. So the Holy Spirit led King David to write of their hatred a thousand years before Jesus was born.
*This prophecy is found in Psalm 69, and it is definitely talking about the Messiah Jesus Christ.
*In Psalm 69 1-4, we hear our suffering Savior cry out to His Heavenly Father:
1. Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck.
2. I sink in deep mire, Where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, Where the floods overflow me.
3. I am weary with my crying; My throat is dry; My eyes fail while I wait for my God.
4. Those who hate me without a cause Are more than the hairs of my head; They are mighty who would destroy me, Being my enemies wrongfully; Though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it.
*We see another example in vs. 7-9, where the future Messiah says:
7. Because for Your sake I have borne reproach; Shame has covered my face.
8. I have become a stranger to my brothers, And an alien to my mother's children;
9. Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.
*That last verse was fulfilled back in John 2:13-17, where the Apostle wrote these words:
13. Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
14. And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers doing business.
15. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables.
16. And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!''
17. Then His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.''
*Psalm 69 was definitely a prophetic Psalm about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But please look back at vs. 4-6, where David wrote:
4. Those who hate me without a cause Are more than the hairs of my head; They are mighty who would destroy me, Being my enemies wrongfully; Though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it.
5. O God, You know my foolishness; And my sins are not hidden from You.
6. Let not those who wait for You, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed because of me; Let not those who seek You be confounded because of me, O God of Israel.
*It's as if after David wrote about people hating the Lord, he stopped and prayed, "Lord please don't let anybody hate you because of me." And that takes us back to the Lord's crucial command for us to love one another. But the good news is that all of David's sins, and all of our sins were nailed to the cross in our Lord Jesus Christ!
*Praise the Lord! And let us rededicate our lives to help many more people trust in the Lord, because God's wrath is on everyone who doesn't believe in Jesus. As the Lord said in John 3:17-18:
17. . . "God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
*Everybody needs Jesus! And the Lord wants us to be His witnesses, so here in vs. 26-27, Jesus said:
26. But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.
27. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning."
*Thank God the Holy Spirit is still here! But the Apostles have been in Heaven for a very long time, and now it's our time to be witnesses for the Lord. But there will be a cost for following the Lord Jesus Christ. It's fundamental.
3. SO JESUS ALSO REMINDS US OF HIS COMFORT FOR US.
*Verse 26 in the KJV says, "When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me."
*Thank God that the Comforter, the Holy Spirit of God, is right here with us! But why did Jesus send the Comforter? -- There are many good ways to answer that question, but one of the main reasons why is because Jesus knew that we would need comfort!
*That is never more evident than in times like this when people are isolated, sick and dying from the Corona virus. But the Comforter will do what He has done millions of times before. -- He will give comfort to God's people!
CONCLUSION:
*Praise the Lord! And pray with me that God would help us to live by His fundamentals for our lives.
(1) SermonCentral sermon “Malice in Wonderland” by Scott LeFebvre - 1 John 4:7-21
(2) Original source unknown
(3) Adapted from Christianity Today - The Top 50 Countries Where It’s Hardest to Be a Christian by Jayson Casper- January 15, 2020
(4) Prayer Request: Sep. 21, 2017 - Pakistan: Pray for the Family of Sharoon Masih, Murdered by Classmates
http://www.icommittopray.com/request/1612/sharoon%2Dmasihs%2Dfamily/