Characteristics of a True Christian

Picking up where we left off 2 Sundays ago. We defined Love as a self sacrificial Love exemplified by God in John 3:16 by sending His Son to die for our sins. Another example that Jesus demonstrates his Love is through the washing of His disciples’ feet, an example of love by humility (John 13:4-15). It is by the way a jewish custom for a slave to wash the peoples feet. During the groups dinner, Judas left to plan for Jesus’ betrayal and now we come to a passage wherein introduces Jesus' last commission to His disciples before He went to the cross. It contains every ingredient we need to know about discipleship. These concluding words of our Lord on His last evening with His disciples are strategic to our understanding of what Christ expects of us as believers. Here Jesus gives three distinguishing marks of a committed Christian. These ingredients should be evident in the life of every disciple. An Unending Preoccupation with the Glory of God The very purpose for which we exist is to give glory to God.  We live so that whatever we do brings glory to our Lord. We realize that it doesn't matter what people think of us, but only that we glorify God. Our motive, our theme, our goal, our reason, our purpose is to give the Lord glory in everything we do. Our life reflects the attributes of God, and God is praised by the way we live. Now that Judas was gone, He could speak freely to His disciples. God incarnate, Jesus Christ, had come to earth in humility. He had restricted the full manifestation of His glory and subjected Himself to human frailty, though He never sinned. For thirty-three years His glory had been shrouded in human flesh. With His coming glory in mind, Jesus makes three distinct statements. Each is unique and important. Now is the Son of Man glorified (John 13:31) Jesus and the disciples would go into the Garden of Gethsemane, where Christ would continue His teaching. There Judas would march in with the soldiers and set in motion the events that would lead to Jesus' death. It was right around the corner, and Jesus was ready to die--to be glorified.  He paid the price of God's justice and purchased for Himself all the elect of God. In dying for sin, He rendered His life a sweet-smelling savor to God, a sacrifice more pure and blessed than any sacrifice ever offered. And when the offended justice of God and the broken law were fully satisfied, Jesus concluded His work by saying, "It is finished." He had accomplished the redemption of all who believe, satisfied the justice of God, repaired the broken law, and set believers free. And God is glorified in Him (John 13:31) He was speaking of His death, burial, resurrection, exaltation, and coming again. All the glory He was speaking of came through those things. And those things are the elements of the gospel message. When we declare the gospel, we are declaring the clearest and most powerful aspects of God's glory. Thus in a sense, witnessing is one of the highest and purest forms of worship, because it most clearly affirms the glory of God. God's glory is wrapped up in His attributes. His love, mercy, grace, wisdom, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence--all the attributes of God--reflect and declare His glory. We glorify God when we in any way praise or acknowledge or experience or display His attributes. At the cross every attribute of God was manifest in a way that had never been manifest before.  God will also glorify Him (John 13:32)  Jesus emphasizes the truth that the Father and the Son are busily engaged in glorifying each other, and the greatest glory of the Son is subsequent to His work on the cross. All this glory that was coming to Christ meant that He had to leave. So He says, "Little children, I am with you a little while longer.  You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, 'Where I am going, you cannot come.'" (v. 33). While His thoughts were on His glory and all the grandeur of it, He was also thinking about His eleven beloved disciples. He calls them "little children"--an expression He probably would not have used if Judas had still been present. What did He mean, "As I said to the Jews?" In John 7:34, He told the Jews who sought to have Him seized, "You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come." John 8:21 says, "Then He said again to them, 'I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.'" In verse 24, He adds, "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." It is significant that Jesus gives no such warning to His believing disciples. An Unfailing Love for the Children of God Love would be the primary distinguishing mark of a disciple: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." Those words of Christ had such a profound impact on the apostle John that he made them his life's message. He repeated it in 1 John 3:11: "For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." Jesus' love is selfless, sacrificial, indiscriminate, understanding, and forgiving. Unless our love is like that, we have not fulfilled the new commandment. Most of the bitterness within the visible church has nothing to do with doctrinal differences. It can be traced instead to a fundamental lack of love, and an unwillingness to accept the humility that love demands. A second way to show love is by forgiving those who have wronged us--whether we are asked or not. No matter how serious the wrong you have suffered may be, love demands that you forgive it. Christ forgave those who had mocked Him, spit on Him, and then crucified Him. The wrongs we generally suffer seem insignificant compared to what He suffered, and yet He was immediately willing to forgive. Do we really want to maintain a testimony of love in this world? Then accept whatever comes our way, praise the Lord, and let His love flow through us to the one who wronged us. That kind of love would confound this world. Real love is costly, and the one who truly loves will have to sacrifice, but while we sacrifice in this world we're gaining immeasurably in the spiritual realm. And we are displaying the most visible, practical, obvious mark of a true disciple. An Unswerving Loyalty to the Son of God Discipleship is more than a promised loyalty. It must go beyond making a vow to God. Discipleship demands a practiced loyalty--an operating, functioning kind of loyalty that holds up under every kind of pressure. All this talk about Jesus' going away must have deeply bothered Peter. He couldn't stand the thought of Jesus' leaving. Matthew 16:22 vividly shows how intensely Peter hated the thought of Jesus' impending death. Jesus had foretold His crucifixion and resurrection, and Peter, always the self-appointed spokesman for the disciples, took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him. This was a stubborn, selfish attitude on the part of Peter, who did not want Jesus to be taken from him under any conditions. Jesus "turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's'" (v. 23). Jesus was completely aware of Peter's attitude, and He took the opportunity in John 13:36-38 to teach Peter a lesson about true loyalty: He boasted too much. First, Peter was too proud to listen to what Jesus was trying to tell him, and too busy boasting. Luke 22:31-32 He prayed too little. Peter failed also because his praying was not what it should have been. First he was boasting while he should have been listening; and later that evening, he slept when he should have been praying (Luke 22:45-46). Sleep is a good thing, but it's not a substitute for prayer. He acted too fast. Acting without thinking was a perennial problem in Peter's life. When a group of officers from the priests and Pharisees came into the garden to take Jesus, Peter grabbed a sword and cut off the high priest's slave's ear (Luke 22:50) He followed too far away. A final reason to Peter's great failure is that he left Jesus' side and began to follow him from a distance. Luke 22:54 says, "Having arrested Him, they led Him away and brought Him to the house of the high priest; but Peter was following at a distance." That was perhaps the greatest disaster of all. Here was the logical consequence of all of Peter's weaknesses: cowardice. He had foolishly boasted of his willingness to die; now when he had that opportunity, for the first time in their relationship, Peter drifted from a closeness with Jesus.