Love Like God

Love Like God

Who and How

Recap of How God loves us

Intro to Who

Each other/other disciples

Love your enemy

Peter the Denyer

Peter the greedy

Judas the betrayer

How

Humble Service.

How God loves us

I want to thank you again for allowing me to come to speak with you again. I have been looking forward to this opportunity. I take it as a great honor to when God asks me to share His message with others.

Last week we looked at the new Commandment of loving each other as Christ loves us. In truth, our focus was on God’s love for us. As I said last week. We must first know His love before we can love others. That is because the human definition of love is flawed and does not match God’s version of love.

I asked at the end of last weeks message for us to go home and consider just how much God loves you. I hope that we take the time to ponder these thoughts. If you struggled with understanding the depth of God’s love, please talk to me or Ron after service. It is my prayer that all who are with us today will know His love.

I also asked you to begin to ponder who Christ is calling us to Love in fulfillment of this command. Today we will look at why we are to be obedient to this command, to who we are to love and how we can love them. But first, let us pray.

Why

In all things that we do, one of the most important questions to answer is why. If we do not know why we are doing something, then we will either fail to accomplish the task or not complete the task as well as we could.

Let’s start with the scripture we read last week, one last time. 33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Jesus tells the disciple that he is not going to be around much longer. He will be returning to heaven in a matter of days. Then he tells them that all people will know that they are still disciples of Jesus by them loving each other like Jesus loved them.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jn 13:33–35). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Who

Disciples loving each other like Jesus loved them was a challenge that Jesus knew the early church would face. This is also a problem that we face today as well. Christians have stopped going to church because this commandment cannot be met within the church. Listen to these reasons that people stop attending church.

1. THE CHURCH IS IRRELEVANT, THE LEADERS ARE HYPOCRITICAL AND LEADERS HAVE EXPERIENCED TOO MUCH MORAL FAILURE 2. GOD IS MISSING IN THE CHURCH If God is Love then they are saying that Love is missing from the church.

3. LEGITIMATE DOUBT IS PROHIBITED. If you disagree with a principle of the church you become outcast.

4. THEY’RE NOT LEARNING ABOUT GOD. The reason for this is because the messages and teaching start from a place the recipients are not at.

5.  THEY’RE NOT FINDING COMMUNITY

If I were to ask people us today to raise our hands if they had ever been in a church atmosphere that gave us one of these thoughts, we would likely all raise our hands. I’ve talked to so many people who say church leaders have acted in unloving ways and they were scarred from returning. I’ve heard people say I don’t feel the love in the church. I’ve seen open disagreement on non-eternal matters met with harsh pride of I’m right. I’ve had people tell me that they, just cant understand what the Pastor is saying, or they can’t relate to the messages. Lack of community is a problem that I’ve seen and heard.

When we look at these problems, they have one common theme. They lack Love for others within the church. If people, you and me, in the church acted first out of love the majority of these people would still be in church. If we loved people in the church the way that God loves us, people would be surrounded by love when they entered the church.

Paul addressed this problem many times in his Letters to churches. Philippians 2 says

English Standard Version Chapter 2

2 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Ephesians 4 paul tells us,

English Standard Version Chapter 4

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Paul spends many chapters in the book of 1 Corinthians addressing problems between believers that destroy the testimony of the church. In his final instructions to the church he tells them in Ch 16:13-14;

13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done in love.

Paul continually addressed these problems of acting outside of love. The reason for this is because the easiest way for our enemy (Satan) to gain victory over someone in the church is if the body of the church acts without love.

Nobody wants to walk into a church and feel unloved. It is quite the opposite. When I go to church, the first thing I want to feel is loved. I want to know people are happy I came to church today. Don’t mistake me though, Loving people is not easy. Paul is pointing us back to this new commandment. He is calling us to look like disciples and to act out of the love of God.

Love your enemy

But is this commandment telling us to just Love the people within these walls. Those who come in on Sunday. Or is there a broader connection. If we look back to the Sermon on the mount in Matthew 5: 43-48

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus uses the same agape love in this scripture as he does in his direction to love as he loved. You see agape Love is a love that is like God’s toward man and man should have toward God. It is the deep love we discussed last week. The best way I heard it put is that Love is a choice. I have to choose to love ou more than myself. It is seems easier to love those within the church. Though we often fail. It is much harder to Love our enemies. Those who stand against us. Sometimes, we find these people in the church.

This is why I love John chapter 13. Jesus not only gives us this new commandment. He shows us what it means to love like him. He shows us that we are to love each other, wherever we are in our walk. So lets look back at chapter 13 again and spend a little more time there now that we have some foundation.

Peter the Deny-er As I have done with this chapter so far, we are going to continue a backward approach.So lets start in verse 36.

36 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” 37 Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” 38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.

Now this story of Peter does not end until chapter 18. And we know that he denies Jesus 3 times as Jesus predicts in this text. Jesus, knowing all things, knows that Peter is going to deny him before man. But that did not affect the Love that Jesus has for Jesus. Peter is one of the boldest actors in the story of Jesus. Jesus knew what Peter would become as the church was being formed. Peter’s boldness would help many. But Peter denied Jesus.

In that same way, there are people that deny us. We have a vision of what God wants for us. Theses people deny you for your beliefs. They say things like that’s your God or your truth. They put you down for your beliefs. They deny you support or promotion because you believe in the one true God. They stir up trouble within you, trying to get you angry. They challenge every belief you have and attempt to confuse you.

I had a coworker in the Reserves who was this guy to me. He would bring up scientific challenges to the bible in large group setttings. His goals was never to understand, but to cause distress. The questions were legitimate to him and my responses were biblical. However, I realized that this was to challenge and deny my beliefs that were different than his.

What Jesus reveals to us with Peter is that we are to still love people like this. don’t turn to hatred of that person. Do not wish ill of this person. But instead bless this person. Pray for this person and show them the Love that Jesus showed you. This person will never accept the Love of Christ if we do not first love them. They will continue to deny the love of God until it overwhelms them and they accept it for themselves.

Peter the umworthy and greedy

I love Peter because he is one of the most authentic characters in the bible. You see all his flaws. As we move back again in chapter 13 we see another of Peter’s flaws.

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”

Jesus was washing the disciples feet, and we will get more into that in a few minutes. He comes to Peter. At first, peter denies Jesus of washing his feet. Why? Jesus had placed himself in the role of a servant, who would come by to wash the feet of the master. This is the imagery that Peter saw. Peter is saying I am not worthy of you washing my feet. In truth, Peter is not worthy of this service. But Jesus was freely giving him this service. Jesus is saying that I must be able to clean you and prepare you for service.

What does this love look like for Peter and us? There are people that sometimes feel they are unworthy of receiving the love of God. And it is true, they are not worthy. Their are people that we see and think man, hell is going to be bad for them. We might even think they are not worthy of God’s love.

The reality is it’s true, they are not worthy, Hell is going to be bad and None of us are worthy. What we need to see when we look at people who are filled with sin, is that we are just like them except for the grace of God. If they accepted God’s love then they’re whole life would change to that of love. But for them to accept the love of God they must first see the love of God. As his disciples, we are the instrument that reveals his love to them.

Peter gives us another example of how Jesus in this same set of Scripture. At first he is unworthy, but we he finds out he has to be cleaned, he becomes greedy. He says then wash me all. Wash my hands, feet, head. He says give it all to me.

We come across people like this to. We are generous to them and then they ask for more. We give them time, or energy or money and they don’t appreciate that gift because they ask for more than what you have offered. This was Peter in the moment.

Notice here that Jesus put up a boundary and explained it. He says you’ve already been cleaned. As you go through the world, your feet will get dirty and you’ll need to be cleaned again. But you do not need a bath.

Jesus did not deny Peter his love. But He did show Peter hold to the limitations of what he had set forth. Washing of the feet.

As we are generous with people, we must put limitations on our generosity. But the generosity I show one person is no different than the generosity shared with a greedy person. They still need to be loved. In reality, these boundaries are an act of love. Sometimes, giving in to the greedy creates a dependence that is unhealthy. It can cause problems for both the generous and the greedy.

Judas the betrayer

Now, let us look at the other person mentioned in Chapter 13. Judas. From the beginning of the chapter until Jesus sends him away, John identifies him as the betrayer. Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,

English Standard Version Chapter 13

21 After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” 22 The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. 23 One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side, 24 so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. 25 So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?” 26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”

As we look at Jesus and Judas here, It is clear that Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray him. Jesus was well aware that Judas was going to betray Him when he left the room. Jesus sends him away to do the task that was before him. But prior to this, Jesus held the Lord’s Supper and washed the feet of the disciples. Jesus allowed Judas to stay with the 12 through these events.

Let us take this to it’s depth. If you knew a friend of yours was with you who was planning to betray you, how does that make you feel. You are serving this extremely important meal, and there is the person that is planning on getting you arrested. You humble yourself to the role of a servant and wash the feet of the man who is going to trade you for 30 pieces of silver. Yet Jesus washed his feet, the same as the rest of the disciples.

I know myself. If there was someone that I knew was going to betray my to my death, I would put as much distance between me and them. If I got close to them, I would want to knock em out. I might even try to take them out before they took me out. While betrayal to someones death is extreme, i doubt there is anyone in the room that hasn’t felt betrayed before. I doubt that anyone here chose to be the servant of the betrayer. But that is what Jesus has done over and over.

We talk about sin. But rarely do we connect our sin as a betrayal of Jesus. But that is what our sin is. It is a betrayal of our faith in Jesus. It is a betrayal of what Jesus did for us on the cross. We, like Judas, betray and deny Jesus. But Jesus still loves us, so we are to love others, even those who betray us.

How

I realize that it is easy to stand up here and say we need to love others and love everybody. It is an entirely different thing to leave here and love people who deny and betray you. People who you might consider an enemy.

Right now, you may be thinking of someone that you need to love that you don’t want to. There may have been someone earlier in the message where you said, God I don’t want to love them. I want to encourage you to make every effort to love them like Christ loves you. But that leaves you with a question of How do I love someone that I want to Hate?

Humble Service.

To accomplish this I think we need to look first to the beginning of chapter 13 one more time. verses 3-7.

3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, 4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.

Step 1: Humble ourselves and talk with God. Ask God to give you the strength and power to overcome your weaknesses. Ask God for discernment in how to approach the individual. The first thing we see in this Scripture is that God had given all things into the hands of Jesus. He gave Jesus wisdom and discernment in order to do what was needed.

Jesus tells us that we receive the Holy Spirit we when believe in Him. Paul tells the Romans

English Standard Version Chapter 8

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words

There are times when we do not know what to pray or which way to go. But the Holy Spirit knows exactly what to pray to help us love our enemies. The Holy Spirit knows exactly what we need to overcome are hatred or dislike or whatever feeling that we need to overcome in order to Love our betrayer.

Step 1 is to take it to God then

Step 2 is to humble our to become the loving servant. This is what Jesus did with each of his disciples. He humbled himself to become the loving servant. Jesus rose, tied the towel around his waist, grabbed the bowl and washed their feet. He lowered himself beneath the disciples. The master became the servant.

This is the hardest step of loving one another. We have to place ourselves beneath the one we do not want to love. Find ways to serve them. Do what the Holy Spirit is calling us to do. It is not easy, but we must serve them in love. It does not mean you become a pushover. But that you find ways to show them love and kindness as Jesus did with the Disciples.

As you leave here today, I want you to consider how great God’s love is for you. You are special and he Loves you.

I want us to consider who in our lives we need to love that we are not loving. Maybe it is someone that has hurt you emotionally. Who is that person that God has asked you to love more today. Then I want us to start praying for that individual. Ask God to reveal how to show that person how much God loves them. Then, let us take the action needed to love the way God loves.

Imagine how this will change your relationship with that person and how it changes our relationship with God, when we choose to Love like God.

Let us pray.