10-24-21 Love One Another

Today I’m going to talk about the third area of love we need to walk in as Christians. If you remember, over the past few weeks we’ve been talking about following Jesus and how following Him encompasses three main areas. Everything we do in our christian life falls into one of these categories. They are: loving God, loving ourselves, and loving others. Last week, when Pastor Autumn talked about listening to God’s voice and choosing to do what He says, she was actually talking about something that encompasses all three categories; obedience to God. John 14:21-24 NKJV “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.” If we love Jesus (or if we’re trying to love Him), we will also try to grow in obedience, or in doing what He says. And as we grow in doing what God says, Jesus says He’ll manifest Himself to us. That means Jesus will show up! He’ll show up and talk to you when you are going through good times or bad, He’ll show up in the pain and the pleasure, He’ll speak words of life to You, He’ll bring His healing, He’ll guide you in truth and love to a place where you are completely known, loved, and accepted in Him. He will manifest Himself, or make Himself known and evident to you as you grow in doing what He says. He will be with you so much as you grow in obedience that He says He’ll make a home with you, He’ll live with You. Love One Another | 1 So listening to the voice of God and trying to do what He says and follow His ways is so important because it actually marks the difference between a disciple, or an actual follower of Christ, someone who models what it means to be a Christian; and a cultural, nominal “christian” who maybe has an intellectual view of what happens after we die but doesn’t walk any differently than the rest of the secular world. How many of you know that God isn’t trying to turn us into fat, happy people with no problems? He’s trying to turn us into warriors who push back the darkness of evil and bring the love of God to bear on situations where people are hurting, broken, and lost. But we can only do that if we grow in surrender and obedience. You see, the power of the Christian life is in the gospel - it’s in the laying down of our pride, our will, and our ways, and surrendering to God and His ways. 2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT “Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.” But my point is that obeying God falls into all three categories; loving God, loving ourselves, and loving others. And today I want to focus on loving others and why it’s so important in the life of a christian to put effort into loving people. It’s a huge concept. It’s not easy to do, but it’s what we’re called to do by Jesus Himself. Ken Boa writes, “there is no act that begins with the love of God that does not end with the love of a neighbor. The sphere of this new commandment is universal. It extends first to our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ and beyond this to our neighbors in this world who do not know Jesus. ”1 1 Boa, Kenneth. Conformed to His Image: Biblical and Practical Approaches to Spiritual Formation, P42-43. Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan, 2001. Love One Another | 2 Loving other people is what we’re called to do as Christians; literally, as you grow to look more like Jesus, as you hear His voice more clearly and do what He asks you to do, you’ll find yourself loving others more and doing things from the motivation of love. So let’s pray before we jump into scripture today. Father in Heaven, we thank you for this time together and for Your word. We thank you for the immense, powerful love you have shown to us by sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Thank You Jesus for obeying God fully unto suffering and death, and for grafting us into Your family. Please speak to each of us today Your heart of love; Holy Spirit, I ask You to come and move upon us as we open our hearts to Your kind of love, a love that doesn’t envy, isn’t puffed up or prideful, isn’t rude, doesn’t seek its own, but that hopes all things, believes all things and endures all things. Birth Your love in our hearts today and help us to walk according to Your ways and Your Spirit. We glorify You in the place today, Lord Jesus. In Your Name, amen. Turn with me to 1 John 4. Here, the Holy Spirit is writing to us about the source of love, or where it comes from and what we should do about it. Since God loved us in Christ, we have no excuse not to love one another. Love, according to John, is set in a relational context. That means love is only made known through relationships. It is not just a “feeling” or an intellectual belief. The verification of our relationship with God is that we live rightly related to other people.2 1 John 4:7-8 NLT Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” Notice that here the bible says that God is love. I think it’s important for us to remember that love is not God. God is love, but love is NOT God. Don’t get that twisted, even though our society often does. 2 Hayford, Jack, editor. The Hayford Bible Handbook, P461. Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson, 1995. Love One Another | 3 Now, there are different types of love, but for our purposes I’m talking about what is called “agape” love. This kind of love describes the attitude God has towards Jesus, you and me. It actually doesn’t exist in worldly thought at all outside of Christianity and refers to totally and completely doing things for the highest, ultimate good of someone. My point is that God is love; He’s not tolerance, though He is patient, kind, and longsuffering. He’s not a tingly feeling, though He moves on us and brings us to tears of joy, repentance, thanksgiving, or peace. God is love; and if we don’t love ourselves and others, then we don’t know God or who He is, because this kind of love, the kind that is out for the eternal highest good of others, only comes from God. The writer talks more about love: 1 John 4:9-11 NLT God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.” You see, human love is a response to divine love. We love others because God loved us. It is the sight, the feeling, the experience of God’s love towards us which gives us the desire to love Him back, to love ourselves, and to love our others.3 1 John 4:12-16 NLT 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. 13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. 14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 3 Barclay, William. New Daily Study Bible: The Letters of John and Jude. Saint Andrew Press, 2013. Scribd, https://www.scribd.com/book/367618069/New-Daily-Study-Bible-The-Letters-of-John-and-Jude. Love One Another | 4 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. It is by love that God is known. We cannot see God, because he is Spirit; what we can see is his effect. We cannot see the wind, but we can see what it can do. We cannot see electricity, but we can see the effect it produces. The effect of God is love. It is when God comes into an individual that that person is clothed with the love of God and the love of other people. God is known by his effect on that person. It has been said that ‘a saint is someone in whom Christ lives; and the best demonstration of God comes not from argument but from a life of love.4 1 John 4:17-21 NLT 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. 19 We love each other because he loved us first. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers. Here’s where things start getting a little scary. The Bible says that if we don’t love other people, then we’re lying, we’re not christians at all. We don’t know God no matter what we say. You see, our identification with Christ, leads to our imitation of Him.5 In other words, as we grow in our understanding of Jesus, what He’s done for us and who He is, we will want to express His life and love through our relationships. 4 Barclay, William. New Daily Study Bible: The Letters of John and Jude. Saint Andrew Press, 2013. Scribd, https://www.scribd.com/book/367618069/New-Daily-Study-Bible-The-Letters-of-John-and-Jude. 5 Boa, Kenneth. Conformed to His Image: Biblical and Practical Approaches to Spiritual Formation, P45. Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan, 2001. Love One Another | 5 Instead of operating in our own self interests all the time, like we used to do before we knew Jesus, we can now take pleasure in putting others first. You may remember this verse: Acts 20:35 NKJV ‘I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ I used to think the ‘more blessed to give than to receive’ was a christmas or birthday scripture. Like, it’s better to give someone a present than it is to get a present from someone. That’s dumb, I know. But really, Jesus is talking about this new attitude we have from God Himself that wants to love others, that desires to help them, to care for them, to help them see Jesus, and to serve them like Jesus served us. Now, it’s one thing to talk about how great it is to serve others and all the blessings that flow from that and how we’ll look more like Jesus. That’s all true. But it’s quite another thing to be treated like a servant. It’s hard enough to try to serve someone else, but how annoying is it when you get treated badly trying to do it! But just remember that your performance or acceptance by other people has nothing to do with our worth, dignity, or value, because that is determined by God. When we try to love and are rejected or treated with apathy, it hurts. But it won’t destroy us, because we look to God alone and His resources for our true and unchanging identity and worth. That was the whole point of the message about loving ourselves.6 And so the next question is how we actually go about doing this hard work of loving one another. Well, it starts, like many things, with the heart. You see, God said He would give us a new heart so we can love other people like He does. Ezekiel 36:25-27 NLT “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. 6 Boa, Kenneth. Conformed to His Image: Biblical and Practical Approaches to Spiritual Formation, P46. Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan, 2001. Love One Another | 6 I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.” Jesus cleans us up, He washes away the dirt on us from our old lives. He says we won’t worship idols anymore. Now, I want to add that it’s our job and responsibility to throw those idols down. You see in the Old Testament different kings that had different evaluations; some worshiped idols and didn’t follow God; they were evil. Some followed God mostly but didn’t tear down the high places. In other words, they didn’t do some of the hard work of tearing down the things in their lives they liked that weren’t from God. The Bible says they were good kings but didn’t tear down the high places. Then there were kings who were after God’s own heart, walked in His ways, and tore down the high places of idol worship. Maybe you’re here today and there’s something in your life you need to tear down as God is washing you with the pure water of His word. The bible tells us in the new testament, how Jesus sprinkles us with the word as water to make us clean. It’s talking about how Jesus washes the church: Ephesians 5:26 TLV “to make her holy, having cleansed her by immersion in the word.” As you immerse yourself in God’s word day by day, God will be faithful to rinse the gunk of the world off of your heart, your mind, your will, and your emotions. He will clean you, and give you the strength to tear down whatever idols there may be. And He’ll give you a new heart, one that is tender, responsive to the Holy Spirit, and obedient to the Lord. How many of us need a new heart? I do! Jesus give us Your heart for one another! I want to close with a story in scripture of Jesus coming low, taking the posture of a servant to show His love for people. He washes the disciples' feet. And you will see parallels - just as Ezekiel said that God would cleanse us by water, Jesus fulfilled that scripture and literally washed the disciples' dirty feet with water. Love One Another | 7 It was a low, low role performed by servants, not by kings. But Jesus did it to show us that serving others, loving other people, though it is hard, is our calling. It was His calling; as we know He served us by becoming the sacrificial lamb so that we could be in relationship with Jesus. John 13:3-16 NKJV Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, 4 rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. 5 After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. 6 Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?” 7 Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.” 8 Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part 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, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.” 12 So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. 16 Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” You see, the more we take pleasure in loving and serving God, the greater our capacity to take pleasure in loving and serving other people. Love One Another | 8 When we’re secure in Christ, the rewards of investing our lives in people exceed the pain and annoyance that people can cause us. Paul saw people as both a source of joy and a reward, both in the present and the future. When we love and serve people with eternal values in mind, there is a great reward.7 Jesus asked the disciples if they understood what He was doing when He was washing their feet. And this is pretty shocking to the disciples because it’s a total reversal of roles; in the Jewish culture a teacher did not do things like this for his students; there was no such thing as servant-leadership or modeling back then. Basically the teacher was the high, powerful, intelligent one, and the students had to do what he said. And so what Jesus does here is shocking, it’s jarring, it’s a role reversal that the disciples wouldn’t have thought about in a million years. The emotional impact is so big that Peter gives a hard ‘no’ at first. But by this last dramatic act, Jesus wants us all to know how much he really does intend for us to love and serve one another, even if we do end up on a cross for our efforts.8 And so the call today is to simply allow the Lord to put a new heart in us that wants to love and serve others the way Jesus has loved and served us. It’s a call to let Him wash away the spiritual dust and grime we’ve accumulated by walking all over in this corrupt world and to embrace His heart, a heart of love, goodness, grace, mercy, and kindness towards people. It’s a call to tear down our idols, put away all fear, and embrace God’s perfect, infinite, matchless, and eternal love. Because if we embrace Jesus, if we choose to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and allow Him to give us a new heart, He will come to us and make Himself a home within us. 7 8 Boa, Kenneth. Conformed to His Image: Biblical and Practical Approaches to Spiritual Formation, P47. Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan, 2001. Hayford, Jack, editor. The Hayford Bible Handbook, P320. Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson, 1995. Love One Another | 9 And then we’ll begin to see His new life, healing, and wholeness flowing out of our lives into every situation we face; living water that pushes back the darkness and brings the light of Christ, the light of life, into our moments and our days. Love One Another | 10