Captivated by the King: Disciples Love

Last Will and Testament:

Brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, let me begin with how the book unChristian begins:

Christianity has an image problem...

The book is a reflection on research done by the Barna Group who interviewed those born between 1965-2002, and the only research ‘outsiders. Those who don’t believe in Christianity or go to Church.

pg. 26: “it is clear that Christians are primarily perceived for what they stand against. We have become famous for what we oppose, rather than who we are for.”

Hypocritical

Get Saved!

Antihomosexual

Sheltered

Too Political

Judgmental

But then I think of this song I remember learning as a kid:

We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord And we pray that our unity will one day be restored And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love Yeah they'll know we are Christians by our love

Today we’re going to focus on this command to love. But it’s not they’ll know we are Christians by our love, but disciples:

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Deep dive into vv.34-35:

Text: 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.”

Three Questions:

What’s so New about this Old Command?

What is love, anyway? (not “Baby, don’t hurt me”)

Why is OUR Love so important?

What’s so New about this Old Command?

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength’ (Dt. 6:5);

‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord’ (Lv. 19:18).

So, if this Law to Love is actually ancient, why does Jesus call it new?

2 Reasons:

1. A New People

Mosaic vs. Messianic

Mosaic=Moses

Messianic=Jesus

New People=Messianic Covenant

Law summarized by Law (Matthew 22; Gal 5:14)

This command to love is for a new people group that emerges out from the old. It’s an old command, but it’s new because this community is brand new!

Jesus talks here to the future church! He just released Judas, just moment before Jesus speaks these word. So now it’s like, “Okay, future church, now let’s talk. Judas doesn’t belong to us. I need to talk to the future church now. You did not choose me, I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit…”

This new community is the new covenant community! A brand new type of person is emerging. A new creation is emerging out from these leaders.

“The new covenant brings with it the new life in the Holy Spirit which will as never before enable the fulfilling of the law..” Bruce Milne

It’s new because this community, has power to love like never before.

This is a new People with a new inner strength and desire to love.

The old system of Moses, those were shadows.

The New System was the reality all along…

Jesus gives the “Marching order for the newly gathering messianic community” D.A.Carson

The “Messiah” community, not the “Moses” community...

Verses that talk about the importance of loving within the church!

2. A New Leader

“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.

Based on Jesus New Love “Love one another: just as I have love you, you also are to love one another.”

Love is experienced and understood now through Jesus.

What makes it new is that Jesus defines it.

NO Old Testament person embodied love. So what makes it new is that the disciples are to love one another LIKE JESUS LOVED THEM!

“Tiger Woods”: I don’t think anyone has revolutionized a sport as much a Tiger Woods has revolutionized golf. When I was a kid, golf looked boring! It wasn’t a cool sport. Golf wasn’t know for it’s athleticism. But along comes Tiger… Benched 315lbs

Tiger: “I used to get up in the morning, run four miles. Then I’d go to the gym, do my lift. Then I’d hit balls for two to three hours. I’d go play, come back, work on my short game. I’d go run another four more miles, and then if anyone wanted to play basketball or tennis, I would go play basketball or tennis.”

The Beatles. Michael Jordan. Rush. Wayne Gretzky. Apple’s first iPhone. Tom Brady.

They revolutionized the experience of that sport, or that art, or that technology.

How many people try to emulate it?

“Be like Mike.”

What is Jesus known for? What did he revolutionize?

He revolutionized love.

I John 16: God is Love. Jesus was God. Jesus was love!

But unlike all these other greats, what Jesus revolutionized wasn’t out of reach!

Jesus Example of love is attainable!

Jesus makes his love accessible, simple, normal, humble. He achieved greatness by going last and serving as the least...

This Love is NEW because Jesus redefined it by showing it!

So let’s focus on this New Love displayed for us by the Messiah:

What is love, anyway?

1. Love as Service

Washing their feet:

13:1: 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.

Loved them to the end: Sense of finality…

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.

Bring water and basin...

15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.

Some take this literally!

True Jesus Church:

Chinese Pentecostal: Foot washing is a third sacrament.

Seventh Day Adventists: Preparation for Communion

Many different baptists practice Foot Washing as one of three ordinances

May not be a sacrament or an ordinance, but it’s still a command to follow!

Don’t make this more complicated than it needs to be:

I can look around this room and I can honestly say that I see people who love with service. Who regularly give their time and energy for others. We’re been blessed by you.

Keep up the good work!

Love as Sacrifice:

Sacrifice: 15:12-13: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

This is the greatest type of love: laying down your life for his friends...

Foreshadow of his sacrifice: No greater love is Jesus nailed to the cross...

This is like the most extreme version of service. Giving your life down for another person...

Jesus defined love with the display of his body dying for the sake of our sins!

“Tertullian reported in the late second century the comment of the pagans in his day: ‘Behold, how these Christians love each other! How ready they are to die for each other!’” Bruce Milne

I’m moved to tears when I read stories like Jenni Phillipps or Elizabeth Joice:

Both of them refused cancer treatment while pregnant, and both of them died within weeks of them giving birth to healthy babies.

It’s like, what kind of greater love is that!

Completely self-sacrificial love...

I wonder to myself, “Do I have the strength to love that deeply for another?” Do you? Does that love resonate within the walls of this church family??

Love as Obedience:

14:15: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

14:21: “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

14:23-24: “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 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.”

Holiness

Parent my children: “I know you love me, but I will experience your love when you listen to me.”

Love is more than a word, it’s an action.

Love, as DC Talk once rapped, is a verb!

Take these three: How do they differ from our culture’s understanding of love:

Beatles: All you Need is Love, well, what kind of love were they talking about?

Perhaps they were talking about service, maybe sacrifice, probably NOT Holiness!

Or when people say, “Love is love.”

“What you feel is okay and it’s okay to act on what you feel.” It’s saying, “Each person defines love on their own as long as your definition doesn’t impact my ability to act on my feelings.”

You can’t define a word using the same word!

What is a potato?

Potato is potato.

But one guys potato could be another person tomato?

But we understand what the world is saying:

Love is validating another’s truth as long as your truth doesn’t impede

That’s why love needs borders. Just like truth has borders, so does love. That’s why love is connected to holiness. Jesus showed us an alternative lifestyle dedicated to obeying the will of the Father, and by doing so, my following the Father’s commands, he did what?

Served the sick

Fed the hungry

Touched the untouchables

Ultimately, he saved the unsavable

When Love is understood as service, sacrifice, and obedience, it gives shape the type of community we are called to be.

Christians have an alternative definition of love that is grounded in service, sacrifice, and obedience, and that kind of lifestyle is what turns heads...

Speaking of DC Talk...

Brennan Manning: “The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

That statement is true when what Jesus commands us to do doesn’t happen!

So you want to be an Evangelist?

v.35: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Love validates Christ’s followers

Love

17:22-23: The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

So you want to be an Evangelist? You want to win people for Christ? You want to save souls?

This is how to do it, at least this is one technique Jesus gave us:

LOVE THIS GROUP OF PEOPLE SO WELL THAT PEOPLE CAN’T STOP THEMSELVES FROM EXPERIENCING THAT KIND OF LOVE.

That’s right: That person over there who you don’t know… How you so love that person will influence how the world understands this community.

Love:

Most non-judgmental

Most honest

Most vulnerable

Most service-oriented

Most hospitable

Most holy

How we love, the action of our love for one another as disciples of Jesus, that will attract our culture.

Through our love, people will see:

“Wait, I can’t define love. I’m defined by love because God is love!”

What’s love got to do with Evangelism?

IF our mission is to make disciples, than love needs to be the hallmark virtue of how we operate based on service, sacrifice, and obedience.

Everything!

I was talking to someone about this concept this past week, and he said this to me:

It’s false to say, “The number one thing you can do is to tell a pagan about Jesus.”

If there’s no love experienced within the church, then evangelism is like a marketing department promoting a lousy product.

“If you can about evangelism, you will care about this verse.”

It’s not about how convincing you are. It’s how loving you are. Just look at Ravi Zacharias’ example. One of the greatest evangelists of our day, with a clear agenda of satisfaction, not sacrifice.

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

“Evangelistic power of love.” Bruce Milne.

“Love is the ‘final apologetic’” (Francis Schaeffer)

So the challenge this morning is simple:

Love one another so that the world will know that you are Jesus followers. Because the whole point of this loving community, is for people to know Jesus.

Jesus said, “MY disciples.” By your love, the world will know “Jesus followers.” The end is not experiencing love in community here. The love in community here is a means to an end: That people will come to know their the sacrificial LAMB who rules today as the LION of JUDAH!