[0:00] and go to John chapter 13. John chapter 13. John chapter 13.
[0:34] John chapter 13.
[1:04] John chapter 13. We as a country need to learn how to love one another. We as a church need to learn how to love one another. We as Christians need to learn how to love one another.
[1:15] So look with me at John 13, beginning of verse 34. John 13, 34. A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
[1:31] By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, that ye have love one for another. You know, people today have an interesting concept of love.
[1:46] There are so many different things that we put under that category of love. People say, I love you.
[1:57] But what does that mean when they say I love you? Everybody has got kind of different meanings these days. And some people, you know, I love you. I love chocolate.
[2:09] I love Mountain Dew. I love, you know, we love a lot of interesting things. But what does it mean to love one another? That's kind of what we want to look at.
[2:20] And Jesus Christ gave us the highest example of what it means to love people, to be concerned about people, to be willing to give your life and sacrifice for them.
[2:34] And we need to emulate what Christ and what he has done. In this book of John, in chapters 1 through 12, the word love is mentioned 12 times.
[2:45] Beginning at chapter 13 through the end of the book, chapter 21, love is mentioned 44 times. What's happening in John as we get closer to the end of the book?
[2:59] We're going to find out about Jesus giving his life, going to the cross, to be able to save us from our sin and give us a home in heaven. And love seems to be the key to what's taking place there.
[3:12] He gives new meaning to love when he goes to the cross for our sins. And with the coming of the Holy Spirit, he gives us new meaning to what love is all about, because he is now with us always.
[3:29] You know, it's interesting, this chapter, he's here ending it, talking about a new commandment, to love one another. Go back to verse 1, verse 1 of chapter 13.
[3:40] Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
[3:55] Loving his disciples, loving his people. He gives evidence over and over and over again of the love that he has for them.
[4:06] And the way he started showing them, I read that first verse. You keep reading on the next few verses. This is a passage, John 13, where Jesus got down and washed the disciples' feet.
[4:20] Here's the God of heaven, the creator of the universe, the creator of all things, the one who the angels bowed down before, comes down to earth, and he washes the disciples' feet because he loved them.
[4:34] Isn't it amazing when we think about what Jesus did for us? The Greeks had different words for love. Eros, which was an erotic type love.
[4:47] Filio, which is a brotherly love. The love that's being talked about here is agape. Agape is an unconditional, selfless type of love.
[4:59] That's what Jesus had for us. He had a love that will not change. He loved us from the beginning. He will love us till the end. He gave himself for us.
[5:12] See, emotional love, which a lot of people define as love, we have emotional type love. We get caught up in the moment when we do everything. That doesn't last. It's not an ever, forever type of thing.
[5:28] Husband was coming out of anesthesia after having surgery, and he opened his eyes, and his wife was sitting right there next to him, holding his hand, and he looks at her, and he goes, You're beautiful.
[5:42] Then he falls back asleep. A little while later, he wakes up again, and he looks over, and she's still there, holding onto his hand. He goes, You're cute. She goes, What happened to beautiful?
[5:55] The drugs are wearing off. See, an emotional type of love is kind of a passing type thing, but that love that's truly from the Lord understands.
[6:07] It is a constant for everything. So let's look this morning at what love is all about, and look, first of all, at the exhortation he gives to the church about love.
[6:19] Let's have a word of prayer. Father, help us to understand this morning what love truly is, especially loving one another. Lord, so often in this day and age we get wrapped up in things, and we get emotional about things, and we get all kinds of things, Lord, take place.
[6:38] They seem to affect our love. Your love for us never changes. It's always there, always will be. And, Lord, you say you give us a new command.
[6:49] We are to love one another. Lord, help us to see what that means this morning. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. An exhortation to the church, and he gives us a command.
[7:00] Notice there in verse 34, he says, A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
[7:15] Notice, first of all, the word commandment. I give you a commandment to love one another. Commandment, that's authoritative.
[7:26] That has some weight behind it. He says, I am giving you a command. So, he's giving that command to the church. He's giving it to those of us who are Christians.
[7:38] If he's giving it as a command, what does that mean? Josh was in the Marines.
[7:49] When they give you a command in the Marines, is that a suggestion? Is that a, if you feel like it, you got options? No. No options.
[8:02] A commandment I give to you. Love one another. So, if we're not doing that, we're in direct disobedience to what God has for us.
[8:16] Ooh, you're getting heavy already this morning. Yes, I am. When we don't love one another, we're not doing what God has called us to do. We're not obeying God and what he has for us.
[8:26] He wants us to follow his example of how to love. John 15, 13. Greater love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends.
[8:38] Jesus showed us what love really was. When he came and he gave his life, he says, this is what love looks like. This is what loving others looks like.
[8:50] You're willing to give yourself for them. 1 Corinthians 5, 14. For the love of Christ constraineth us.
[9:02] It limits us. It shapes us. It molds us. It puts us in the direction we're supposed to go. The love of Christ is going to shape us and put us where he wants us so that we begin to look more and more like him every day.
[9:18] Think about the love toward others. Is it just a performance type thing?
[9:30] Is it something we do and say, yes, I'm loving others. I check it off my list and I'm doing. Or is it Christ-like love being exhibited to those?
[9:40] The love of Christ. See, if we're saved, the love of Christ is in us because Christ is in us. You've heard me say many times, how can the Christ that's in me be upset with the Christ that's in Steve?
[9:53] Christ and Christ. The love of Christ is shown forth. Galatians 2, 20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
[10:07] And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. He says, I am supposed to be living like Christ.
[10:19] Christ liveth in me. What did Christ do? He loved me and gave himself for me. We're to love one another. We're to make sure that one another is taken care of.
[10:30] We're to make sure that we help one another in whatever situation that may be in. It's the only right motivation for loving. Christ lives in me.
[10:42] Christ is love. And therefore, I have to love those around me. Paul wrote in Galatians chapter 5, verses 13 to 15.
[10:53] He says, For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
[11:03] Stop right there for a second. Think about what that says. So often today, you hear people talk about Christian liberty. I have Christian liberty. That means I can do basically anything I want because I have liberty in Christ.
[11:16] That's not what the verse says. Look at what it says again. You've been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
[11:31] He says, if I love you, I am going to serve you. If I love you, I'm going to do what's best for you. If I love you, I'm going to help in any way I possibly can. For all the law is fulfilled in one word.
[11:47] Even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. We're going to come back to those verses in a minute, or at least that idea in a few minutes. Then he goes on in verse 15.
[11:57] But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one another. Love one another. Don't go be going after one another. Don't be going after people.
[12:08] He says, love one another. You know, the world's idea of liberty is, like I said, do anything I want. Whatever feels good to me, whatever I want, my self-promotion, my self-interest, those are more important than anything else in the world.
[12:25] That's the world's view of what this is all about. He says, if you love, you're going to serve. If you love, you're going to help. If you love, you're going to be concerned more about the other person than yourself.
[12:39] God commands us to love one another. And then he also shows us how to do it. Look at the demonstration of love. Look at verse 34. Verse 34 says, A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.
[12:52] As I have loved you, that ye also love one another. As I have loved you. He says, look, here's the standard.
[13:06] Here's what you're going to do. You're going to follow the example that I have given unto you. You're going to look at what I have done. You're going to listen to what I have said.
[13:16] You're going to watch how I treat others. And you're going to do the same. You're going to do it in the same way. What did Jesus do at the beginning of this chapter? He washed their feet.
[13:27] Again, the God of heaven kneels down, washes the disciples dirty feet. A job a servant would do.
[13:40] But he did it himself. Here's Jesus. He's only hours from when he's going to begin his trial. It's going to lead to his death.
[13:53] And he's washing the disciples' feet. Here's how one person put it. The disciple of Jesus will stand out in the world because of the divine quality of his love.
[14:07] You want to stand out? You want people to see Jesus in you? You want people to see Christ through the things you say, the things you do? He says you're going to do it by showing forth his love to those around you.
[14:23] How are we going to do that? How are we going to demonstrate his love to those around us? First of all, sacrificially. Sacrificially. Jesus demonstrated his love to us by giving his own life.
[14:38] 1 John 3, 16 says, Hereby perceive we the love of God. Because he laid down his life for us, we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
[14:49] Do we love those around us? Are we willing to show that we love those around us? By the things that we say, the things that we do, all those things again.
[15:04] I'm giving an example of love. In the 1600s, Oliver Cromwell was the Lord Protector of England. A soldier had been sentenced to death because of some crimes that he had committed.
[15:20] He was going to be executed that night at the ringing of the curfew bell. It came time for that bell to ring, and nothing happened.
[15:33] The bell did not ring. When they went to investigate and see what was happening, they found a lady who had wrapped her body around the clapper of that bell.
[15:46] And she was preventing it from ringing. She was brought to Cromwell, and as he talked with her, asked her why, she showed him her bloody hands, her bloody arms and legs, even her head had cuts on it.
[16:10] It was her fiancé that was scheduled to die at the ringing of the curfew bell. Cromwell looked at her, and he said, your fiancé shall live because of your sacrifice.
[16:27] There will be no curfew bell tonight. Because of the love that she had for this man, she saved his life. Because of the love that Jesus Christ has for us, he came and took our place.
[16:43] He came and gave his life so that we could have salvation because he loved us so much. I think sometimes we forget just how much love was shown to us when it comes time for judgment.
[17:00] We are safe because Jesus Christ gave himself in our place. He gave himself, showed his love to us.
[17:11] When we look at our lives, how sacrificial is our love? when we look at our lives, do we really care about people like that?
[17:28] When you look at your children, do you only love them because they're, when they're obedient? Or do you love them all the time? When you look at your spouses, do you look at them and say, I only love them when they do what I tell them to, when they take care of my needs, when they do what, or do you love them all the time?
[17:52] He says, love like I did. What does he say in Ephesians 5, 25? I don't think I put it up there, but it says, even as Christ loved the church, he was talking to husbands, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.
[18:08] That's how you're supposed to love your wife. Do you love in those ways? Or do we sometimes make it a little more superficial?
[18:22] A young man said to his father that he was going to get married. He says, how do you know you're ready to get married? Because I'm in love.
[18:33] How do you know you're in love? Well, last night, I dropped my girlfriend off at her house after our date. I was telling her goodnight and her dog bit me.
[18:46] And I didn't even feel it until after I got home. That's how you know if you're in love, apparently. I didn't know that was the requirement, but okay. Sacrificially, we give ourselves for those around us because of the love of Christ.
[19:02] Christ lives in me. I need to show that love. Righteously. Second, righteously. He came as a sacrificial gift for us, but he was also a righteous gift, which means that doesn't permit us to sin.
[19:20] We can't go out and just do whatever we want in sin. Christ's love was a righteous love that came for us. Remember the lady that was brought to him? She'd been caught in adultery, and she's brought before him and all these guys are around and oh, you need to, what are we going to do with her?
[19:35] You know, law says we need to stone her and stuff. John chapter 8, verse 10. Remember Jesus bent down and he started writing in the dirt? I thoroughly believe he started writing down different sins that they were guilty of.
[19:52] It says, When Jesus lifted up himself and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are the thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord.
[20:05] And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. He says, I'm not going to condemn you either, but go and sin no more.
[20:19] You know it was wrong. You know what you did. It almost cost you your life. See, we could be spending eternity in hell, but Jesus came and gave his life for us.
[20:32] He demonstrated love to us. So we need to accept the love that Christ has shown to us. We need to accept him as Savior, but we also need to remember that doesn't give us a license to go out and sin.
[20:45] Go and sin no more. He can, he can love the sinner without condemning the sin. Wait a minute.
[20:56] No. He can love the sinner without condoning the sin. That's a better word. Without condoning the sin. We need to do the same thing. We need to love those around us.
[21:08] We need to show love to those around us. We may not agree with everything, but do we show them the love of Christ? Then the third thing, constantly, constantly, do you love, you know what the nice thing is?
[21:23] Jesus' love never changes. He loves us. He loved us before the beginning of time. He loves us even now. Sinners that we are, he loves us.
[21:38] Romans 8, 38 and 39, probably verses you know. He says, I am persuaded neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[21:58] Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. Nothing is going to hinder him from loving you. no matter what you do.
[22:12] You go with Jared someday to work, there are people there who have done some horrific things. God loves those people.
[22:23] God is working in the hearts of those people. God still will forgive those people because the love of Christ is constant. It never changes.
[22:36] nothing, he says, shall separate us from the love of God. We all come from different backgrounds. We all have different pasts.
[22:46] We all have different things that have happened in our life and taken place in our life and are taking place. God is going to love us just the same.
[22:57] He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's not going to change. If you want to turn there, I didn't put it up on the screen behind me, but 1 Corinthians 13, where it talks about love.
[23:10] You probably got a familiar idea with it. 1 Corinthians 13 is beginning at verse 4. Charity, love, suffereth long and is kind.
[23:22] Love is kind. Love is going to take care of people. You think about Jesus and how he treated people. Christ lives within us. We're going to treat others the same way.
[23:34] He lives within us. Love is kind. Love envieth not. Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.
[23:46] There's a humility about it. Does not behave itself unseemly. Seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil. Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.
[24:00] Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Loving others may be difficult, but he says that's what love is going to do.
[24:15] It's going to bear with all things, it's going to be with all things, it's not going to envy, it's not going to do all things. Love is very special. And the love of God is even more so.
[24:27] God has given us a commandment. But whenever God gives us a commandment, he gives us an enablement to follow and do the commandment that he's given to us.
[24:40] When we yield to the Holy Spirit, we find that we're able to love one another as commanded. Second thing this morning, quickly, the identification of love.
[24:52] The identification of love. What do I mean by that? Well, look at verse 35. Verse 35 say, By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
[25:08] People are going to know your Christ disciples by the love that you have one for another. When we follow God's command, we are doing what God has asked us to do.
[25:21] We are identifying with him. First of all, in our outward testimony, we develop our testimony based on the way we act. People watch you. They watch what you do.
[25:32] They listen to what you say. They see how you handle different situations. What kind of testimony do you have? Would those around you know that you're a Christian?
[25:45] Would they know there's something different about you? God wants people in the world to know that there's something different about you.
[25:55] Because of the difference, it's because you love God with all your heart. If you know Christ is your Savior and you're following his example, it's going to make a difference in the way you live.
[26:09] It's going to make a difference in the way you talk. Christ will take the lead in helping us if we will just follow him. 1 John 3, 17 and 18.
[26:20] But whosoever hath this world's good and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? You see needs and stuff and you don't help?
[26:32] He says, where's the love of God in that? Verse 18. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
[26:45] We talk a lot about loving, but he says it's the deeds and the truth where it actually shows up. How do you show people the love of Christ?
[26:59] James 2, verses 15 and 16. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding you give them not those things that are needful to the body, but at the prophet.
[27:17] Oh, I'm with you, brother, I understand, I'll be praying for you, but you have the means and ability to be able to help, to show love to them like Christ did.
[27:28] He says, what prophet is that? Look at the quote behind me. When you love people who are like you, that's ordinary.
[27:40] When you love people who are unlike you, that's extraordinary. When you love people who dislike you, that's revolutionary. Do we show the love of Christ to those around us?
[27:53] The love we have for one another is an outward testimony to the people out in the world. When they watch people in churches and they know you go to church and they know the things you do, do they see Jesus in what is going on?
[28:09] I was reading commentary by J. Vernon McGee and he gave a personal story in there. He said this, when I was a boy, my dad died and I went to work to support my mother and sister.
[28:23] So I stayed with two aunts and a bachelor uncle. One aunt was a Baptist, the other was Presbyterian. My uncle was an unbeliever and a beer drinker.
[28:34] Every Sunday he would get up just in time for the noon meal. For dinner, every Sunday, we heard all the Baptist dirt and all the Presbyterian dirt. Years later, when my uncle was in the hospital, one of my aunts wept and asked me, Vernon, why doesn't he come to Christ?
[28:52] I almost told her. He says, we cannot win the loss by being Christian cannibals. Remember what Galatians said about, but if you bite and devour one another?
[29:07] this is the type of thing that's turning people away today from church. Why don't they come to church? Why don't they come to hear the things of the gospel of Christ? Many times it's because, up on the screen, they hear the gossip before they hear the gospel.
[29:25] We need to be so careful. We need to show the love of Christ to one another so the world out there can see the love of Christ in us and desire to have that love of Christ that we have.
[29:42] To witness and to serve, did you know those are not the most important commandments given to us? Give me a minute, I'll get to the one that is.
[29:54] An ownership testimony. An ownership testimony. You notice he said there in verse 35, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples.
[30:08] Who owns you? Who's in charge of your life? He says, look, they'll know by the love that you show to one another.
[30:22] You ever have a favorite ball team or something? You know, a lot of people here own Red Sox hats or jerseys maybe.
[30:34] some people may own Celtics paraphernalia. I have some.
[30:47] I own Alabama shirts and hats. I'm living in Alabama for a short time. I've learned to love that football team. We show our affiliation.
[31:00] Do we show our affiliation with Christ by the way that we live and by the love that we have one for another? In Mark chapter 12, beginning in verse 29, it says this, Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandments is, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and ye shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength.
[31:34] This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
[31:50] You should witness. Yes, you should. You should serve. Yes, you should. But she says the greatest commandments, love God with all your heart and mind soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.
[32:03] See, as Christians, what sets us apart from the world? Love. As Christians, what sets us apart? The love we have for Christ and the love we have for one another.
[32:18] God commanded us to love one another, to show the world that the love of Christ is in us. Jesus showed us the perfect example.
[32:35] He came to die for our sins. He came to give his life. And he showed us love sacrificially, righteously, constantly. He demonstrated that love as we are his disciples, we follow him.
[32:57] I look around this morning, I don't know if everybody here is saved or not. But if you're not, can I tell you, you can show the world there's a difference in you when you accept Jesus Christ.
[33:08] You can show the world that there's something different. 1 John 4 verses 9 and 10. In this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him.
[33:26] Herein is love not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation, the appeasement, the forgiveness of our sins.
[33:38] Jesus did that for us. Jesus now lives in you. What should our response be to those around us?
[33:49] To show the love of Christ. If you're here this morning and you are saved, do the people around you see the love of Christ through you?
[34:02] See, he says, look, you want to show people? He says, show them that you love me and show them that you love one another.
[34:12] The importance of loving one another is so important in this world. The importance of showing loving one another is what shows the people out there that Jesus Christ does make a difference in our lives.
[34:30] He says, look, love one another. A new commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
[34:46] You know, sometimes we come with baggage, sometimes we come with things that are going on in our life, sometimes we face all kinds of things. And sometimes we need to come to Christ and say, look, this is not right in my life, that's not right, I'm coming to you just as I am, so that I can get those things right.
[35:05] I can show the world that I'm different because of my love for you. And I'm coming to ask you for help with those things. So I want us to sing this morning, just as I am.
[35:19] And think about it from the standpoint, usually we sing just as I am as an invitation song to the unsaved and everything, but I want you to look at it this morning from the viewpoint of, I'm a Christian, but do I love people?
[35:33] See, a lot of people today, we get wrapped up in other things. We get wrapped up in anger and bitterness and we let the things of this world get to us.
[35:49] Just come to him just as you are. Angela should have it up behind me. On the screen there. Okay.
[36:00] Let's stand. Let's stand.