WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.660 Okay, I'm going to read from John chapter 13 and from verse 31 to verse 38. 00:00:09.660 --> 00:00:12.359 Okay. 00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:20.920 John chapter 13 from verse 31, when Jesus had gone out, He said, Now is the Son of man 00:00:20.920 --> 00:00:25.320 glorified, and God is glorified in Him. 00:00:25.320 --> 00:00:29.440 If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself and glorify Him at 00:00:29.440 --> 00:00:30.440 once. 00:00:30.440 --> 00:00:35.480 Little children, yet a little while I am with you, you will seek me. 00:00:35.480 --> 00:00:40.560 And just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, What I am going, you cannot come. 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:44.799 And you commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you. 00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:48.040 You also are to love one another. 00:00:48.040 --> 00:00:52.920 By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. 00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:56.120 Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? 00:00:56.120 --> 00:00:59.420 Jesus answered him, What I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me after 00:00:59.420 --> 00:01:00.420 words. 00:01:00.420 --> 00:01:04.079 Peter said to him, Lord, why cannot I follow you now? 00:01:04.079 --> 00:01:06.240 I will lay down my life for you. 00:01:06.240 --> 00:01:09.480 Jesus answered, Will you lay down your life for me? 00:01:09.480 --> 00:01:15.320 Truly I say to you, The cock will not crow till you have denied me three times. 00:01:15.320 --> 00:01:18.640 So the one another, I guess you have picked up already. 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:23.359 A new commandment I give to you, verse 34, that you love one another just as I have loved 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:26.719 you, you are also to love one another. 00:01:26.719 --> 00:01:30.679 So I mentioned that that's going to be our theme, it's going to be some of the one another's. 00:01:30.679 --> 00:01:37.959 And I hope that you didn't look at this and immediately think, okay, well, I know that. 00:01:37.959 --> 00:01:42.960 Because that's an easy, I guess, reaction that we could have to it. 00:01:42.960 --> 00:01:49.000 But I think as we understand the gospel more and more, we recognize and remember it is 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:51.319 the gospel that transforms us. 00:01:51.319 --> 00:01:52.319 It changes us. 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:56.759 It keeps on changing us, changes our heart so that we're more like Him. 00:01:56.759 --> 00:02:02.000 And it also changes the world in which we live and the people and the society around 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:07.039 us as they come to know Jesus. 00:02:07.039 --> 00:02:08.039 And we're wanting that, aren't we? 00:02:08.039 --> 00:02:11.280 We're wanting our lives to be changed. 00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:17.599 Sometimes we're provoked by that and we feel that we wish we had changed more. 00:02:17.599 --> 00:02:23.359 I was doing church planting assessment the last couple of days with six couples that 00:02:23.359 --> 00:02:27.120 are hoping to plant churches and some of the scenarios we're going through and the way 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:28.680 we dealt with it. 00:02:28.680 --> 00:02:33.319 And those of us who were assessing, many of us, some of us have been ministers for a long 00:02:33.319 --> 00:02:40.639 time and we were chatting about and thinking, man, I really wish I'd done more of that when 00:02:40.639 --> 00:02:44.280 I was that age or I wish I'd learned these things or I wish I'd grown more or I wish 00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:47.919 I would be able to change many things that I did when I started. 00:02:47.919 --> 00:02:51.960 And so there's this constant sense in which we're being transformed and we're not to let 00:02:51.960 --> 00:02:52.960 that frustrate us. 00:02:52.960 --> 00:02:57.319 We're just to allow God to work through us in that. 00:02:57.319 --> 00:03:02.240 I would love this short series to kind of motivate us to chat about these things and 00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:07.439 also to act on them, maybe at your city groups informally or in your friendship groups in 00:03:07.439 --> 00:03:13.319 the church or when you pray or when you maybe think about inviting others to come along 00:03:13.319 --> 00:03:18.400 on a Sunday night and or watch it online even. 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:25.879 Just to begin to kick around some of these ideas and think about what does this mean 00:03:25.879 --> 00:03:27.639 for me as a person? 00:03:27.639 --> 00:03:31.759 What does it mean for us as a church under Christ? 00:03:31.759 --> 00:03:34.439 And I think that's a good thing as a community under Christ. 00:03:34.439 --> 00:03:37.599 Now I know that I'll probably annoy some of you, okay? 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:39.959 So I'm sorry about that. 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:45.560 I know you'd rather hear sermon on probably on the importance of doctrinal purity or even 00:03:45.560 --> 00:03:50.240 on church attendance or standing up on the public square or going out with your faith 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:55.319 onto the streets or the free church distinctives maybe that we believe in. 00:03:55.319 --> 00:03:57.040 Now all of these are really important. 00:03:57.040 --> 00:03:59.840 I'm not suggesting they're not important. 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:07.000 But I want us to think about tonight a deeper and a more fundamental distinctive of us. 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:10.960 The importance of understanding what the love of God means. 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:13.719 And what does Jesus mean when He says this? 00:04:13.719 --> 00:04:21.720 Because I think it's really important because it will determine what the world thinks of 00:04:21.720 --> 00:04:28.639 St. Columbus, the people maybe who come into St. Columbus or who know you as a member here. 00:04:28.639 --> 00:04:36.879 And it will also govern what people think of you as an individual Christian. 00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:43.480 So understanding really in our lives of this 13th commandment, because that's what we have, 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:44.480 isn't it? 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:45.480 We've got the... 00:04:45.480 --> 00:04:48.639 Sorry, I've written down the 13th... 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:50.480 I mean the 11th commandment. 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:52.759 So there isn't another three, sorry. 00:04:52.759 --> 00:04:56.800 So I said 10 commandments, 12 disciples, yes. 00:04:56.800 --> 00:04:58.040 I knew there was a 12 somewhere. 00:04:58.040 --> 00:05:00.519 I said 10 commandments, yeah, there. 00:05:00.519 --> 00:05:04.600 Maybe we should do something on theology and doctrine. 00:05:04.600 --> 00:05:09.840 So the 11th commandment of course is what I meant to say here. 00:05:09.840 --> 00:05:11.800 And it says it all for us, doesn't it? 00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:13.720 The 11th commandment says it all. 00:05:13.720 --> 00:05:16.800 Jesus says a new commandment I give to you. 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:18.320 It's a new one. 00:05:18.320 --> 00:05:23.080 That you love one another just as I have loved you. 00:05:23.080 --> 00:05:29.879 And I would love you to meditate and to pray and maybe even to repent at some point. 00:05:29.879 --> 00:05:34.719 I certainly have as I've looked over this as we want to live it, because it's the foundation 00:05:34.719 --> 00:05:37.680 of everything else. 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:44.079 Everything else we do, it's founded on understanding this new 11th commandment. 00:05:44.079 --> 00:05:50.360 So the question that I want to provoke in us over these four weeks with the various different 00:05:50.360 --> 00:05:54.959 one another's we look at is how's that been worked out here? 00:05:54.959 --> 00:05:59.399 And so I want us to be really thinking about it here in our context and what we're doing, 00:05:59.399 --> 00:06:03.079 you know, how's it working out in my life? 00:06:03.079 --> 00:06:10.399 How's it working out in me as a Christian and how I work that out in the community that 00:06:10.399 --> 00:06:12.839 I belong to? 00:06:12.839 --> 00:06:14.239 So we're going to look at this commandment. 00:06:14.239 --> 00:06:19.159 The first thing that I want to say about it is that it's a new kind of love. 00:06:19.159 --> 00:06:20.759 We'll look at that in different ways. 00:06:20.759 --> 00:06:25.919 But one of the really important things about it is it's mutual, okay? 00:06:25.919 --> 00:06:28.000 So it's a mutual love that's spoken about here. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:31.519 It says love one another, okay? 00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:37.120 Now if I was an English grammar scholar, which I'm not, I would say this is a reciprocal 00:06:37.120 --> 00:06:38.800 pronoun. 00:06:38.800 --> 00:06:42.120 That means it's reciprocated. 00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:43.120 There must be... 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:44.480 It's mutual. 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:46.480 It's not just one way. 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:52.120 And it's not that you're always giving out love all the time, nor is it always that you're 00:06:52.120 --> 00:06:55.360 taking love from other people all the time. 00:06:55.360 --> 00:06:59.560 It's critical to understand that it's a reciprocal love. 00:06:59.560 --> 00:07:05.480 It's a getting, and it's a receiving, and a giving as we understand it. 00:07:05.480 --> 00:07:09.000 And we'll come back to that a little bit more. 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:11.080 So it's a new kind of love. 00:07:11.080 --> 00:07:13.560 It's a mutual love. 00:07:13.560 --> 00:07:17.920 It's also loving the way Jesus loved. 00:07:17.920 --> 00:07:19.319 That's what makes it different. 00:07:19.319 --> 00:07:22.000 It says, a new commandment, you'll love one another. 00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:26.439 Just as I have loved you, you're also to love one another, okay? 00:07:26.439 --> 00:07:29.279 So it's loving the way Jesus loved. 00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:32.800 Now, I'm going to say two things about that. 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:33.920 What does that mean? 00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:36.939 What does it mean to love the way Jesus loved us? 00:07:36.939 --> 00:07:38.920 Because we all love, don't we? 00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:39.920 We're all... 00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:44.399 I mean, if you all say, well, I don't need a sermon on love, we all love. 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:47.639 But this is loving a different way. 00:07:47.639 --> 00:07:48.639 And it's unique. 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:51.240 And there's two things I want to say. 00:07:51.240 --> 00:07:59.199 It's loving the way Jesus loved, but it's in a way that we can't do. 00:07:59.199 --> 00:08:03.400 So Jesus is asking us to do the impossible. 00:08:03.400 --> 00:08:05.840 He's asking us to do something we can't. 00:08:05.840 --> 00:08:10.519 In John 15, in verse 12, He says, this is my commandment. 00:08:10.519 --> 00:08:13.120 Remember, that you love one another as I've loved you. 00:08:13.120 --> 00:08:17.840 It's repeated again, just in the same couple of chapters later. 00:08:17.839 --> 00:08:21.239 And then He goes on to say, greater love is no one than this, that someone laid down 00:08:21.239 --> 00:08:23.399 his life for his friends. 00:08:23.399 --> 00:08:25.279 You're my friends if you do what I command. 00:08:25.279 --> 00:08:26.279 Do what I command. 00:08:26.279 --> 00:08:32.480 Now, in other words, He's saying, there's something unique here that you can't do in 00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:34.240 terms of this love. 00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:40.079 He's speaking about laying down his life as He atoned for us on the cross. 00:08:40.079 --> 00:08:45.039 Now this is where the love of Christ is not mutual. 00:08:45.039 --> 00:08:47.199 There's no mutuality here. 00:08:47.200 --> 00:08:55.120 The only way we can see and receive and live out this new commandment is if you will confess 00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:58.560 and if I will confess that we can't do it. 00:08:58.560 --> 00:09:00.759 We can't do it. 00:09:00.759 --> 00:09:03.600 We can't love the way He wants us to love. 00:09:03.600 --> 00:09:05.120 We can't redeem our own lives. 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:10.879 We can't make ourselves right with God by loving, just by loving. 00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:16.160 We can't atone for our sins by just living a loving life. 00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:21.759 You know, you go out on a Saturday night and all these guys going about on mopeds with 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:25.839 just eat bags on their back. 00:09:25.839 --> 00:09:28.959 So they're going everywhere and it's just eating. 00:09:28.959 --> 00:09:30.839 And sometimes we think it's like that with God. 00:09:30.839 --> 00:09:31.839 It's just love. 00:09:31.839 --> 00:09:33.439 That's all it is. 00:09:33.439 --> 00:09:39.399 As long as anyone loves, any old way, that's all that matters to God. 00:09:39.399 --> 00:09:40.559 But that's not what He's saying. 00:09:40.559 --> 00:09:47.799 He's saying, you need to love the way I loved and I loved uniquely by laying down my life 00:09:47.799 --> 00:09:53.000 so that you could love. 00:09:53.000 --> 00:10:00.679 In other words, it's until we can see that even our love naturally is a disordered love. 00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:03.639 It's not channeled in the right way. 00:10:03.639 --> 00:10:10.479 Unless we can see the darkness and the guilt in our own hearts and the hell that we deserve 00:10:10.480 --> 00:10:16.519 in a real and personal way, I mean not in a kind of merely theological way, and put our 00:10:16.519 --> 00:10:23.560 trust in the Christ who loved us enough to call us His friends and to bear our judgment 00:10:23.560 --> 00:10:30.639 on the cross, which we sing about all the time. 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:37.800 It's until we recognize that and accept that that's the only time that we are beginning 00:10:37.799 --> 00:10:42.159 to understand the type of love that He gives us. 00:10:42.159 --> 00:10:45.839 It's His love that He gives us. 00:10:45.839 --> 00:10:50.559 He instills in our hearts when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, and He gives us His 00:10:50.559 --> 00:10:55.519 Spirit that enables us to begin to fulfill this new command. 00:10:55.519 --> 00:11:00.759 If that makes sense, it's a bit paradoxical. 00:11:00.759 --> 00:11:06.399 But it enables us to love God first and to love one another the way He wants us to. 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:12.279 So doing business with God is always critical for us in our lives. 00:11:12.279 --> 00:11:18.679 Hugely important for us to recognize that it's not simply a natural love that is being 00:11:18.679 --> 00:11:28.919 spoken of here, but it's a love that has begun to be reordered because we recognize that 00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:36.360 God loves us so much, and because our sin is so great, we need Him. 00:11:36.360 --> 00:11:39.680 So there's a humility in this love immediately. 00:11:39.680 --> 00:11:50.480 And one slightly, maybe not exactly focused application here, but in terms of recognizing 00:11:50.480 --> 00:11:55.919 that there's an impossibility to this love and that it's only Jesus that can love in 00:11:55.919 --> 00:12:02.080 this way and grant us this love, one application is it does deal with our Messiah complex. 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:06.720 There's only one Messiah. 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:12.759 We can't save ourselves, let alone anyone else, and we can't be in that place of carrying 00:12:12.759 --> 00:12:19.560 the weight of the world and needing to be in control of either ourselves and others. 00:12:19.560 --> 00:12:27.040 We mustn't feel all the time that others need me, whether it's popularity or significance 00:12:27.039 --> 00:12:37.799 or dependence, or that my life must be worthy before God because there's only one Messiah, 00:12:37.799 --> 00:12:40.360 there's only one Savior. 00:12:40.360 --> 00:12:47.799 So there's a way in which this commandment is given to us in a way we simply can't obey 00:12:47.799 --> 00:12:57.479 because only God can lay down His life in a way that enables us to be redeemed. 00:12:57.479 --> 00:13:05.679 But, He also gives us this command in order for us to follow in a way that we can. 00:13:05.679 --> 00:13:14.759 And Jesus, in His humanity, when God became flesh, displayed what loving one another looks 00:13:14.759 --> 00:13:15.759 like. 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:22.639 He's very easy to mystify Jesus as some kind of superman who we can't imitate or follow. 00:13:22.639 --> 00:13:29.279 Now, He is our Savior, He is unique, but He's also someone that we can follow and imitate 00:13:29.279 --> 00:13:31.559 because He became a human being. 00:13:31.559 --> 00:13:38.480 And He became a human being to show us what it looks like to fulfill at one level this 00:13:38.480 --> 00:13:41.360 new commandment that He's given. 00:13:41.360 --> 00:13:48.519 He became a person in every way just like you and me, except without sin. 00:13:48.519 --> 00:13:51.440 And He showed us what this mutual love looked like. 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:52.440 Okay? 00:13:52.440 --> 00:13:56.320 So I'm coming back to this mutuality. 00:13:56.320 --> 00:13:59.680 He needed the love of others. 00:13:59.680 --> 00:14:00.680 Okay? 00:14:00.680 --> 00:14:04.800 That's what I'm wanting to get across the mutuality of this love that He speaks about 00:14:04.800 --> 00:14:05.800 here. 00:14:05.799 --> 00:14:12.159 He became a human and became dependent on other people, and He needed their love. 00:14:12.159 --> 00:14:17.439 He needed the love of His Father in heaven, so He made time for praying, and He made time 00:14:17.439 --> 00:14:19.519 for being in relationship with His Father. 00:14:19.519 --> 00:14:21.599 He needed that relationship. 00:14:21.599 --> 00:14:27.199 He needed His friends, His men and His women friends around Him. 00:14:27.199 --> 00:14:28.919 We read these passages. 00:14:28.919 --> 00:14:33.159 Siobhan read these passages that spoke about the women that came around Jesus, and they 00:14:33.159 --> 00:14:38.919 looked after Him and supplied for His material needs, and they were there right at the cross 00:14:38.919 --> 00:14:44.199 as well as the ones who were friends of Jesus. 00:14:44.199 --> 00:14:47.799 And He had these, and we've seen that and we understand that. 00:14:47.799 --> 00:14:52.519 And in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus took not the twelve, He took three of His closest 00:14:52.519 --> 00:14:53.519 friends. 00:14:53.519 --> 00:14:55.679 And they'd say, you know, I need you to be with me at this time. 00:14:55.679 --> 00:14:56.839 Would you not stay awake? 00:14:56.839 --> 00:15:00.319 Please, I'm begging that you'll be with me here. 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:04.960 He needed their support, their help, their encouragement, their practical care. 00:15:04.960 --> 00:15:06.240 They made food for Him. 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:12.200 They rented accommodation in the Airbnbs wherever He went, and they all went together wherever 00:15:12.200 --> 00:15:13.200 it was. 00:15:13.200 --> 00:15:14.560 He wanted their loyalty. 00:15:14.560 --> 00:15:15.960 He didn't travel alone. 00:15:15.960 --> 00:15:22.480 Jesus wasn't some kind of John the Baptist kind of guy who went out into the desert alone. 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:31.600 He was someone who needed the love of others around Him, and those around Him needed His 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:32.600 love. 00:15:32.600 --> 00:15:33.600 He's reciprocal. 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:36.519 There's a mutuality in it. 00:15:36.519 --> 00:15:40.759 And He loved them by putting other people first. 00:15:40.759 --> 00:15:44.399 He loved them by, as it were, laying down His life before He laid down His life on the 00:15:44.399 --> 00:15:45.399 cross. 00:15:45.399 --> 00:15:48.920 He was a servant king, so He met their needs. 00:15:48.920 --> 00:15:50.360 He treated them as individuals. 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:52.200 He was interested in them. 00:15:52.200 --> 00:15:55.960 He saw and spoke to the people nobody else could see. 00:15:55.960 --> 00:15:57.520 They rejected and they confused. 00:15:57.520 --> 00:16:00.280 They alone, they blind, they misguided, they lost. 00:16:00.280 --> 00:16:06.759 He saw people as individual beings, spiritual beings, sheep without a shepherd. 00:16:06.759 --> 00:16:09.480 He served them, He befriended them, He advised them. 00:16:09.480 --> 00:16:10.879 He spoke truth into their lives. 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:12.080 He gave hope. 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:13.080 He was committed to them. 00:16:13.080 --> 00:16:15.480 He healed them. 00:16:15.480 --> 00:16:21.920 So Christ became our example in a way that we can follow. 00:16:21.919 --> 00:16:25.439 We can't be messiahs. 00:16:25.439 --> 00:16:27.599 We can't save anyone. 00:16:27.599 --> 00:16:32.279 We can't love in that way, but we can follow His example. 00:16:32.279 --> 00:16:36.919 And so Christ, for us as Christians, for you as a Christian, if you take Christ as your 00:16:36.919 --> 00:16:43.959 Lord and Savior, He's your motivation and your power to obey this new command, isn't 00:16:43.959 --> 00:16:44.959 He? 00:16:44.959 --> 00:16:48.919 Because Christ has done that, which you can't do for yourself. 00:16:48.919 --> 00:16:58.679 He is your Savior, and He's taken the reality of the lovelessness that's in your heart for 00:16:58.679 --> 00:16:59.679 Him. 00:16:59.679 --> 00:17:10.279 And I wonder if the understanding of hell is that it's a place of no love, or is it 00:17:10.279 --> 00:17:17.159 a place where there's no love of God, or is it a place of disordered love in the extreme? 00:17:17.160 --> 00:17:24.320 It's certainly not a place where there is God's love revealed in our hearts. 00:17:24.320 --> 00:17:28.920 He's taken that, and He's laid down His life, and we have His grace. 00:17:28.920 --> 00:17:35.160 And there's an old Scottish founder of the free church called Thomas Chalmers who wrote 00:17:35.160 --> 00:17:40.279 a book called The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. 00:17:40.279 --> 00:17:48.079 And he just says that when you know that love is God as your Savior, you can't keep it in. 00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:54.279 Now, I'm going to be very irreverent here, and I'm not meaning to be irreverent, but 00:17:54.279 --> 00:17:56.960 I think it's just a good illustration. 00:17:56.960 --> 00:18:01.799 It's like your heart is a bottle of Coke, and the Holy Spirit comes in, it's like a 00:18:01.799 --> 00:18:04.399 packet of Mentos. 00:18:04.399 --> 00:18:10.240 And you know what happens when you put Coke in Mentos, it just explodes out. 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:17.839 And that is the reality of understanding the motivation for living that love. 00:18:17.839 --> 00:18:21.559 It's the expulsive power of a new affection. 00:18:21.559 --> 00:18:28.960 That's an old-fashioned way of just saying, it's the great power of His love in our hearts, 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:31.240 coming out powerfully. 00:18:31.240 --> 00:18:38.880 So Christ is our Savior, and Christ we know is our friend, and He loves us, and we've 00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:46.000 experienced not just in salvation, but we already know He's put our needs before His 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:51.360 own, if I can speak reverently again, before His own eternal comfort, as it were. 00:18:51.360 --> 00:18:53.040 We've accepted. 00:18:53.040 --> 00:18:55.000 We belong to Him. 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:56.960 He lives in us. 00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:00.240 He's committed to our ongoing salvation. 00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:06.800 He's promised that He will meet your needs in mind, and that He will not leave us, and 00:19:06.799 --> 00:19:12.440 that He is healed and is healing us, even when we don't understand, even in the darkness 00:19:12.440 --> 00:19:14.839 of life that we experience. 00:19:14.839 --> 00:19:19.879 And we have that glorious future that was mentioned this morning beyond our wildest dreams, in 00:19:19.879 --> 00:19:23.680 the battle and in the difficulties. 00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:26.319 He says to trust Him in that. 00:19:26.319 --> 00:19:33.359 So He's both our Savior and our friend, and therefore He becomes our example. 00:19:33.359 --> 00:19:39.119 And He says, I give you this commandment that you will love one another just as I have loved 00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:41.479 you. 00:19:41.479 --> 00:19:48.039 So what is it that we do? 00:19:48.039 --> 00:19:52.639 We lay down our lives for Christ. 00:19:52.639 --> 00:19:57.159 We die to ourselves. 00:19:57.159 --> 00:20:00.159 And that reveals itself by not denying Him. 00:20:00.159 --> 00:20:02.559 Isn't it interesting just at the end of that passage? 00:20:02.559 --> 00:20:08.599 You read on to the end of that passage because Peter says, you know, Jesus says, look, there's 00:20:08.599 --> 00:20:11.839 something you can't do, Peter. 00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:14.359 There's some place you can't come. 00:20:14.359 --> 00:20:16.799 And He's basically talking about the cross, isn't He? 00:20:16.799 --> 00:20:20.039 And it's that uniqueness of the atonement. 00:20:20.039 --> 00:20:22.119 And Peter says, oh, yeah, I'm going to come. 00:20:22.119 --> 00:20:24.000 He says, I will follow you. 00:20:24.000 --> 00:20:26.799 I will lay down my life for you. 00:20:26.799 --> 00:20:29.319 Peter says, I'll lay down my life for you. 00:20:29.319 --> 00:20:31.639 He says, He's got that kind of love. 00:20:31.640 --> 00:20:37.040 And hours later, He's denied that He even knows Jesus. 00:20:37.040 --> 00:20:38.040 And Jesus knows that. 00:20:38.040 --> 00:20:43.000 He says, look, Peter, you're going to deny me three times. 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:47.320 You don't have, you don't understand that love, that dying to self. 00:20:47.320 --> 00:20:48.960 Peter was wanting to do it in his own strength. 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:50.759 He was wanting to be a Messiah. 00:20:50.759 --> 00:20:55.440 He was wanting to be alongside Him in many ways. 00:20:55.440 --> 00:21:04.440 And so this love that is in our hearts is to be a denying of ourselves and a not denying 00:21:04.440 --> 00:21:08.440 Jesus, a not disowning Him. 00:21:08.440 --> 00:21:14.200 It's a disowning of our own sinful interests and desires. 00:21:14.200 --> 00:21:17.799 And at the same time, it's also mutual. 00:21:17.799 --> 00:21:24.920 This love that He speaks about, it's love that is mentioned here, it was mutual for Jesus. 00:21:24.920 --> 00:21:30.640 It's mutual in the command, love one another, you know, it's this pronoun that's got reciprocal 00:21:30.640 --> 00:21:32.000 pronoun. 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:33.519 And that is the same for us. 00:21:33.519 --> 00:21:38.880 If we are to fulfill this command in the strength of Jesus, it's reciprocal. 00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:41.920 It means for you and it means for me. 00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:46.960 One that you need the love of other people. 00:21:46.960 --> 00:21:49.640 You need to be loved. 00:21:49.640 --> 00:21:53.480 It's not always about giving, you know, we look at love one another and you really love 00:21:53.480 --> 00:21:54.880 people. 00:21:54.880 --> 00:21:58.559 But it's also saying you need the love of others. 00:21:58.559 --> 00:22:04.200 It's being humble enough to be dependent on others and to receive that love. 00:22:04.200 --> 00:22:09.200 It's dealing with the pride that's in our hearts that's saying, I don't need anyone. 00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:12.200 I can do this on my own. 00:22:12.200 --> 00:22:13.200 I can live this life. 00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:14.880 I can be a Christian on my own. 00:22:14.880 --> 00:22:19.000 He's saying, no, it's a reciprocal love. 00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:24.240 He's saying, I'm spiritually competent and all and it's me and God. 00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:26.559 And he says, no. 00:22:26.559 --> 00:22:33.279 He's saying to love like Jesus loved us is to be able to say, like I need you. 00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:34.880 I need your help. 00:22:34.880 --> 00:22:37.200 I need your friendship. 00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:39.559 I need someone to listen to me. 00:22:39.559 --> 00:22:42.119 I need you not to be my judge. 00:22:42.119 --> 00:22:44.839 I'm vulnerable and I'm struggling. 00:22:44.839 --> 00:22:52.439 I need, I need, even sometimes it says, I need you to understand that I need to rest 00:22:52.439 --> 00:22:57.959 and I need to be alone with my God, but only for a time. 00:22:57.959 --> 00:23:05.039 So there's that sense in which each of us in St. Columbus and their core communities, 00:23:05.039 --> 00:23:13.000 whether it's city groups are here on a Sunday or however we, however we understand our involvement 00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:19.440 in the church, it's saying that we need one another, that we are not islands. 00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:23.400 That is part of the love of Christ in us that we recognize. 00:23:23.400 --> 00:23:34.880 We are part of a people, part of a family, part of a vulnerable Christ-centered, Christ-imitating 00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:35.880 group. 00:23:35.880 --> 00:23:37.480 Like Jesus who needed a... 00:23:37.480 --> 00:23:39.400 He was the Son of God. 00:23:39.400 --> 00:23:48.720 Surely if anyone didn't need people, it was Jesus and yet He made Himself dependent because 00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:53.600 He wanted to give us an example and because in His humanity, that was a real need. 00:23:53.600 --> 00:23:58.880 So He needed the love of others and remember He loved perfectly. 00:23:58.880 --> 00:24:04.040 To love perfectly doesn't mean you don't need people and don't need others, but also it's 00:24:04.039 --> 00:24:10.799 a recognition that others need your love in the Christian community. 00:24:10.799 --> 00:24:13.799 Others need your love. 00:24:13.799 --> 00:24:19.720 You know, it's the one debt that remains, John read that in Romans 13, it's the one debt 00:24:19.720 --> 00:24:23.279 that remains in our lives as Christians to love one another. 00:24:23.279 --> 00:24:29.759 It's a debt that we keep on paying for the rest of our lives and that we seek to lay 00:24:29.759 --> 00:24:41.839 down our self-centered understanding of love in order to love others and be loved. 00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:48.160 So we don't really have the freedom as Christians if we seek to be like Jesus and want to be 00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:54.000 like Jesus and obey this commandment just to say, I don't care. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:56.079 They don't deserve it. 00:24:56.079 --> 00:25:00.720 They've just let me down once too often. 00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:03.119 I can't forgive again. 00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:04.919 I'm too busy. 00:25:04.919 --> 00:25:09.439 I have too many problems of my own. 00:25:09.439 --> 00:25:15.279 I love them, but only if they love me back the same way. 00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:17.519 They're not my type. 00:25:17.519 --> 00:25:20.359 I need other kind of friends that understand me. 00:25:20.359 --> 00:25:22.879 They're maybe too needy. 00:25:22.880 --> 00:25:35.800 But we are called to love like Jesus, sharing our lives and our hearts, our forgiveness, 00:25:35.800 --> 00:25:38.600 probably more than anything, our patience. 00:25:38.600 --> 00:25:40.880 You know, the fruit of the Spirit we know it. 00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:48.640 You know, talk about the tree, Jeremiah tree, where our roots are, what the fruit is, what 00:25:48.640 --> 00:25:53.920 is it, thorns and thistles, or is it the fruit of the Spirit that we display when the storms 00:25:53.920 --> 00:25:59.120 and the drought and the difficulties and hardships come? 00:25:59.120 --> 00:26:06.880 Our homes, we seek to share in hospitality, our wages, the small things, a cup of cold 00:26:06.880 --> 00:26:07.880 water. 00:26:07.880 --> 00:26:10.520 That's what Jesus says, doesn't he, on the day of judgment? 00:26:10.520 --> 00:26:11.960 He doesn't say the big things. 00:26:11.960 --> 00:26:15.880 He doesn't say it's massive wad out of your wage packet. 00:26:15.880 --> 00:26:21.760 He says, that cup of cold water that you gave to someone in my name, that was just 00:26:21.760 --> 00:26:26.680 like doing it for me. 00:26:26.680 --> 00:26:31.920 Can you see that that, I've been challenged that that is not a typical love, is it? 00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:35.240 It's not an unusual love. 00:26:35.240 --> 00:26:37.720 It's counterintuitive love. 00:26:37.720 --> 00:26:44.520 It's not saying I'll love because you've loved me and because it's a warm, lovely environment 00:26:44.519 --> 00:26:49.400 and everyone loves one another. 00:26:49.400 --> 00:26:51.039 It's Christ's love. 00:26:51.039 --> 00:26:52.039 It's unique. 00:26:52.039 --> 00:26:54.639 There's nothing like it. 00:26:54.639 --> 00:27:02.920 And we can't appreciate until we've knelt down at the cross and seen that He laid down 00:27:02.920 --> 00:27:08.799 His life in order to enable us to love like that. 00:27:08.799 --> 00:27:15.879 So what the church there for, the local church, I think, is God's test lab. 00:27:15.879 --> 00:27:17.359 It's where He works out. 00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:24.000 He wants us to work out our understanding of our salvation and His love for us. 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:27.079 And it's a lifelong test lab. 00:27:27.079 --> 00:27:34.000 We're always going to be developing and maturing and improving our understanding of His love. 00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:36.919 It's a committed test lab, the church. 00:27:36.920 --> 00:27:42.920 There's always time involved in getting to know people and persevering with them and 00:27:42.920 --> 00:27:45.840 being patient and all of that. 00:27:45.840 --> 00:27:52.840 Since He's His test lab for His love being worked out. 00:27:52.840 --> 00:27:54.840 We're His guinea pigs. 00:27:54.840 --> 00:27:56.920 That's a terrible illustration. 00:27:56.920 --> 00:27:57.920 Sorry. 00:27:57.920 --> 00:27:58.920 But that's true, isn't it? 00:27:58.920 --> 00:28:00.720 It's His test lab. 00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:09.120 And as Christians, He wants us to work out His love in this community. 00:28:09.120 --> 00:28:11.720 Love one another, He says, as I've loved you. 00:28:11.720 --> 00:28:18.720 I would love you to go home and look at that verse again and again and again in depth and 00:28:18.720 --> 00:28:25.600 say, what does that mean for my life and for my understanding? 00:28:25.599 --> 00:28:30.799 The last thing I want to say just briefly is there's a big surprise in this. 00:28:30.799 --> 00:28:35.039 A great big surprise. 00:28:35.039 --> 00:28:38.599 It's the best way of making Jesus famous. 00:28:38.599 --> 00:28:42.959 It's the absolute best way of making Jesus famous. 00:28:42.959 --> 00:28:44.679 Just as I've loved you, so you love one another. 00:28:44.679 --> 00:28:52.240 By this, one or two people, the odd person that drifts in now and again, no, all people 00:28:52.240 --> 00:28:56.359 will know that you're my disciples if you love one another. 00:28:56.359 --> 00:29:00.559 That's the great surprise is that we fret all the time. 00:29:00.559 --> 00:29:06.680 I fret all the time about evangelism, about how are we going to reach the lost? 00:29:06.680 --> 00:29:11.279 How are we going to see people converted in St. Columbus and because of and through the 00:29:11.279 --> 00:29:15.559 community of St. Columbus and reaching out with the gospel? 00:29:15.559 --> 00:29:19.519 Always thinking about evangelism and how best to do that. 00:29:19.519 --> 00:29:27.359 And yet understanding this command towards each other has to be the key to reaching the 00:29:27.359 --> 00:29:34.599 lost and understanding the true nature and the basic characteristic of the church. 00:29:34.599 --> 00:29:36.599 It's not just a meeting. 00:29:36.599 --> 00:29:38.680 It can't be. 00:29:38.680 --> 00:29:42.079 Just simply, it has to be something more than that. 00:29:42.079 --> 00:29:46.759 It's not a new church service I give to you. 00:29:46.759 --> 00:29:51.839 It's a new commandment that you go to another Bible study. 00:29:51.839 --> 00:29:56.039 It's not actually that vital though these things are because they reveal what the love 00:29:56.039 --> 00:30:02.440 is, but it is as we put into practice what we know about the living God and Jesus Christ 00:30:02.440 --> 00:30:12.079 together in the grit and gut of the day to day living of Christianity, that God will convert 00:30:12.079 --> 00:30:16.359 people around us. 00:30:16.359 --> 00:30:23.399 And so I wrestle with the question, how can we do that? 00:30:23.399 --> 00:30:27.199 Because people aren't being converted around us in St. Columbus. 00:30:27.199 --> 00:30:31.119 It's a long time. 00:30:31.119 --> 00:30:37.199 Since we've seen many people come into Jesus Christ, we grow, people come, people leave. 00:30:37.199 --> 00:30:42.319 We're privileged to have new people come in who move to the city and they're all great 00:30:42.319 --> 00:30:44.599 things, brilliant things. 00:30:44.599 --> 00:30:54.519 But what are we needing to change something that will enable everyone to see that we are 00:30:54.519 --> 00:30:57.000 Christ's disciples by the way we love one another? 00:30:57.000 --> 00:31:07.079 I think it's the most radical evangelistic message particularly for this generation, 00:31:07.079 --> 00:31:14.679 which is isolated, quite angry, separated, judgmental, lonely. 00:31:14.679 --> 00:31:17.879 I think that's a great evangelistic message. 00:31:17.879 --> 00:31:23.159 The love of Christ lived out is the good news. 00:31:23.159 --> 00:31:29.240 And Romans 13 again, it spills over to our neighbor. 00:31:29.240 --> 00:31:32.720 We'll not be able to contain the generosity of the love we have for each other. 00:31:32.720 --> 00:31:35.159 It's not an insular thing. 00:31:35.159 --> 00:31:36.159 Just can't contain it. 00:31:36.160 --> 00:31:38.680 It bubbles over. 00:31:38.680 --> 00:31:44.080 It's meant to be visible and it's meant to be seen. 00:31:44.080 --> 00:31:49.040 And if you're not a Christian this evening, and I don't say this just as an afterthought 00:31:49.040 --> 00:31:53.640 at the end of the sermon, because I hope that everything above has been a challenge, everything 00:31:53.640 --> 00:31:57.240 that we've looked at in the last 20 minutes has been a challenge. 00:31:57.240 --> 00:32:01.160 But do you know that love? 00:32:01.160 --> 00:32:08.200 We all have natural love in our hearts, but this is a different love. 00:32:08.200 --> 00:32:14.960 It's reordering the love in our heart, and it's putting God first in His rightful place. 00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:21.240 And then with that motivation loving one another, huge challenge for us. 00:32:21.240 --> 00:32:23.040 But brilliant, isn't it? 00:32:23.040 --> 00:32:28.680 Because God is with us in that, and He's patient, and He's long-suffering, and we're 00:32:28.680 --> 00:32:29.680 here. 00:32:29.680 --> 00:32:30.680 We're here. 00:32:30.680 --> 00:32:31.680 We're here to pray. 00:32:31.680 --> 00:32:37.920 Father God, help us to see the value and the importance of these amazing one another's 00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:38.920 in Scripture. 00:32:38.920 --> 00:32:42.320 And we overlook them, or we maybe take them for granted. 00:32:42.320 --> 00:32:46.039 They're so full of rich truth for us. 00:32:46.039 --> 00:32:52.240 And help us not to be frustrated or judgmental or looking at our own weakness and inabilities. 00:32:52.240 --> 00:33:00.680 And we just rest in You and just rejoice that this is such a brilliant way to live. 00:33:00.680 --> 00:33:04.519 This is an amazing way because we were created to live this way. 00:33:04.519 --> 00:33:07.279 You've created us this way to love You and to love one another. 00:33:07.279 --> 00:33:08.880 And it's such a challenge. 00:33:08.880 --> 00:33:14.960 It reminds us of the depth so much of the sin that a selfishness that reacts against 00:33:14.960 --> 00:33:21.880 that and wants us to just love myself, love me. 00:33:21.880 --> 00:33:25.000 Lord forgive me for not exempling that better. 00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:32.600 It's a leader, and in the church here over many years, always that regret that each of 00:33:32.600 --> 00:33:36.520 us have in our lives, but may not paralyze us. 00:33:36.520 --> 00:33:40.080 You give us wisdom in the right time in the right way, and may it be that we find more 00:33:40.080 --> 00:33:49.880 and more the ability to renew, to review our lives and to renew them in Christ and to 00:33:49.880 --> 00:33:51.480 learn of Your love more and more. 00:33:51.480 --> 00:33:52.480 We ask it in Jesus' name. 00:33:52.480 --> 00:34:21.480 Amen.