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Not the Only Thing But The
Most Important Thing John 15:12-27
I
read this quote this past week and I thought that I needed to share it
with you.
"I know that there are people in this world who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that."
Some of you might be able to identify with that. But it does make one
wonder about the concept of consistency. Inconsistency can get you in
trouble…
How consistent is your love?
Does your family see a consistent demonstration at home?
Do your friends really consider you as a friend?
Or is it something less than that, something that is not as consistent,
dependable, or desirable?
It starts with Love
1) When we Love each other, we sacrifice for the other’s benefit. John
15:12-13
12“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved
you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his
life for his friends.
Charles Dickens captured this concept in his book A Tale of Two Cities:
At the end of this classic, set during the French Revolution in 1789,
one good friend is able to sneak himself into the Bastille in Paris and
take the place of his other friend, who had a wife and family. The first
friend, then, sacrificed his life by going to the guillotine in the
other’s place.
Before he was beheaded, he said, “It is a far, far greater thing that I
do, than I have ever done before.”
He redeemed his own life by giving his life for his friend. Laying down
your life, such a great sacrifice is the supreme test of love.
Remember that Jesus, of course, is saying this just as He is about to go
to the cross. He is declaring the power of the immediate act about to
happen. Within hours, the temple soldiers will come to arrest Him in the
garden. He will give His life. He will give everything He has.
Now that “laying down of your life” might not end in physical death, you
see there things that are harder than just dying. We may not be able to
give our whole life, nor might we be called to do so. But we are
responsible to live the principle. If we love, we will give up:
Our will
Our Traditions
The need to be comfortable
The need to be first
You see for some of us in this church we were born here, raised here,
and it would be easier to die here than to sacrifice my traditions, or
the way we have always done things, than to open a Bible and do what the
scriptures teach.
And then some of us were transplanted here and we have the same struggle
as well.
2. We can accomplish this if we will submit to Jesus. John 15:14-15
14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15No longer do I call
you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing;
but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father
I have made known to you.
Submitting to Christ is not a one time thing that happens at our
baptisms. It is not a once and done type of act. We are to continually
obey our Lord. It is how we show Him love.
There was a girl in our of our youth groups who would stay around after
the devo’s and activities and she would vacuum, mop, stack song books,
pick up paper, move chairs, anything that she could do. After about 6
months of her doing this I pulled her aside and told her that I wanted
to thank her for helping me out, by doing all of the peripheral stuff
that had to be done.
She looked at me a little shocked and said, I have never done anything
for you.
Sure you have I said, moping the floors, stacking chairs, that kind of
stuff. She smiled and then this 15 years old girl taught me something,
when she said, “Jeremy loving God is easier than you think, Love is
action, you see something that needs to be done, then do it.”
Love is action! And we don’t have to act and obey Christ as servants. We
do it as His friends. We do it as a part of His inner circle. We do it
because we are close.
When we love each other, we build friendships that last.
While we are called to serve each other, it is so much more than that.
We are to be friends. We are companions. We are to hold nothing back
from each other.
3) When we love each other, we live fruitful lives. John 15:16-17
16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you
should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that
whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17These
things I command you, so that you will love one another.
We have a mission to fulfill. We are to be fruitful. God has called you
out of the world to live a life that makes a difference.
Psychologist Eric Erickson had determined that life has 8 stages in it,
and to be successful in life you must successfully move from one stage
to the other. The last stage is Integrity vs. Despair where you reflect
on the worth of your life and if you deem that you have worth you can
die at rest but if there has been no worth then you die in strife.
The main question that we will all have to ask if God allows us to die
on this earth is can you honestly say that you have made a difference?
Most of us will get to that 8th stage and look for big things but I want
to remind you that a life of difference is not a life that goes out in a
blaze of glory. Going out in a blaze of Glory is easy, a life that makes
a difference is a life that serves God in the mundane things. Living in
such a way that God’s love is observed and understood. And it begins in
how we relate to one another.
A Life if fruitfulness is a life that loves the people God loves.
4) And we will be Hated for our Efforts John 15:18-27
18“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated
you. 19If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own;
but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,
therefore the world hates you. 20Remember the word that I said to you:
‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they
will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep
yours. 21But all these things they will do to you on account of my name,
because they do not know him who sent me. 22If I had not come and spoken
to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no
excuse for their sin. 23Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24If I
had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not
be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my
Father. 25But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled:
‘They hated me without a cause.’ 26“But when the Helper comes, whom I
will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from
the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27And you also will bear
witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.
I think in our closing passage for today Jesus is laying what the normal
Christian life is all about, what it means to remain, to be connected,
the way it’s supposed to be.
Jesus expected for us to have this kind of relationship with God. He
expected us to love each other and be unified with each other, the way
it ought to be. And do you know what happens when we are one with God?
Well how does the world think and treat Jesus Christ?
They hate Him. It’s truly amazing, isn’t it? When we think of how
loving, caring he is, how could you hate someone like that?
In reality they don’t hate that Jesus. You see it’s not the good man
Jesus, or the great teacher Jesus, or the prophet Jesus, those Jesus’
they can handle. It’s the Jesus that reveals their sin, The one whose
teachings shine as a light in their darkness, requires that they give up
control, get off the throne of their lives.
And if they hate Jesus, how do you think they’ll feel about those who
identify themselves with him? Those who live by His standards, live His
truths, reveal Christ in their lives?
They will hate you as well! John writes in another letter 1 John
3:13—Don’t be surprised if the world hates you.
We will be marginalized, ridiculed, dismissed as irrelevant, excluded,
and in some places in this world, imprisoned and executed. If they did
it to Jesus, they will do it to us.
You see we don’t belong to the world anymore. Used to belong there, but
not anymore, now we belong to Him.
Our values, goals, morality, priorities, worldview are undergoing change
as a result of our following Christ.
There are some of us here today that would say; “Well Jeremy I don’t
feel hated. I don’t feel like the world treats me bad.”
If we think about that statement we are really telling more about
ourselves than we realize. Paul writes in Romans 12:2 Do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good
and acceptable and perfect.
Maybe the world doesn’t hate me because I have conformed to the world
and they cannot tell the difference.
Now I want you to understand me here that I am not saying that to be
transformed we have to act like those religious nuts and stand on the
street corner screaming “repent or go to hell!” I don’t believe that’s
being transformed.
But if we are really following Christ, if there is really a difference
in your life and mine then our relationships will change. Our Priorities
will change. Our thoughts will change. And the friends that we used to
have, the people that we used to associate with, will be uncomfortable
around us because our life is reflecting the light of Jesus that reveals
their sin.
APPLICATION:
What kind of community does God want us to be?
Jesus was very definite about this. He wanted a community that was
characterized by love. So, it is an appropriate question to ask… Are we
a community that is characterized by love?
There is no doubt that it is hard for any individual or any community to
sustain this consistently, but it is what we are called to do. We are
never to give up on it. We are to understand the ideal and begin a
never-ending pursuit of it.
And we are to learn to practice its partner…forgiveness. For the longer
we know each other, the more we become aware of each other’s weakness.
We can grow tired of each other. But this is when the power of God’s
community can show itself.
Jesus envisioned a community that accepted one another. Jesus designed a
community that recognizes the uniqueness of the other – including their
talents, spiritual gifts, passion and personality. Jesus created a
community that would serve one another out of love.
We are here for people, each other, and not for ourselves.
If we are determined to be the community God desires, then we will love
each other. We will not be looking for the church to serve me by meeting
my so-called “needs”. No, we will be here for each other.
We will pray for one another.
We will be friends with one another.
We will affirm and encourage one another.
We will choose to love each other.
But let us not be naïve. When we seek to do it right, we will be
attacked. Spiritual warfare is real, and the devil will intervene. He
will find our weak point, like anxiety or fear; twist us, until we give
in to sin.
We must not give in! We are to pray before we speak. We are to think
before we act. We will choose to love.
If we are to be effective as a community, each one must take his/her
responsibility to love one another seriously.
If we are truly to accomplish our mission, WE MUST LOVE EACH OTHER.
If God’s mission is our mission, our relationships with one another will
not be secondary. They will be of primary importance. When we love one
another, it is then God’s love for us can be imagined and understood.
Love one another…learn to love the soul of everyone.
Love one another…do not be afraid of the sacrifice that comes with love,
for within it is the very power of God.
Love one another…for it is true fruit of the Spirit and enables us
fulfill our mission to the world.
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