04-24-16 - JOHN 13:31-38

PASTOR DAN’S SERMON
TURNING POINT WESLEYAN CHURCH

Today, we are going to go back a bit within the Bible, to the time right before Jesus was betrayed. They were still sitting, enjoying their time together at the Last Supper.

Our Scripture for today is John 13:31-38 however, I want to back and begin reading at verse 26 so we can get a better understanding at what is going on.

21 Now Jesus was deeply troubled, and he exclaimed, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me!”

22 The disciples looked at each other, wondering whom he could mean.

23 The disciple Jesus loved was sitting next to Jesus at the table.

24 Simon Peter motioned to him to ask, “Who’s he talking about?”

25 So that disciple leaned over to Jesus and asked, “Lord, who is it?”

26 Jesus responded, “It is the one to whom I give the bread I dip in the bowl.” And when he had dipped it, he gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot.

27 When Judas had eaten the bread, Satan entered into him. Then Jesus told him, “Hurry and do what you’re going to do.”

28 None of the others at the table knew what Jesus meant.

29 Since Judas was their treasurer, some thought Jesus was telling him to go and pay for the food or to give some money to the poor.

30 So Judas left at once, going out into the night.

Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial.

31 As soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, “The time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory, and God will be glorified because of him.

32 And since God receives glory because of the Son, he will give his own glory to the Son, and he will do so at once.

33 Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can’t come where I am going.

34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.

35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

36 Simon Peter asked, “Lord, where are you going?”

And Jesus replied, “You can’t go with me now, but you will follow me later.”

37 “But why can’t I come now, Lord?” he asked. “I’m ready to die for you.”

38 Jesus answered, “Die for me? I tell you the truth, Peter—before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.

Isn’t Church a funny place sometimes?

Oh, but you must know that by now.

But I always love a good story about funny things that happen in church. Some of them you just couldn’t make up.

There was an article recently about which has a “Women’s League” in it and this group of members was wanting to announce their newest project that they were kicking off within the church.

The president of the Woman’s League came forward to make this announcement on a certain Sunday morning.  

After a brief description, she wanted for the church to recognize the women within the group so she asked them all to come forward.

Now it is worthy to mention that this group of women were by majority well over the age of 55 and the group was acting in a little state of embarrassment as they were reluctant to come forward.

So to help out, the pianist decided to encourage them by playing the children’s chorus titled, “The Lord’s Army.”

If you’re not familiar with the words to “The Lord’s Army,” they go like this:

·        “I may never march in the infantry,

·        Ride in the cavalry,

·        Shoot the artillery . . .”

In the pianist’s mind, he felt that this would be a wonderful marching tune to dramatize the women’s service.

Unfortunately, it seems everyone in the congregation, besides the pianist, was hearing the words in their minds as which comes with the original tune of that same song, “The Old Gray Mare.” Those lyrics goes as follows:

·        She ain’t what she used to be,

·        Ain’t what she used to be,

·        Ain’t what she used to be . . .”

After church, the surprised Women’s League President wanted to question the pianist about his choice in music and when she came over to confront him, and with her enlightening to him of the old Mare lyrics, he choose the only action that was available to him at that time and that was to run out of church using the side exit.  

That was probably a wise move on the pianist at that time.

Funny things happen in churches.

We can’t deny them.

But friends,

·        Did you know that All of Jesus’ Plans for the WORLD are centered within the church?

And Our Lesson from John’s Gospel is Jesus’ message made directed to the Church.

·        It reflects who we are.

·        We are those who follow Jesus.

·        We do not simply believe in Jesus.

·        We do not simply worship Jesus.

If we want to TRULY be the church of Jesus Christ, we must do our best to live our lives following his example and His Teachings as God gives us the grace to do so.

It’s like a group of hikers who decided to climb up the beautiful Blue Mountains in Jamaica.

The beginning is easy and carefree but the closer you get to the top, the more treacherous the path becomes.

You can no longer walk in wide groups but now you have to walk in single file.

Halfway up the mountain, in the pitch of darkness, you hear the leader say, “Now, follow my feet. Do not venture to your right.”

After he said this, he reaches into his pocket, retrieved a stone and asked for silence from the group. He throws the stone off the right side of the trail . . . and you all wait and wait and wait, until finally you hear the sound of the stone reaching the bottom.

From then on there is no question about everyone following close behind their leader. Everyone in the group leans as close to the side of the mountain as you can as you continue going up the rest of the way, trying with all of your being not to venture toward the right.

It was a long and difficult journey following the leader, but when you reach the top, there is nothing but glory.

In the same way, Jesus calls us to follow him.

The path may be treacherous, but, if we stay close to Him, one day we will share in His Glory.

         

As I mentioned earlier, Our Lesson for today takes us back to before Easter.

It is at the Passover time when Jesus and his disciples have gathered for supper.

Now as it is recorded, Satan had already entered Judas’ heart to betray Jesus (John 13:2).

And then in John 13:12-15, we see Jesus standing up from supper and He begins washing the feet of his disciples. All 12 of them.

He then says to them that if He as their Teacher and Lord would wash their feet, they should follow his example and wash one another’s feet.

Jesus then reveals that one of his disciples will betray him.

Notice that Jesus does not identify the individual who will betray him. 

To do so might have jeopardized Judas’ safety.

Certainly if Peter had fully understood what Judas was about to do, Peter would have drawn his sword and took care of the problem just like he did to the servant of the high priest in the garden when Jesus was betrayed (John 18:10).

Throughout this whole experience,

·        Jesus demonstrates Grace and Mercy.

·        No surprise there—Right?

·        Grace and Mercy were what Christ was all about.

Now we know that after Judas had departed, the events leading up to Christ’s death fell into place rather quickly.

The long tension building up toward his death would soon be over.

At this point Christ turns to the remaining disciples and says this:

“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.”

This is interesting, don’t you think?

·        He addresses his disciples as “My little children”

·        These were big, tough men.

·        But he calls them, “My little children . . .”

·        This is a term of love by which Jesus expresses his concern for them.

And then once again he announces that he is going away and they will not be able to find him.

·        This is not the first time he has tried to prepare them for this outcome (check out Matthew 23:29; John 8:21; 12:8).

·        Yes, Soon, they would be on their own.

·        But this separation from Him may have seemed like an eternity but in the scope of things, it was a rather short one.

In time, his disciples would be able to go where He has gone, to that place He has prepared for them (John 14:2).

But first, they must endure a treacherous journey before reaching the summit of the mountain.

Then he speaks these words to them: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Just like the hikers who:

·        Survived the treacherous climb up Blue Mountain

·        By staying close to their leader

·        And following in his steps,

·        The eleven disciples would survive in his absence

·        By obeying his teaching

·        And following his example of love. 

Just as the climbers and the disciples have, we also need to learn a few things about this new teaching by Christ about Love.

First of all, the command to love, in itself, was not a new commandment.

Leviticus 19:18 teaches the principle of loving your neighbor as you love yourself.

·        The disciples already knew they were to do that.

o   BUT - Christ told them to love their enemy.

·        Loving their neighbor as they loved themselves ought to be a piece of cake.

Even the great football coaches talk to their players about loving one another.

And the ones who practice this, truly practice it, so well that it becomes first nature to all of the players, those are the teams which we see moving on to play in the bowl games.

There are a lot of coaches who:

·        Teach good ball strategies

·        And who know good fundamentals of the game

·        And who have plenty of discipline within their team

·        But they still don’t win the games.

Then you have those who put in the third ingredient:

·        If you’re going to play together as a team,

o   You’ve got to care for one another.

o   You’ve got to love each other.

·        Each player has to be thinking about the next guy and saying to himself:

o   If I don’t block my man,

o   Then my teammate can’t do his job.

·        I have to do my job well so that he can do his.

·        The difference between:

o   Being a good team

o   And being a winning team

§  Lies directly with how the players feel about their own teammates.

·        When the players are infused together with that special feeling,

o   you know,

o   You just know that you have a winning team.

Of course, no coach is going to talk to and teach his players about loving their enemies, oh no, not like Jesus did.

But when it comes to a Life with Jesus, it is a different type of game all together.

“Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” That’s an idea nearly 3,000 years old.

            BUT

Here is what is new in our lesson for today.

We are not simply to love other people as we love ourselves.

We are to love them as Christ loves us.

Now this puts us into a totally different type of game.

·        The standard for LOVE has been moved from ourselves to Christ.

·        Christ’s love is perfect and unconditional.

·        He extends it even to loving the “undeserving.”

·        Christian love, like Christ’s love is unconditional and sacrificial.

·        That’s the kind of love we are to have for our neighbor.

Let me give you an example of that kind of love.

In her inspiring book and film, The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom tells the story of her family, a Dutch Christian family, who ended up in a concentration camp for trying to rescue Jews during the Nazi occupation of their country.

Corrie said her family carried a heart for the Jews over three generations.

Her grandfather Wilhelm ten Boon started a weekly prayer group in 1844 in the city of Haarlem, near Amsterdam for the salvation of the Jews. This weekly prayer meeting amazingly continued uninterrupted until 1944, which is when the ten Boon family were sent to a concentration camp for helping Jews flee from the Nazi persecution.

Corrie tells an interesting story about her father Caspar ten Boon. When the Jews were forced to wear the “Star of David,” Casper lined up to receive a star even though he was not Jewish. He wore it because he wanted to identify himself with the people for whom he and his family had been praying for all those years.

He so completely identified with the Jews that he was willing to wear a sign of shame and suffer persecution for the sake of the people he loved. 

He didn’t have to wear the Star but chose to.

Corrie and her sister Betsie followed in the footsteps of their family. And they both suffered mightily because of their concern for their Jewish neighbors. In fact, Corrie’s sister Betsie died in the Nazi concentration camp.

·        That’s not simply loving your neighbor as you love yourself.

·        That’s loving as Christ loved.

·        That’s loving sacrificially.

·        What does this love look like?

·        How do we manifest it?

Jesus tells us how in Luke 6:27-36:

27”But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you.

28 Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.

…..

32 “If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them!

…..

35 “Love your enemies! Do good to them.

….

Continue in verse 35) Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High

This is, indeed, a new kind of love.

It is a love that is usually only manifested by those who have given their lives entirely to Jesus.

And the first place this love should be made manifest is within the body of believers.

Listen again to his words,

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

·        This command is directed to the church.

·        We are to love one another as Christ loved us.

·        This is how the world will know that we follow Christ--because we love one another.

Some of you may be familiar with a singer/songwriter named Ken Medema.

Ken is almost totally blind, but he is a man of great spiritual vision.

Several years ago he wrote a song directed at the church that contains several pointed questions. He writes:

·        “If this is not the place where tears are understood, where can I go to cry?

·        If this is not the place where my spirit can take wing, where do I go to fly?

·        If this is not the place where my questions can be asked, where do I go to seek?

·        If this is not the place where my feelings can be heard, where do I go to speak?

·        If this is not the place where you accept me just as I am, where do I go to be free?

·        If this is not the place where I can try and grow and love, where do I go to be just me?”

What great questions!

The church is intended to be a safe place where we can be ourselves without fear of judgment.

It is intended to be a place where people truly love and accept one another.

There was a pastor who once was talking about Jesus’ teaching about “Loving your enemies.”

This pastor said, “I don’t think I have any enemies  . . . outside of the church.”

And he was not trying to be cute or cleaver.

This may surprise you.

But sometimes church people don’t reflect unconditional, sacrificial love even towards one another.

No wonder people outside the church wonder about the credibility of our witness.

Loving one another as Christ has loved us does not come to us as easy.

Christ does not expect us to do that which is easy but rather, He expects us to do what is right.

Stay close to Christ.

Live as he lived.

Follow the leader.

Follow the way of love.

·        We are to stay close to him and follow in His footsteps.

·        And Jesus was saying one thing in particular: the one place we simply can’t have an enemy is within the church.

·        If we do, we are to do everything within our power to make that enemy a friend.

·        How are we to love?

·        We are to love others as Christ loved us.

·        He who was willing to lay down his life in our behalf.

“A new command I give you,” said Jesus,

“Love one another.

As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

That is why here at Turning Point, we have the phrase for the Church as

 Made New

                        Growing Together in Christ