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Preacher: Pastor David Ball
Scripture: John 13:31-35
Love is the defining mark of true discipleship. Jesus declared that the world will know His followers by their love for one another, a standard elevated in the new covenant to reflect His sacrificial, selfless, and unconditional love for us, demonstrated on the cross. Unlike the Old Testament’s call to love others as ourselves, Jesus commands us to love as He loves, a high and costly calling that runs counter to our transactional, self-centered instincts. While we cannot love ideally, the Holy Spirit empowers us to receive and reflect Christ’s love, shining as a witness through humility and repentance when we fall short, transforming the world as we reaffirm our commitment to this life of discipleship.
Transcript
What’s love got to do with it it’s got everything to do with it today yeah i saw a video of Tina Turner who’s you know what in her probably mid70s now at least did she die out of respect for Tina Turner i won’t say anything more about her but what’s love got to do with it uh it’s got everything to do it especially today because love as we see in our gospel uh in our gospel uh reading this morning is is the mark of true disciplehip uh it’s what it’s what it’s the way that the world knows it’s that we’re disciples of Jesus he said by the way that you have love for one another uh it’s the standard for what it means to follow Jesus it’s the standard of him to have love for one another uh this morning is we’re celebrating at the 11:15 uh a baptism and so this is the life of disciplehip that we’re welcoming uh Hunter Sanford uh into but it’s also is in solidarity with them we’re also going to do a reaffirmation of our baptismal vows and so it stands as a reminder to us as well of what disciplehip looks like that we’ve been called into a life of having love for one another for by this Jesus said “All people will know that you are my disciples.” Jesus also said that this is a new commandment it’s a new commandment that I give to you because uh to but if we think about it love isn’t really a new commandment is it not really love for love for others is rooted in the Old Testament uh you can see it there you can see it in the law of God himself in Leviticus 19:18 love your neighbor as yourself it’s part of God’s law so how is it new what makes this this command new well what makes it new is that Jesus takes the what what was spoken in the Old Testament and he elevates it and and the new covenant that he’s making because of the truth of the gospel uh whereas the standard for loving one another that we see in the old covenant was that golden rule right do as to others as as you would have them do unto you i can still remember it in elementary school uh and in that sense love one another love as you would uh as you love yourself so selflove was therefore the standard self love at least was the the measurement for how you were to treat other others uh in your life but in this commandment that Jesus gives it’s new and that the standard is changed the standard is changed no longer is it yourself jesus said “Just as I have loved you you also are to love one another.” So the standard for loving other people under the gospel in this new covenant is Jesus and it’s the way that he loves us can you see how much this elevates the nature of love and the call and the commandment that he’s making for us to to love one another uh you know because Jesus is now making it in no way subjective the way that we’re called to love one another isn’t subjective there’s no way to rationalize it away or to justify uh the way that we treat one another saying “Well that’s the way that I love myself.” You can’t do that anymore we now have the standard and the standard is not us it’s not us it’s Jesus and it’s the way that he loves us so we got to start there right we need to start there with the way that Jesus loved us how has Jesus loved us you know and I’m sure if we sat here and talked about it and we did a little uh mind mapping and stuff we could uh we could list lots of ways in which Jesus has loved us uh but you know I think they fall into three major categories in the way that Jesus loves us and the first one is this Jesus loves us sacrificially he loves us sacrificially sacrificial love is a love that willingly gives up something for the benefit of another person for their well-being and Jesus said in John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this that someone lay down his life for his friends.” Jesus willingly gave up his life on the cross for our salvation jesus’s standard of love it’s sacrificial it’s giving up something second category is that Jesus’s love loved us selflessly now on the surface when you talk about sacrificially and and selflessly they can kind of sound like the same thing right uh kind of it can be kind of tricky to differentiate the two but they are slight slightly different selflove or selfless love is a love that prioritizes the well-being of another another person without any expectation of personal gain recognition or reciprocation that you’re going to get it back it’s a love that’s driven out of pure selfless care for another person free of ego free of any kind of ulterior motives and Jesus demonstrates this selfless love uh for us over and over again in in the gospels we see it over and over again uh he demonstrates it when he says “The son of man came not to be served but to serve.” That’s Jesus calling demonstrating selfless love in the act of washing his disciples feet jesus in humility got nothing in return he gave freely of himself which brings us to the third category of g the way Jesus loved us and that is unconditionally unconditionally unconditional love is a love which is given freely and completely without conditions without expectations without requirements you know it’s where it began right john 3:16 God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life what was the state of the world when God sent his son into it were people better were they more deserving were they less sinful than we are no but God in his love all the same sent Jesus and in Romans 5:8 Paul proclaimed “But God showed his love for us in this while we were still sinners Christ died for us not when we were good enough not when we deserved it most not when we had earned the right.” In fact quite the opposite because in Romans 5:10 it says “For while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.” So Jesus loved us even when we were his enemies that’s what unconditional love of Jesus looks like friends this is the standard the love of Jesus is sacrificial it’s selfless and it’s unconditional and this is the love that makes a true disciple of Jesus that marks the true disciple of Jesus and it is a high calling there’s no other way around it it’s a high calling jesus took the the 10-foot goal that was the law and the call to love and he made it infinitely high and and out of reach in this life really completely you know in its fullness jesus said “It is by this standard of love that people will know that you’re my disciples.” So it’s by it’s your witness in the world around you people will know that you’re my disciples by the way you have love for one another because people uh because we when we love in this way that Jesus called us to love we’re a reflection of who he is in a world that is so confused and so twisted up about love the world and most of the time that includes us is confused and all twisted up about this idea of love in fact for most of us whether we fall into it just because of our own sinful nature or just by default but the way the world views love and the way that we most often treat it with the people in our lives is that it’s something like a transaction you know it’s transactional uh one of one of our our core expectations of love is that it’s going to going to provide some kind of benefit to ourselves now we may say it’s a mutual benefit right uh but my benefit nonetheless uh is usually uh the first thing that that’s on my heart and on my mind when I’m when I choose to to love somebody uh each party that enters into love expects to gain something from it some benefit maybe it’s emotional support maybe it’s a a show social status maybe it’s uh material resources or just some kind of personal validation from the the relationship and not all of that’s bad but what it results in is when we don’t feel as though we’re getting anything out of the relationship or at least when we don’t feel like we’re getting what is due to us then we simply end the
transaction in other words we love conditionally don’t we if the other person’s not living up to our expectations of the bargain our love is withdrawn you know if a friend or our partner doesn’t reciprocate reciprocate the way that we want them to and the way that we desire them to we just stop investing in them altogether we love by constantly either consciously or or subconsciously weighing the cost we weigh the cost of our time of our effort of our emotional and physical labor that we’re willing to to put into it against the benefits that we’re receiving from it that’s how we process love that’s how the world processes love in other words we love by the standard of ourselves it’s what the law says to our hearts by the way you need to be getting something out of
this we love by the standards of ourselves and what we receive out of the deal but as disciples of Jesus we’re called to love not by our own standard but by the standard of his love for us and the standard of Jesus love is ultimately the cross itself that’s the symbol of our love jesus love for us cost him his life and when we are disciples of Christ it cost us our own lives that’s what it calls us to luke 9:23 Jesus said “If anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me it costs us our lives by calling us to love one another the way that he has loved us it calls us to sacrifice to give up our personal desires our comfort even our own safety for the benefit of others it calls us selflessly to to prioritize the well-being of other people without expectation of personal gain or whether they’re going to reciprocate that love back to us it calls us in unconditionally to love others despite their rebellion despite their failure despite the mistakes they’ve made despite illness personal
struggles without the demand to be better regardless of their sin or their worthiness even as that Jesus taught us even if they’re our enemies we’re called to love this is hard this is a hard call jesus’s new commandment is high and it’s
costly and it’s one that runs counter to every instinct in our being our sinful our fleshy natures just scream out against this in every way it runs counter to the way the world views love when we actually love this way it makes us vulnerable it can make us look weak we can be taken advantage of at times it can be even discouraging it opens our lives up to the possibility of discouragement but when we do love this way when we’re able to love this way it shines into the darkness of this world and it points people to the love of Jesus for them that’s what Jesus was saying and of course we cannot begin to do this on our own there’s no way only the work of the Holy Spirit can working in us can transform us and give us the strength and the ability to do it in this life we’ll we’ll never love this way perfectly but notice one last thing that Jesus said in this he says “By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.” Notice that the way he said that it was a little different wasn’t it if you have love for one another not if you love one another perfectly the witness is not found in our ability to love in this way it’s in our possession of it ourselves if we have love for one another the only way to gain possession of Jesus’s uh call to love is to receive his love for us ourselves we have to receive it we have to receive his sacrificial love for for us that he willingly gave his life for us because he loves us more than he loves his own life do you know you’re loved that way that he loves you more than he loves his own life we have to receive his selfless love for us that Jesus came to serve us without any expectation of personal gain he loves us without any desire for personal recognition or to better himself in any way we can’t add to Jesus and make him
better that’s not why he loves us he loves us selflessly he didn’t have to come into this world at all he had it all in perfection before he even came but without any regard for himself he came to save you that’s love receive his unconditional love for you that while you were still a sinner Christ died for you and while we are still sinners he continues to love us and to call us always back to himself that’s where it begins we cannot begin to love and the way as disciples we’ve been called to love unless we first have received it unless we first possess it receive his love for you take possession of it that his sacrificial his selfless and his unconditional love may pour out of you into the lives of the people that he brings into your life
now this I also recognize that this can be discouraging it can even feel defeating when we look at this high calling as something we can’t ever possibly do and we can feel constantly beat up that we’re just not good enough and that’s why we have to always go back to the love that we possess jesus’s sacrificial love his selfless love and his unconditional love is our identity that’s who we are we can’t do it perfectly in this world we can’t but you know how we can shine brighter than ever with the love of Christ for others it’s not it’s not in trying to be perfect it’s not in trying to always uh thinking that we always have got this and that we love perfectly it’s in our humility that the love of Christ in our identity produces in us that allows us to go to other people in repentance that allows us in humility to to recognize when we’re wrong when it allows us to be honest and say you know what I’m I’m called to love in this way and I have not done it i have fallen short this has been about me this has been about me i can’t tell you how healing that is to a relationship whether it’s a marriage a friendship whether it’s with your your children or your your siblings whether it’s with your your your cousins whatever it may be there’s nothing more powerful than being able to come before someone in repentance because that costs us everything that’s a reflection of Christ’s love for us working its way out none of us can perfectly love we can’t we all fall short but when we come to others in humility and in repentance it’s the evidence of the light of the gospel and of Christ’s love shining through us into the darkness of the world that’s why Jesus said “It’s by this kind of love that they will know that you’re my disciples because you’re different.” How many people go and repent to one another in the world they don’t at least not fully there’s usually a condition to it right or a conjunction a but yeah i’m sorry but it wasn’t really my fault you know I’m sorry but if you hadn’t done that to me uh if you hadn’t provoked me by raising your voice then I would not have possibly uh reacted to you in that way right but I’m sorry that’s not repentance repentance is saying “No I f I fell short.” The call to love is higher it’s higher than that it is sacrificial it’s selfless and it’s unconditional and I’ve sinned against God and I’ve sinned against you that’s the love of God working its way out in power that transforms the world that shines as a light for the gospel this is the life of disciplehip that we’re called to all of us as followers of Christ this is the the life that we’re reaffirming today and and our reaffirmation of our baptismal vows we’re recommitting our lives to loving the way that Christ has loved for us we’re receiving his love for us again in a new and rejoicing in it and we’re committing our lives once again to live into what he’s called us to in this new covenant and of course asking for his grace and mercy and help that we might be able to live it out and when we can’t to repent and be humble with one another friends let the world know that we are Jesus’s disciples not by the way that we perfectly love each other but by the way we have love for one another rooted and established in the love of Christ for us and sharing that love with others in humility and in repentance amen amen
