Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] All right. Good morning, everyone.
[00:00:03] Uh, oh, okay. I have a direct line of sight to my kids. They didn't say good morning, so we have to do it again.
[00:00:14] Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Yes, good morning. Hey. Really, really glad to be here with you all. If I haven't met you before, my name's Tom Nelson.
[00:00:26] I serve as a full time minister at UC Davis with an organization called the Navigators. And we've been serving there for the last. I think this is our 11th year on the campus. So really glad to be here. Thank you to pastors and elders for their confidence in me. Thank you for the invitation. I love getting to do this. I love getting to teach the Word. I love getting to do it up here with you all.
[00:00:49] And before I Forget, kids age 3 to 5, you are welcome to go to children's church at this time.
[00:00:57] For those of you who haven't been with us, we've been in the series in the Gospel of John, the fourth book of the New Testament. And honestly, we've been in the Gospel of John now forever. It's been so long. We have been here for a very long time. And this title of the series we've been going through is that you may believe. This is a phrase from John 20:31. And this is at the end of his gospel where John, kind of making an editorial note, says, hey, these things that I've chosen to write about, these things about the life of Jesus that I am presenting to you in this writing, have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the son of God, the Christ, and that by believing, you may have life, his name. Now we're moving on. We are well into the Gospel at this point, and today we're going to be looking at the next section in John, chapter 13. And I've titled this sermon love one another.
[00:02:04] So before we get to the text, I'm going to pray. So let's bow our heads.
[00:02:13] Father, thank you for your mercy.
[00:02:18] Thank you for your kindness. Thanks for all that you have given us in Christ. I pray now as we gather, as I speak, and as you teach our hearts, Lord, in big and in small ways, your will and your desire, the love and the joy that you have for us would come to bear on our minds and our hearts, and we would leave here changed.
[00:02:49] If there's any part of us that feels reluctant to receive what you have for us today, Lord, would you soften our hearts, Teach us something new, Help us to see you more clearly, because you alone are worth all of the glory, all of the praise, all of the esteem, help us to see it and to believe it. Today we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Okay, what are we doing here?
[00:03:21] Well, nothing fancy, honestly. We're going to keep going through the text and make some observations along the way. And hopefully, as I prayed, by God's grace, we will walk away with something practical that will really give shape to who we are as individuals and even give shape to our community. And you know what? Since you laughed at my forever joke and making my kids say it again, I'm just going to give you the first bullet point right away.
[00:03:49] This is a freebie. If you didn't get a bulletin, there probably are some more in the lobby in the back. We'll be walking through this pretty simple outline today.
[00:03:58] And just so you know, on the top it says, we're going to verse 35. We're actually going to go to the end of the chapter. We're going to go to verse 38 and set up chapter 14 starting next week. Okay, first point.
[00:04:12] The beginning of the end. Okay, the beginning of the end. We're going to be looking at the first couple verses in our text for today. But, you know, throughout the story of Jesus, there is this growing sense of anticipation that, like, something's coming.
[00:04:28] Jesus hints at this over and over again. In fact, if you were to go back to John chapter two, the miracle at the wedding of Cana, it says this. On the third day, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. And both Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, they have no wine. And Jesus said to her, woman, what does that have to do with us? My hour has not yet come. Okay, here we have one of those indicators that there is something coming and we are not quite there yet. If you were to fast forward five chapters, the disciples and Jesus are talking about going to Jerusalem in John chapter seven to celebrate the feast of tabernacles or booths, Sukkot, right? The ingathering, celebrating the harvest.
[00:05:19] And Jesus is talking with his disciples and says, Jesus said to them, john, seven, six, eight, my time is not yet here.
[00:05:27] But your time is always opportune. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its deeds are evil. Go up to the feast yourselves. I do not go up to this feast because my time has not yet fully come. Again, early on in John's Gospel, there's this sense that there's an indication, a hint that Something is coming, but we're not quite there yet. In Luke's Gospel, we read about the transfiguration of Jesus. What a scene. What an amazing scene. And it says that Jesus is transfigured before three of his disciples, Peter, James and John. And it says Moses and Elijah are there. Oh, incredible. Not going to get into it, but this is what it Sundays. And behold, two men were talking with him, Jesus. And they were Moses and Elijah, who, appearing in glory, were speaking of his departure, which Jesus, he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Again, another indicator in the text. There is something that is coming. It's going to happen at Jerusalem. Jesus time has not yet come.
[00:06:30] There's this growing sense throughout Jesus ministry that something's coming, something critical, something big.
[00:06:38] And whatever is on the other end of these suggestions, these clues, these hints that Jesus has made with increasing frequency throughout his ministry.
[00:06:47] John's task as the writer is to make sure we don't somehow miss it.
[00:06:55] And John increases the anticipation with even how he structures his gospel, right. He uses about 60% of his gospel to talk about three years of Jesus life, ministry, travel, miracles, teaching. And then we get to John 12, the triumphal entry where Jesus and his disciples enter Jerusalem for that final passover. And it's like John as a rider slams on the brakes.
[00:07:21] And he spends the next 40% of his text to focus primarily on the teaching and events of one week, three or so years, 60%, one week, 40%.
[00:07:40] It's almost as if John is telling us, slow down, open your eyes, open your ears. If you have the courage, maybe even a little bit, open your heart, pay attention. You cannot afford to miss this.
[00:08:02] And so we all lean in.
[00:08:05] Something awful and beautiful is about to happen.
[00:08:13] Last week we ended at John 13:30, right. Judas exits stage left, set on a trajectory to betray Jesus for 30 shekels of silver.
[00:08:30] And that betrayal will ultimately lead to the death of Jesus on the cross. And so now we arrive at today's text. Let's just read it. John 13:31, 32.
[00:08:43] Therefore, when he, Judas had gone out, Jesus said, now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
[00:08:54] If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him immediately.
[00:09:06] What?
[00:09:08] You might read that and think, what is happening? That is a lot of words. What is actually being said? It's clunky, it's unwieldy, it's a little bit hard to read. And we'll talk about why in Just moment. But in light of what I just shared about this anticipation, this buildup throughout John's Gospel of my time is not yet come. My time is not yet come. Talking about the things that are going to be accomplished at Jerusalem with Elijah and Moses, there is a word in verse 31 that should absolutely grab our attention. You know what it is?
[00:09:41] Now, now, wait a second.
[00:09:45] We're not talking about my time has not yet come. He's saying now.
[00:09:50] Something is happening.
[00:09:53] The wheels are set in motion in so many ways. We've kind of entered the end game.
[00:10:00] Now, as I mentioned, if these verses feel a little bit clunky, a little bit hard to read, there's a reason for that. And English Bible translators have struggled to render these verses because of kind of a confusing use of tenses that Jesus employs here. In these two verses, we see the word glorified multiple times. And in verse 31, glorified shows up in what's called the erist tense. We don't really have that tense in English. For us, just think of it as the past tense. It was a tense to describe something that had happened and was completed, a singular event in the past.
[00:10:41] Okay, but how do we render that when Jesus also says, now, now, something has already happened in the past.
[00:10:52] Another way to translate this might be presently, the Son of man, Jesus has already been glorified.
[00:11:00] He is, of course, saying this the night before he's crucified.
[00:11:07] You understand now why English translators struggle to make this readable for us.
[00:11:14] The use of this awkward construction is Jesus way of saying that the outcome of the events that we're now on is certain, as if the result is already fixed, as if what he intended to do was as good as accomplished. Okay, but what does it mean? What do these verses mean?
[00:11:40] Well, over and over, throughout Jesus own teaching about himself and what the New Testament writers, the epistles, would talk about Jesus in the future.
[00:11:52] We understand that Jesus and God were one.
[00:11:55] Okay, Jesus himself said in the first chapter of John, chapter one, verse 18, he says that no one's seen God, but the Son has made him known.
[00:12:07] Right? Paul picks up this thread in Colossians 1, 1:19, says that all the fullness God was pleased for all the fullness of himself to dwell in Jesus.
[00:12:17] The very Next chapter, John 2. 9, says that in Jesus all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.
[00:12:25] Hebrews 1, the author of Hebrews writes verse 3, and he is the radiance of God's glory. Jesus is the exact representation of his nature.
[00:12:35] In fact, in the very next chapter, John 14, Jesus says to his disciples in the same upper room, the same conversation, he says to Philip, who's asking questions, hey, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
[00:12:52] One of the things Jesus is trying to communicate in these opening verses is that the eternal praise and honor, the esteem given to Jesus through what he's going to do on the cross, this event that all of human history has led up to, and subsequently looks back on any esteem given to Jesus because what he was going to do was not his alone, but the Father's as well.
[00:13:23] Conversely, any value or worth ascribed to the Father is also appropriately conferred upon the Son.
[00:13:35] And in verse 32 there is a sense of a future tense. And verse 32 has been understood by many commentators, many Bible scholars, to indicate the future glory of the Father and the Son that would be displayed not in Jesus imminent crucifixion, but in the resurrection that would follow. Okay, believe me, if all of this is confusing for us now, having the scriptures being able to look back on Jesus words through the lens of the resurrection, through the lens of the crucifixion, how confused do you think the disciples were hearing all this?
[00:14:10] And Jesus wasn't done yet.
[00:14:13] Your next bullet point says this, a confusing statement.
[00:14:18] Okay, now you might be thinking, I thought we just had the confusing statement. No, Jesus, he's just warming up, he's just getting started. Look what he says immediately after the disciples heads are probably still spinning. Glorified Father, future past tense. Now Jesus says, little children, I am with you. A little while longer, you will seek me. And as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come.
[00:14:56] Where I am going, you cannot come.
[00:15:04] This from the guy who a few years earlier said to some men in their early 20s and teenage boys, follow me.
[00:15:12] And led them on arguably the longest game of follow the leader in recorded history.
[00:15:18] And now he's bringing where I'm going, you cannot come.
[00:15:25] I imagine the disciples still reeling over the confusion of what Jesus has just said, is now thinking, wait a second. When you said follow me, we left everything.
[00:15:37] Our whole livelihood and identity has been bound up in being with you. And as our rabbi and teacher becoming like you, can you imagine the sense of disorientation, of frustration, of angst, of confusion that these disciples are hearing that after three years, now their rabbi, the one who they followed closely, the one who people probably said to them, may the dust of your rabbi be upon you as a common first century blessing to a Disciple.
[00:16:08] Now that rabbi is saying, where I'm going, you can't come.
[00:16:16] And let's be clear. I think Jesus understood this was going to be hard for them.
[00:16:23] Jesus is not indifferent to our confusion.
[00:16:26] He's not surprised or undone by our questions.
[00:16:30] What a kind God that we serve.
[00:16:33] And I think as Jesus understood how his disciples were probably receiving this, he addresses them as little children.
[00:16:42] The Greek is techneia. It's a nursery term. It's an affectionate, warm, caring term. And this is the only time Jesus ever refers to his disciples with technia.
[00:16:55] I think there's a tenderness and a care.
[00:16:58] He is. As he's saying these hard things, he's identifying with them.
[00:17:05] Little children, I am with you a little while longer. You will seek me. And as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come.
[00:17:18] One last little note. I find this funny because he has that little addendum, as I said to the Jews, I've said this before.
[00:17:25] And he does. You actually go back in our bibles to John 7:34, that same feast, the Feast of Booths, which probably happened six or months or more earlier than the Passover. Passover, right. Happens in the spring. Sukkot was in the fall.
[00:17:43] As if the disciples are going to remember.
[00:17:46] Remember that thing I said to people who. I wasn't addressing you six months ago. Well, now I'm saying it to you. Oh, yeah, I remember that. They don't remember that. Okay, interesting little add in there.
[00:17:58] There's confusion. Jesus identifies with his disciples in their confusion.
[00:18:05] And then he kind of, as a total non sequitur, talks about loving one another in verses 34 and 35.
[00:18:12] I don't know if Peter didn't hear or not. We're actually going to skip over those verses and come back.
[00:18:17] If Peter did happen to hear what Jesus said in verses 34 and 35, it seemed to weigh very little in his mind because in verse 36, he starts responding to what was said in verse 33.
[00:18:29] So we're still in a confusing statement, point number two. But we're going to skip ahead now to verse 36. We're going to read 36, 38.
[00:18:37] Simon Peter said to him, lord, where are you going?
[00:18:43] Jesus answered, where I go, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later. Peter said to him, lord, why can I not follow you right now? I will lay down my life for you.
[00:18:56] Jesus answered, will you lay down your life for me? Truly? Truly. I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny Me three times.
[00:19:06] Okay.
[00:19:09] The disciples are confused. Jesus says he's going somewhere and they can't come. And then of course Peter raises hands, says wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I have questions. Okay. And let's be honest, it wasn't just Peter. I mean this is classic Peter. But like a couple verses later, Thomas, he starts asking questions. And a couple later verses after that, Philip indicates that he's confused about things everyone's getting in. Three named disciples are confused about what's happening in this conversation.
[00:19:39] And here's the thing, the disciples confusion is understandable because it sounds like Jesus is speaking of a physical place, a location. And for whatever reason the disciples are unable or unwelcome to go there.
[00:19:56] And yes, he is speaking about a place, but that's for next week's sermon.
[00:20:05] In another way, however, Jesus is, he's describing not a question of geography or location, but of experience.
[00:20:18] Jesus is not simply saying that he's making a trip somewhere and Peter is simply not invited. Jesus is saying he's going to do something that Peter simply cannot do.
[00:20:29] Jesus is saying he's going to the cross.
[00:20:34] Where Jesus is going is the grave.
[00:20:38] And eventually Peter and the other disciples listening in and all of us as well will go there too.
[00:20:44] But they didn't get it.
[00:20:46] They couldn't see it. And honestly if we were in their shoes, we wouldn't have either.
[00:20:52] We would have had a lot questions.
[00:20:56] They couldn't fathom that their leader, their rabbi, their teacher.
[00:21:05] With increasing clarity they might even say the Messiah or their God, God in the flesh had come.
[00:21:14] And he wasn't going to save the world through might or through power.
[00:21:19] He was going to save the world, pay the punishment for human sin by dying, by giving up his own perfect sinless life to be a sacrifice for a thoroughly and completely sinful people.
[00:21:38] For us, for me.
[00:21:44] They couldn't see it. They couldn't get it.
[00:21:48] And in verse 37 and 38 we see a classic Peter, zealous, impulsive, over response.
[00:21:57] Look what it says. Peter said to him, lord, why can I not follow you right now? I will lay down my life for you.
[00:22:06] And Jesus answered, will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny me. Three again. You know Les preached on Jesus washing the disciples feet a couple weeks ago. And remember when Jesus says to Peter, hey, if I don't wash you, you have no part with me.
[00:22:27] And then Peter and again a classic knee jerk reversal says oh if that's the case, then Wash my hands and my head.
[00:22:35] Wash all of here. Again, Peter said to him, lord, why can I not follow you? He says, hey, not only will I follow you, I'm going to go even further. I'm going to lay down my life for you. This is classic. Ready, shoot, aim. Peter and Jesus, I think, still commiserating and understanding what might be going on in Peter's mind and Peter's heart in verse 38 really gives the most sobering reversal of Peter's zeal.
[00:23:10] And I think as we read verse 38, let's not assume that Jesus took any pleasure in correcting Peter here and letting Peter know what was actually in his heart and how that was going to be manifested in the coming hours.
[00:23:27] I imagine Jesus himself was already heartbroken over Judas departure, over the loss of a friend who had given himself to a desire for money or power or riches.
[00:23:42] And so he tells Peter, you know what? You two are going to betray me.
[00:23:51] And a rooster will not crow until you yourself deny me three times. Will they come true? Stay tuned. It's coming up in a couple chapters. Okay, where have we been?
[00:24:04] We're in the end game, right? Judas has left. The wheels are set in motion.
[00:24:09] For all of the anticipation, the buildup of something that's coming at Jerusalem, Jesus says, now we are here. Things are set in motion. The course is set.
[00:24:20] The disciples didn't understand those words. Honestly, there's ways in which we still don't understand the fullness of those words.
[00:24:27] Then we move on to point two. There's a confusing statement about Jesus going somewhere. The disciples don't get it. Peter makes a big claim. Jesus says, actually this is more true of who you are and what's going to happen.
[00:24:40] The beginning of the end, followed by a confusing statement.
[00:24:45] And let's lean in, because this is where things start to take shape. Third point, a clear command.
[00:24:55] Everything so far has been a little bit cryptic, a little bit hard for both the disciples and for us to really grab onto.
[00:25:05] These last two verses are not.
[00:25:09] I told you we'd come back to this. John 13, 34 and 35. This is what Jesus says to those disciples in the midst of their confusion.
[00:25:17] A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
[00:25:27] By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
[00:25:36] Probably familiar, certainly the most familiar verses in this section of text and for all of us as students of the Scripture, kind of a great biblical interpretive principle. A Hermeneutic principle for us to read when we're reading commands in the New Testament is to start by asking, hey, is what I'm reading here a command that is descriptive or is it prescriptive? Is what I'm reading a specific command to a certain people at a certain place in a certain time, contextually bound time, bound for this audience in this one place, this one location, or, or not descriptive, but is it prescriptive? Is this something for all believers everywhere, for all time, to pay attention to, to be obedient, to. To be attentive to? Which one do you think it is? Do you think this is descriptive or do you think it's prescriptive?
[00:26:37] My kids didn't say anything. Again, okay, is it descriptive or is it prescriptive? Is this prescriptive? How do we know this? Well, because Jesus himself repeats it over and over. Even in a couple chapters later in John 17 as he's praying, he's talking about this same expression of love being true for all believers who might believe through the disciples message. It also gets repeated in various form by Paul and other Epistle writers, reinforcing what Jesus says here in John 13:34 and 35. This is a prescriptive command, which means for us, we are in view that we are under the obligation of what Jesus is saying here on the night before he's crucified.
[00:27:24] Now he describes this commandment as a new commandment. And you might be thinking, how is it new?
[00:27:31] It's not like God didn't talk about love before. And all of a sudden Jesus pulls out this L word in the upper room, like over and over, love was a command. Love was in view. Jesus even quotes Leviticus 19:18 as the second greatest commandment, Love your neighbor as yourself.
[00:27:50] So what does it mean now that Jesus says, a new commandment I give to you?
[00:27:59] It wasn't new in that it was previously unknown.
[00:28:03] It was new in that Jesus was telling them not just to love because it was a command and a reflection of God's desire for people. They've known that since childhood. They've had it memorized.
[00:28:16] But what he was saying is that what he will soon do is to be the model, the standard, the guide by which they are to love one another because he's about to do something that they are now going to look back through to remember this command when he says, you are to love one another as I have loved you. This is what's going to be on their mind, what he's about to do, what he's about to accomplish at Jerusalem on the following morning.
[00:28:48] And so when it says, as, even as I have loved you, you are to love one another for us, since we are under this command, it forces us to ask the question, well, how has he loved us?
[00:29:03] How has he loved them?
[00:29:06] Well, as we said earlier, he gave everything.
[00:29:10] He didn't just little piece out his grace. He gave everything for us. And as Paul writes in Ephesians 1, he says that we are now the recipients of every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
[00:29:24] What he gave, he gave in full. You don't become a Christian and just sort of like bit by bit, mature and get more of God.
[00:29:33] He says, I gave it to you completely.
[00:29:40] And John, he continues this a couple chapters later. I always feel anxious about using verses from later in John when I'm preaching up here, but it's just too good to pass up. So John 15, 12, 13 again, same evening, Jesus says, this is my commandment that you love one another. This sounds familiar. Just as I have loved you, Greater love has no one than this.
[00:30:04] That one lay down his life for his friends.
[00:30:08] Okay, this again is a reminder of how Jesus has loved us. He says, greater love has no one than this. That one lay down his life for his friends. A little bit later, John, writing to various Christian communities who were trying to be committed to the following the teachings of Jesus, says in 1 John 3:16, we know love by this, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
[00:30:34] John continues developing the idea as he's writing to these communities, showing them that Jesus, in what he was about to do on the cross, gave us a model and a pattern for us to follow when it comes to loving our neighbor.
[00:30:54] So we return to John 13:34 and 35, and I want to look at verse 35.
[00:31:03] If you live in that reality, which is to say, if you take Jesus death, a gift of love where he fully gave himself for the sake of others, he says, by this, by this distinguishing act, all men will know you are my disciples. If you have love for one another by living in this reality in a sort of selfless, unselfconscious way, giving yourself fully for the sake of those around you, that will be what people see.
[00:31:43] That will be the distinguishing mark that you belong to him.
[00:31:48] The distinguishing mark is not our biblical knowledge.
[00:31:54] It's not the exercise of our spiritual gifts. It's also not our willingness to gather for an hour and a half on a Sunday morning.
[00:32:02] It's not our political affiliation. It's not our bumper stickers. It's not the inspirational quotes and images we might post on social media.
[00:32:12] The greatest indicator that we belong to him is our love for one another, patterned after what Jesus did on the cross.
[00:32:21] And this is worth saying right here.
[00:32:25] We know this. I'm not bringing anything new to the table right now. Like if you've been around here for any length of time, this is not new information for most of us. And that points to the fact that probably what a lot of us don't need is more biblical education.
[00:32:45] We are more educated than probably 99.9% of Christians in world history.
[00:32:52] We have unlimited access to the scriptures, to sermons, to podcasts, physical and digital material.
[00:33:02] What many of us need is not more biblical education.
[00:33:06] What we need is more biblical experience.
[00:33:10] What we need is to finally learn to act on and live out all those years of stored away, stockpiled, dormant information which we have taken in for years.
[00:33:26] What we need is biblical experience.
[00:33:29] However, I'm not sure that if we end here and say, well, the application go love one another. I'm just not sure it's going to take root.
[00:33:41] We might try, but the reality is for us to just will ourselves to love someone else is hard. We might experience some fruit, but in the long run, I'm not sure we'll do it consistently.
[00:33:53] The question will be, okay, yeah, but how?
[00:33:57] How do I start loving someone else? Because if we're honest, which can be hard, we love ourselves too much.
[00:34:07] When it comes down to it, we read Paul's words in Philippians 2, 3 that we would consider other needs before ourselves. We say, uh, yeah, but when push comes to shove, I know who I gravitate towards. I know whose needs and preferences my hope is are fulfilled. My own.
[00:34:29] This is going to be very hard to do, to really pattern our life and our love after what Jesus did on the cross if we ourselves are not experiencing love from somewhere else.
[00:34:41] Throughout the New Testament, we see the writers talking about it being almost impossible to love one another if you yourself are not experiencing love. An experience of God's Grace Famously, John again wrote in 1 John 4:19, we love because he what?
[00:35:02] Yeah, he first loved us. There's an order to this. Our ability to walk into and express love is tethered completely to this prerequisite idea that we have experienced love from him. In Titus 2, Titus writes, I think in verse 11 and 12 for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desire to live uprightly, righteously, godly in the present age? Well, what is it that allows us to do that? Well, the verse starts by saying it's the grace of God to understand the grace of God is the thing that even allows us to do this thing.
[00:35:43] But the thing doesn't come first. It's an understanding of his grace that will empower and enable us to actually go out and love someone else. If you're not experiencing the love of God, if what I'm talking about is Jesus dying on the cross is just foreign to you, what follows loving one another is going to become very hard.
[00:36:04] Inevitably we will default back to loving ourselves because we're not going to be confident that we have love coming from somewhere else.
[00:36:14] In his book the Mystery of Marriage by Mike Mason, I just want to read a quote to you. I think this quote really summarizes well what I'm talking about.
[00:36:26] Again, it's a book about marriage, but this quote really talks about this sort of generous love that God has for us and what it does to our hearts that allows us to look outside of ourselves. This is what he Love attacks and destroys pride simply by eliminating the need for it. Love creates the only safe ground upon which all the bristling weaponry of self assertion may begin to be surrendered.
[00:36:53] What use is there in asserting the self? If the self is already loved fully and unreservedly, and not because of, but in spite of anything it might do? What is there left to assert?
[00:37:05] When the self knows that it is already accepted unconditionally, there is no need anymore for it to preoccupy itself with advancing its own claims or with trying to create the conditions that might make it worthy of being loved.
[00:37:20] First, it must come to the end of its own resources, for the power to love derives purely and solely from the knowledge that one is already loved.
[00:37:34] And so the best relationships with others and with God grow out of the startling discovery that there is nothing one can do to earn love, and even more startling, that there is also nothing one can do to unearn it or to keep oneself from being loved.
[00:37:53] When I know that I'm loved, I mean really. Like when I really know that there are people out there who are actively considering my best interest, who are willing for my joy and gladness that makes me the least self conscious person in the world. I'm not walking around constantly thinking about how are these people perceiving me?
[00:38:20] I'm not walking around thinking what do I need to do to be thought of as great? I'm actually freed up to Think about others.
[00:38:33] And it's a wonderful and a rare thing still, I think, for a lot of us, for me.
[00:38:42] So how do we pay attention to this? Well, look what Paul writes in Galatians 6. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people. Pay attention, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.
[00:39:05] We're not just supposed to be good people in the world, but Paul actually prescribes for us.
[00:39:10] Hey, we should give special attention and care to the people in this room, especially to those who are of the household of the faith.
[00:39:24] Elsewhere, Paul, talking about unity in the church, built on our common convictions about what Jesus Christ has done, says, therefore Ephesians 4:1 6, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. With all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.
[00:39:51] Count the ones he lists. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all. And in all.
[00:40:13] There's seven ones.
[00:40:17] Which leads me to the startling statement that you are not yourself by yourself.
[00:40:25] You exist in a community.
[00:40:28] In verse three, actually, the NIV translates the opening lines of verse three. He says, instead of being diligent to preserve the union, he says, make every effort.
[00:40:39] Make every effort to prioritize this.
[00:40:46] Let's see, this coming Easter, me and Nicole and the kids will have been at this church for four years.
[00:40:55] So we joined Easter of 2021, just kind of on the back end of COVID as things were starting to open up.
[00:41:03] We'll have been here for four years, and I still feel like I know so few of you.
[00:41:10] And to be clear, that's on me.
[00:41:14] And maybe you'd say, oh, that's on me too.
[00:41:17] I have not made every effort.
[00:41:22] Perhaps we'd say we have not made every effort. I imagine regardless of how long you've been gathering here on a Sunday or maybe you're in a gospel community midweek, there are probably still people in this room who exist in a certain place.
[00:41:45] And for you, maybe they're not more than just a face, a fixture in your life for about an hour and a half each week.
[00:41:54] I know that's true because that's true for me.
[00:41:57] And there might be for those people, you know nothing of what happens behind that face, their joys, their sorrows, their hopes, their aspirations, their anxieties.
[00:42:10] And I would just say this really hard for me to love someone that I don't know if this is a command that is prescriptive as we talked about, if Paul's writings in Ephesians 4 are true, that we really are to be as a body making every effort to pursue this sort of life. If we are to give special attention to those Galatians 6 who are part of the household of the faith, maybe for us, instead of just saying, hey, let's get out there and love each other. That feels so big and intangible. Maybe a small step might just be today, introduce yourself to someone you don't know or a couple someones you don't know. Maybe get to know them.
[00:43:11] We need to grow up in this. I need to grow up in this. We need to give attention to what is now a very clear command.
[00:43:20] Yes, there was confusing statement. Yes, the disciples are still confused. Next week when we start John 14, they're still going to be confused.
[00:43:28] There's going to be a lot of confusion. For us though, there is something in here which is not confusing at all.
[00:43:36] These words Jesus is speaking. It is the final night before he's crucified. His final words. Of all the things Jesus could pass on to his disciples for them to cling onto after his death, after his resurrection, this is what he chose to tell them. And as we've said, he talks about loving one another over and over and over again. John 13, John 15, John 17 leading up to the cross, he is committed to them loving one another because he knows by that the world will know they belong to him.
[00:44:10] So let's pay attention.
[00:44:12] Let's figure this out. Okay, I'm going to pray. The worship team is going to come up as we raise our voices together. If you do want to pray with someone, Pastor Les and Duba will be on either side.
[00:44:28] We'll also have some people on the prayer team in the back. They'll have lanyards. If you want to go pray with them a little bit more privately, you are very welcome, I would say. You invited to do that. So let's pray. Let's bow our heads.
[00:44:44] Father, again, thanks for your mercy. Thanks that in the same ways that Jesus, you spoke to your disciples as techneia little children because you knew what was in them. You knew what was on their mind and in their hearts. Lord, in so many ways. We're still in the same place. We are your children.
[00:45:09] We're confused.
[00:45:13] We know there's so many ways in which we are not yet what we are supposed to be.
[00:45:18] And I don't think you're put off by that. Help us to experience your grace and let that be the fuel by which we go and love those around us. Even now, starting today, we pray in Jesus name, Amen.
