Sermon April 28, 2013  Love One Another

Most of us can recall meeting someone important. You might have driven a long ways to just have an opportunity to be in a special concert of a famous person because they were playing close by.  I can remember driving to Macon Georgia one time because President Lyndon Johnson was coming to the city. About all I saw was him passing by in the presidential limousine. But I was there.  I was sitting in a restaurant in Macon one time and the guy with me said look! Its Tina Turner and she and her entourage sat in the booth behind us. I remember ushering for a David Wilkinson preaching event and had a chance to meet him afterwards.  But what about meeting personally with the Almighty God!! Creator of the Universe?

And you know He is here in our Congregation right now.

Take a moment and think about this…..God dwells among us.  Right here, right now.  God is with us.  Today’s scripture call us into the presence of the One who truly is worthy of our praise and adoration.

Acts 11:1-18

In This passage the Jews in Jerusalem want Peter to explain to them how he can baptize non-Jews or even associate with them.  Peter, making it clear that he is permeated by the Spirit…(Think about that for a minute)….Permeated with the Spirit of God….and goes on to explain that God wants us “to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us” (v. 12). 

As we live with “the other”  this is a very empowering text.  It also meshes with the psalm for this week, which similarly clarifies that all persons are created by God and called into communion with God.

Psalm 148-

Praise , praise , praise. God is worthy of our praise. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon: Praise him, all ye stars of light.  Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.  Let them praise the name of the Lord: for he commanded, and they were created…….

Revelation 21:1-6

This week and next week’s reading in Revelation reveals that UNITY with God is indeed possible, that the redemption of the earth is not a foreign idea to the Christian narrative. God desires to dwell with God’s people (Rev. 22:3)  This is emphasized in todays other readings, from Jesus’ unity with the Father in John 13, to Peter’s emphasis in Acts 11 that all persons can experience such unity.  Even as the psalmist has described, all of creation has the capacity to praise the Lord.

John 13:31-35

Jesus gave disciples a farewell speech….I am with you only a little longer…..I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

The gospels and the Apostles Creed spell out very clearly: Jesus will die, be buried be resurrected, live on the earth a few weeks more, and then ascend to the right hand of God.  The Spirit will then descend to his body (the church), empowering humans to boldly wear the banner “body of Christ”.

As Jesus bids them adieu, he also equips them. His parting words are “Love one another”. Jesus tells them three times in the space of only two verses.

First, and most simply, Jesus says the disciples are to love one another just as he has loved them.

Second, the call for the disciples to love one another is evangelistic.  By actively loving one another, members of Christ’s body communicate to outsiders that they are followers of Jesus.  Jesus said: “this is how everyone will know.”

Third, remember Jesus’ bold proclamation in last week’s text, “ I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).

If this is true, that God is one, one being and yet somehow three persons, and humanity is created in the image of the Triune God – then Christians are to embody this oneness in the world.

We are to be one with one another just as the persons of the Trinity mutually indwell one another.

Jesus prays later in John that the disciples may be one just as he and the Father are one (John 17:21).

“I and My Father are one”

The Jews confronted Jesus on another occasion, asking Him, “Howlong do You keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ [the prophesied Messiah],tell us plainly” (John 10:24). Jesus’ answer is quite revealing: “I

told you, and you do not believe” (verse 25).

 

He had indeed confirmed His divine identity on a previous occasion (John 5:17-18).

Jesus adds, “The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness

of Me” (John 10:25). The works He did were miracles that only

God could do. They could not refute the miraculous works Jesus did.

 

He made another statement that incensed them: “I and My Father are

one” (verse 30). That is, the Father and Jesus were both divine. Again,

there was no mistaking the intent of what He said, because “then the

Jews took up stones again to stone Him” (verse 31).

 

Jesus countered, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” The Jews responded, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God” (verses 32-33).

The Jews understood perfectly well what Jesus meant. He was telling

them plainly of His divinity.

The Gospel of John records yet another instance in which Jesus infuriated

the Jews with His claims of divinity. It happened just after Jesus

had healed a crippled man at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath. The

Jews sought to kill Him because He did this on the Sabbath, a day on

which the law of God had stated no work was to be done (which they misinterpreted to include what Jesus was doing).

 

 

 

 

Jesus then made a statement that the Jews could take in only one

way: “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.”

Their response to His words? “Therefore the Jews sought all the

more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath [according to

their interpretation of it], but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God” (John 5:16-18).Jesus was equating His works with God’s works and claiming God as His Father in a special way.

 

The first Gospel writer, Matthew, opens with the story of the virgin

birth of Jesus. Matthew comments on this miraculous event with the

quote from Isaiah 7:14, “‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and

bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated,

‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23). Matthew is making it clear that

he understands that this child is God—“God with us.”

 

John is likewise explicit in the prologue to his Gospel. “In the beginning

was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14).

Some of them called Him God directly. When Thomas saw His

wounds, he exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

 

Paul refers to Jesus in Titus 1:3 and 2:10 as “God our Savior.”

The book of Hebrews is most emphatic that Jesus is God. Hebrews

1:8, applying Psalm 45:6 to Jesus Christ, states: “But to the Son He says:

‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.’” Other parts of this book

explain that Jesus is higher than the angels (1:4-8, 13), superior to Moses

(3:1-6), and greater than the high priests (4:14-5:10). He is greater than

all these because He is God.

 

Satan is always trying to put doubt in our minds. Some wonder -Did Jesus Really Die

and Live Again?

“This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses” (Acts 2:32).

One of the greatest proofs that Jesus is exactly who He said

He was—the Son of God and the only One through whom

eternal life is offered—is His resurrection from the dead.

His followers were convinced that He was the Messiah

and the Son of God. His miracles, His sinless life and His teachings all

proved to them who He was. But His resurrection confirms every claim

Jesus made to all people for all time.

And today we read again Christ’s New Commandment

Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you , that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another (JN 13:34.

Did Jesus replace the clear definitions of the Ten Commandments with a new religious principle, that love alone can guide our lives?  Does this new commandment supersede the Ten Commandments and replace all other biblical laws.?  Jesus clearly answered this fundamental question when He said,

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets (Matt. 5:17).  Yet many people who believe in Christ as their Savior also believe this new commandment frees them from any obligation to obey God’s laws.  They misunderstand What Jesus said and meant.  The Holy Scriptures, in the Old and New Testament, teach that we should love each other (Leviticus 19:18).  Jesus did not introduce love as a new principle.  That was already in the Bible and a fundamental part of God’s instruction to ancient Israel.

What, then, was new in Christ’s “new commandment”?  Notice His wording.  He said we are to “love one another, as I have loved you.”  What was new was His own example of love!  The whole world has a perfect model of the love of God in Christ’s perfect example of loving obedience.

Christ loved us so much that He sacrificed His own life for us.  He Himself explained: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).  Jesus came as the light of the world to illuminate the application and practice of the royal law of love.  We no longer have an excuse for saying we don’t understand what to do or how to do it.  Jesus demonstrated what loving obedience is all about.

If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His Love (John 15:10).

We comply with Jesus new commandment when we obey every commandment of God in a genuinely loving manner and are willing to lay down our lives for the sake of others.

Jesus did not only teach or expound His message. He was identical with His message….He did not just proclaim the truth, He said, “I am the truth.”  He did not just show a way, He said, “I am the way.”  He did not just open up vistas. He said, “ I am the door.”  I am the Good Shepherd.”  I am the Resurrection and the life.  I am that I AM..

Jesus did not offer bread to nourish the soul, He said , HE IS THE BREAD.

Jesus wasn’t just a teacher of superior ethic, He was The Way.  Jesus didn’t just promise eternal life, He said I Am the resurrection and the Life. (John 11:25)

What becomes clear is that only Jesus is the true Revelation of the true God.  There could be no escaping what people saw.  God revealed Himself in such a manner that there is no easy way out for any of us.  We have to face it squarely – that Jesus was who He said He was and Had been sent here by His Father.

There is no such thing as “many roads that lead to God.”  Jesus declared : “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).  That is why Peter could courageously proclaim: “Neither  is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12),.

If there is any doubt in your mind today about your relationship with Jesus I encourage you to come and kneel at this old fashioned altar and make things right with God. Get it settled and have assurance in your mind that you are on your way to heaven. Start acting on the new commandment:  Love One Another.