Living Out Our Faith Through Love and Discipleship

We're going to talk about probably one of the most difficult things that we as followers of Jesus are called to do—that is love.

But as we wrap up this series, "The Heart for the House," let me ask you this: Is there any evidence in your life that we've spent five weeks walking through our heart for God's house? Are you thinking differently? Are you living differently? Are you giving differently? Are you serving differently? Are you loving differently? Are you worshiping differently? Do you have a greater understanding of the church and its mission?

See, as I was thinking about that, those are important questions for us because we're not merely hearers of the word, but we're called as followers of Jesus to be doers of the word as well. This isn't meant to just inform us, but it's meant to motivate our hearts, to kind of activate our lives, and then for us to help change the world around us.

Years ago, there was a young college student who thought he would get an easy A by taking a class in ornithology. Now, I've never heard of ornithology before I was doing research on this. Does anybody know what ornithology is? Okay, a couple of us. It's the study of birds. So how do you know that? You’re really a college student, right? Okay, I'm just kidding.

So this student took this class thinking he'd get an easy A. He was doing great until the professor kind of threw a curveball at the class. For the final exam, there were just 25 questions, but the questions were pictures, and the pictures were pairs of bird legs. The directions said to identify each bird by their legs.

So the student was completely upset and thrown off. In fact, he said, "You know what? I don't want to take this stupid test. I'd rather take an F." So he goes up to the professor and tells him that, and the professor says, "You know what? I would be glad to give you an F. What's your name?" So the student pulls up his leg, shows him, or pulls up his pants, shows him his leg, and he said, "You tell me!"

So we wrap up this "Heart for the House" series this morning. No pun intended, but the whole heart behind it is that we would see as followers of Jesus what discipleship really looks like—what discipleship is really all about—and for us to kind of jump in and understand Jesus' greater desire for us and His church.

Jesus made it clear that there will be people who claim to be followers of Christ, who claim to belong to Him, but they actually don't belong to Him. There's no fruit in their life; there's no proof in their life. We know that discipleship—no one becomes a disciple through right behavior. We become disciples through right beliefs. The New Testament tells us that if we believe the gospel, it will transform our hearts and our minds, and the evidence that we've believed is through a changed life.

So there are a few things about genuine disciples that I just want to mention really quick. Genuine disciples obey. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey me." Genuine disciples surrender themselves. In Luke chapter 9, verse 23, Jesus said it—we've talked about it a couple of times—"Anyone who wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow after me."

And then genuine disciples serve others. Jesus came, we know, not to be served but to serve. So if we're seeking to be a follower of Jesus, if we really want to be a disciple of Christ, we are to be serving one another.

In the first couple of weeks, we talked about the mission, the vision, and the values of our church and what that means for us and how we can really live that out. Then the last three weeks of this, we've been talking about what it looks like for Christians to live. Last week, we talked about giving, and we thought that was incredibly hard, right? Well, today we're going to be talking about how we as followers of Christ love one another.

So this morning, I want to open up to John chapter 13. Jesus clearly communicates that those of us who are truly His disciples will love. Here's what it says in verse 34 and verse 35: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another."

It's interesting to me that the word "love," if you study this at all, is only mentioned in the Gospel of John chapters 1 through 12. It's mentioned 12 times. But then if you look at John chapter 13 through John chapter 21, the word "love" is used 45 times. In other words, in the last 24 hours of Jesus' life, He mentions the word "love" over and over and over. He uses the word "love" repeatedly in the last half of the Gospel of John.

So in the last 24 hours of Jesus' life, He's using this word "love" over and over and over. This morning, I want to give you the bottom line and the take-home. This isn't permission to put your notes away and say we're done, right? But I want to give that to you, and then we're going to kind of break that down. At the end, I'll give you actually another take-home that's not on your notes.

So let's break this down. The take-home is this: Jesus gives us an 11th commandment with an explicit example for an eternal impact.

So let's break that down really quick. The first thing that we see is that Jesus gives an 11th commandment. He gives us an 11th commandment. You might ask, "What do you mean, Ryan?" Watch this in the first part of verse 34. Here's what it says: "A new commandment I give to you."

When the disciples heard the word "commandment," where do you think their minds automatically went? The Big Ten, right? Not the conference, but the commandments, right? Some of you, I saw your minds go to the commandments. When Jesus said, "I've got a new commandment for you," they would have automatically understood—immediately understood Jesus to be saying, "I'm giving you an 11th commandment to the original 10. I'm adding on to the original 10. I'm giving you an 11th commandment."

Think about the audacity of that for a moment. I'm not trying to compare myself to Jesus because I'm nowhere close, right? Take up your cross daily, denying self, following Him, right? That's the goal. But think about this: If I were to stand up here and say, "Church, you know what? I really feel like God is telling me to give you a 12th commandment," you would think, "Who in the world is this guy? We need to get him out of here right away," right? And you should think that.

But let me ask you: Who does Jesus think He is in this moment? Jesus has been telling them; He’s been showing them He is the Eternal God in the flesh. He has the ability and the audacity to add to what has been because He's God and is the author of it in the first place. He's the Eternal Son of God; He's the second person in the Trinity. Jesus was there on Mount Sinai when the original tablets were handed to Moses.

So here is Jesus, and He's saying, "Guys, I'm giving you an additional one that I gave to Moses." And what is this 11th commandment? What is this all about? It is that you must love one another.

Here's what I want you to lean in and get: This wasn't new in the sense they'd never heard this before. Of course, they had because the Old Testament had explicitly instructed them to love one another. In fact, there was a time that someone came to Jesus and asked Him, "What is the greatest commandment of them all?"

Here's what Jesus said in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 12. It says, "Jesus answered, 'The most important is, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.'"

Church, here's the thing: Anytime we mention entire sanctification, pursuing Jesus with everything we've got, this is the easiest way to describe what that looks like. It is this right here: Mark 12:30 and 31.

When we talk about entire sanctification, it is loving the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, with all of our strength. And the second part of that is loving your neighbor as yourself. If you want to love God completely and become entirely sanctified, as the church talks about, it's this right here. This is the description of what that is.

So Jesus said the whole Old Testament is about two commandments: love God and love others. That's why we have a passion for people here at our church. We talked about it in the second week of the series—our core values. We have a passion for people because we want to love God by loving others, right?

And so this goes all the way back to the Old Testament. I want you to imagine just for a moment a lighthouse standing tall on a rocky shore, and its beam of light cuts through the darkness to guide ships to safety. You get the picture? Regardless of the weather or the time of day, this lighthouse faithfully stands, shining its light, offering hope and assurance to sailors navigating the treacherous waters.

As you think about that, it's the same way that Jesus calls Christians to love—acting as a guiding light in our lives. In Mark chapter 12, verse 31, when Jesus says, "Love your neighbor as yourself," what He's doing for us is saying, "Be that lighthouse up on that rocky shore for others." That's guiding a guiding light of compassion, understanding, and kindness in a world that's filled with chaos, challenges, and uncertainty.

That is for you as a follower of Jesus to do. We point to our beacon of hope. If love has always been God's desire to receive and His command to give, why did Jesus call this a new commandment? He wasn't saying it was new in the sense of time, but what He is doing is saying it's new in the sense of ability.

And here's what I mean: They were about to be able to obey a very old command with a brand new power. You know what was happening to Jesus? Jesus was getting ready; He was heading to the cross to die for the sins of all people—right? For you, for me, for them. He would be raised from the dead; He would go to be seated at the right hand of the Father.

But what did Jesus promise? Who did Jesus promise to send them as He was absent from them? Who did He promise? The Holy Spirit, right?

And so Romans chapter 5, verse 5, here's what it says: "And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Right? Because God's love has been poured into our hearts with the Holy Spirit.

You see, God doesn't just love us, but He loves through us. Here's what I want you to get: We're not just to be containers of God's love, storing God's love up, but we are to be conduits of God's love. God pours His love into our hearts so we can send His love out to other people.

In the New Testament, Christians are called to love 55 times. So if you question whether or not God thinks this is serious business or not, just go read through the New Testament. You will see that God's call for us to love one another is serious business, and we will be held accountable because He's given us the ability to love one another.

And so the Spirit would enable them not only to do what Jesus did but to do it the way Jesus did.

The next thing we see is that Jesus gives us an 11th commandment with an explicit example. Watch the second part of verse 34: "That you love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another."

We don't have to wonder or question what real love for others looks like because we have a clear standard through the explicit example of Jesus. Jesus' love is characterized a couple of ways. Jesus' love is characterized by action, not feeling. It's characterized by action and not feeling.

You've heard this word, but the Greek word for this is the word "agape." It's love determined by the will. Agape love isn't one you feel; it's one you choose. So here, Jesus isn't dictating how to feel about others, but He's telling us how to act toward others. It's action, not feeling.

The world says love is a feeling, and it's unpredictable and uncontrollable. The culture around us kind of glamorizes the kind of love that makes you feel like an octopus on roller skates, right? Think about it—visualize that.

But watch what it says: You can't command an emotion, but you can command an action. Love is something that we do. Watch what it says in 1 John chapter 3, verse 18: "Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth."

Love is intentionally doing something for another person who needs it, regardless of what the cost is, regardless of the consequence. Again, that's the nature of the Gospel, right? The Gospel is a verb. The Gospel is love in action.

Romans chapter 5, verse 8, here's what it says: "But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." It's love in action. It's about action, not feeling.

As we're talking about John chapter 13, let me set the scene for you just a little bit so you get an understanding of when Jesus is calling us to love one another how deep this call really is.

Here's what's happening: Jesus kind of sets a new standard for what love really looks like in this chapter—not just by washing feet but by washing Judas's feet. There's so much in this piece, in this chapter. He also has Judas sitting right next to Him at the table during the meal. If you don't know that, that shows that signifies a place of honor, and this is a sign of deep love and intimacy because at one point, Jesus actually dips a piece of bread and then gives it to Judas.

You see what's taking place here? It's unconditional love. So Judas walks out of the upper room with clean feet and a full stomach provided by the love of Christ. Yet what did Judas do? He rejected Christ's love and betrayed Him.

Listen, no one goes to hell because they're unloved by God. They go to hell because they reject that love and therefore they're unforgiven. Jesus even loved His enemies.

Church, here's what it says in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 6. Watch this: "But I say to you who hear, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you." How hard is that, right?

Verse 28: "Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you." We're going to skip a few over to verse 32: "If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them."

Verse 33: "And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same."

Verse 35: "But love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful."

So Jesus' love is action, not feeling. Jesus' love is sacrificial, not self-serving. It's sacrificial, not self-serving. Sacrificial love is the core; it is the heart of the Gospel.

1 John chapter 3, verse 16: "By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers."

So just as Christ laid down His life for our salvation, just as Jesus laid down His life for our salvation, we lay down our lives because of our salvation. Salvation is free to receive, but it costs you your whole life to live it out. Did you get that?

Salvation is free to receive, but it costs you your whole life to live it out. When you think of the story of the Good Samaritan, what's the point of it? This man's attacked, he's robbed, he's left for dead in the middle of the road. Religious guys come by him, ignore him; they keep passing by.

But then a Samaritan—people that were considered unloved by God—he stopped, he dropped everything he was doing, and he rescued the man. He wipes off his blood, he bandages his wounds, he throws him on his donkey, takes him into town, pays for a hotel room at Holiday Inn Express, right? Does all these things long enough for the guy to get care and the rest that he needs to heal up.

What is Jesus' point? He's saying in life, you will always encounter a person who's either a victim to exploit, a problem to avoid, or a person to be loved.

Jesus gave an 11th commandment with an explicit example. Here's the third thing; here's the last thing: for an eternal impact. Watch verse 35. There's the last part: "By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another."

Selfless love makes the greatest impact because it's the one characteristic of God that Satan cannot counterfeit. Only true followers of Jesus are capable of Christ-like love. When we love others unconditionally, our identity as followers of Jesus, our identity as disciples of Christ, is recognized undeniably.

Here's the take-home I want you to land with; here's what I want you to get: We are to be living proof of a loving God to a watching world.

During World War II, there was a group of soldiers that lost a friend in battle, and they wanted to give their fallen friend and soldier a decent burial. So they went to a nearby village or town; they found a church that had a graveyard behind it. The graveyard was surrounded by this white fence.

So they went inside and asked the priest if their friend could be buried there in the church graveyard. The priest asked if the guy was Catholic, and they said, "No, he was Protestant." So the priest said, "I'm very sorry, but our graveyard is for members of the holy church, but you can bury your friend just outside the fence, and I will see that the gravesite is cared for and taken care of over the years."

So the soldiers were very grateful. They said thank you to the father, and then they went outside of the fence and proceeded to bury their friend on the other side of the fence.

When the war was finally over, they wanted to visit their fallen soldier one time before they returned home. So they go to the church; they remember where it was at, they remembered the grave, and there they are. It was supposed to be just outside this fence, but when they searched for it, they couldn't find it.

Finally, they go back to the priest and inquire about its location. They said, "Sir, we can't find the grave of our friend." The priest quietly confessed, "Well, after you had buried your fallen soldier, your fallen friend, it just didn't seem right to me that he was outside the fence."

So they said, "Well, so you moved the grave?" He said, "No, I moved the fence."

That's exactly what God has done for us. None of us deserve a place inside the fence of His family, but God acted in love by giving Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins. He's taken us as outsiders and brought us close as insiders.

So let me ask you this morning, church: Do you need to move your fence of love today? We are called to love others like Christ loves us. We are living proof of a loving God to a watching world, and disciples of Christ love.

So this morning, as we come to the Lord's table, the Global Methodist Church celebrates open communion. That means you don't have to be a member of this church or of any church to celebrate communion. You are welcome at the table if you come seeking forgiveness. You are welcome here. If you come seeking a relationship with Jesus, you are welcome here.

As we prepare our hearts for communion this morning, let's come faithfully, let's come boldly, let's come expectantly to God's table because it's in this place that we remember the promises of God—that He's faithful in the past, He's faithful in the present, and He's faithful in the future.

In communion, we receive the bread that represents the body of Christ broken for you, broken for us. We receive the juice which represents the blood of Christ shed for us.

Remember on the night on which Jesus was betrayed, He took the bread, He broke it, and He gave it to them saying, "Take and eat; this is my body."

Then after supper, He took the cup, and having given thanks for it, He gave it to them and said, "All of you drink from this cup; it is the New Covenant in my blood which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."

I invite our communion stewards to come forward, and we'll pray and receive communion this morning.

My heavenly Father, we thank You, God of grace and mercy, that You provided perfectly for our redemption. We thank You for Your Son Jesus who died to save us, for Your Spirit who invites us to draw near.

So Lord, we pray that You would guide us now to remember the cost of our salvation, remember the suffering of our Lord. Help us to commune with You and with one another as we come to Your table, that as we partake of these elements, help us to never forget. Help us to receive the spiritual benefits of Christ's broken body and shed blood.

In Jesus' name, amen.

The blood of Christ.