A New Commandment
Notes
Transcript
Intro: So, its Valentines day. A holiday literally created by a card company to convince people to buy cards for their loved ones. Have you noticed how much those cards cost these days? Love may be the most globally misunderstood concept. There are so many false concepts of love. Here is something that the world doesn’t want you to know. Love and romance are two different things. There are a lot of people out there that spend a lot of time romancing someone without ever actually loving them. Romance can be done for selfish ambitions while true love is never self-centered.
To really understand love we must look to Scripture and deeper still we must look to Jesus. As Jesus knowingly approaches the hour of His death there are key lessons He teaches the disciples. Already we have seen Jesus preparing them for the betrayal (v.19). Now He prepares them for His death by instructing them in the purpose of His death and how they should live after His death.
We will attempt to understand Jesus’ teachings here by looking at three key words.
Glorify
Glorify
“When he was gone out” - that is Judas had left. It is interesting that Jesus waits until Judas has left to begin teaching.
In chapter 12 when Jesus predicted His death He began by saying “The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified.”
The preeminent purpose of Christ’s death was and is the glory of God. God is still being glorified in the cross, because every time a sinner comes to Christ in saving faith the cross is magnified and God is glorified.
What is glory?
Dictionary: very great praise, honor, or distinction bestowed by common consent
So when we say that something or someone glorifies God we are saying that they are praising and honoring God by drawing attention to the uniqueness of His character.
We also see in Scripture moments where the glory of God becomes a physical reality.
Luke 2:9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.
Paul on the road to damascus
2 Chronicles 7:1-2 Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the house. The priests could not enter into the house of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’S house.
Consider this: God is so glorious that for us what is a mere concept is for Him a physical reality.
When we talk about glory it is a concept.
to win glory on the battlefield
A poem that is one of the glories of English poetry
A father that glories in the success of his children.
These are intangible concepts
But there have been moments in history when the glory of God is revealed is such a substantial way that it can been seen and interacted with.
Paul was blinded by it.
The priests couldn’t enter into the temple because of it.
The glory of God is the manifestation of His perfect nature, attributes and beauty.
If verses 31 and 32 make two things clear:
The Son glorifies the Father and the Father glorifies the Son.
They are approaching the hour of glory.
The cross is the hinge point of all history.
How does the cross glorify God?
The purchase of redemption for all who believe.
The satisfaction of God’s justice
The power of God displayed in the resurrection
The power of Satan defeated
The holiness of God displayed in the sinless sacrifice
The faithfulness of God keeping His promise to redeem
The greatest expression of Love the world has ever and will ever see.
Go
Go
A term of endearment
The disciples understood by now that they were not the piers of Jesus.
Thus Jesus literally calling them “my dear children” was not an insult but an expression of love.
I am going.
My time is short.
As I said to the Jews you cannot come
John 7:33-34 Therefore Jesus said, “For a little while longer I am with you, then I go to Him who sent Me. “You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.”
John 8:21 Then He said again to them, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.”
Verse 33 was intended by Jesus to simply be an introduction to the new commandment of verses 34 and 35. However, there is one disciple who doesn’t let things go so easily. His name is Peter. Peter seems to miss the new commandment all together and focuses rather on Jesus leaving.
Read verses 36-38
What do we learn from Peter’s dialogue with Jesus?
Contrast
While Jesus said in v. 33 that like the Jews they could not come with Him, there is a significant contrast between the disciples and the Jews that Jesus draws out in v. 36.
Peter asks: Lord where are you going? Jesus responds: Where I am going you cannot follow me now; but you will follow me afterwards.
This is certainly different from what Jesus said to the Jews in John 8:21 Then He said again to them, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.”
There was something so fundamentally different about the disciples that their eternal destiny would be different from the pharisees, Sadducees and others.
The difference was how they were related to Jesus.
The disciples were His children
The Jews were His enemies
The difference as John has spent the entire book pointing out, was belief.
Difficulty
The disciples were still unable to come to terms with Jesus’ death.
It is not like Jesus had been hiding it from them. They just didn’t want to believe it.
Matthew 16:21 From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.
Matthew 17:22-23 And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.” And they were deeply grieved.
Matthew 20:17-19 As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.”
It has been said that human beings are not so much rational creatures as we are rationalizing creatures.
Judas rationalized his betrayal
Peter would rationalize his denial
The disciples would rationalize Jesus’ clear teaching about His death to mean something else.
Problem
You, me and Peter all share the same problem. - Pride.
Peter: “Lord, why can’t I follow you? I would die for you!”
Peter and the other disciples seem to over estimate the strength of their faith.
Matthew 26:56 “But all this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures of the prophets.” Then all the disciples left Him and fled.
Mark 14:31 But Peter kept saying insistently, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” And they all were saying the same thing also.
Jesus: Peter before dawn you will deny me three times.
Was Peter lying?
Peter was clearly willing to fight for Jesus, even risk his life for Jesus.
But was Peter willing to lay his life down for Jesus?
In just a little while fear will cause Peter to deny Jesus three times. It almost seems like a different person than the one who took up a sword in the garden of Gethsemane or the Apostle who would die a martyr’s death.
A Lesson from Peter
We humans are remarkably inconsistent creatures.
Never assume you are above any sin.
1 Cor. 10:12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.
Love
Love
This becomes a pivotal moment in John’s life.
He has just learned that Judas is the betrayer.
He watches as Jesus simply lets Judas go.
Then he hears the new commandment and it changes his life.
Peter missed it but John certainly didn’t. It may have taken a while but eventually this new commandment entrenches in John’s heart.
The reason I am confident about this is because John later wrote an inspired commentary on Jesus’ words here. Most commonly we call that commentary 1 John.
What is the New Commandment? - To love one another, as Christ loved.
How is this a new command?
Lev. 19:18 ‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.
Deut. 6:5 “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
In a sense this is an old command but with a new meaning, purpose and enablement.
This new commandment had two things that the old did not.
A New Standard: “Love one another, as I have loved you.”
A New Enablement: We are not just imitators of Christ’s love we are practitioners of it.
As a people called to abide in the love of Christ we are enabled to genuinely show a lost and dying world the love of Jesus.
1 John 2:7-11 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining. The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1 John 3:23-24 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
The love of Christ that shines through us becomes the light of Christ in this dark world.
Defining Love
When we examine the love of Christ we may often find that we need to redefine love.
Christ set the standard for love.
I propose to you a simple one word definition for love, sacrifice.
Love as our banner
Up to this point what made the disciples known as followers of Jesus was their close proximity to Him. They literally followed Him.
The point Jesus makes in verse 35 is that physical proximity to Him will no longer be what identifies someone as a Christ-follower.
Love is to be the banner of the church. We should be clothed with it.
Note this is not just a general love for all mankind, the Bible has plenty to say about that, but rather a special and unique love for one another.