The 5^th Sunday in Lent

SERMON

INI

Text: John 13:31-35

So, when he (Judas) had gone out (from the “upper room” on Maundy Thursday), Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

In Christ Jesus, our Savior who has loved us with an everlasting love—dear fellow-redeemed:

Going down the grocery-aisle has become a rather complicated and perhaps frustrating experience. Not only are there so many kinds of food from which to choose, but now you might choose a particular food and still find yourself with seemingly countless choices. In any one given food item, you might have the "original" kind, the "low-fat" kind, the "no-fat" kind, the "reduced-fat" kind, the "low-salt" kind, the "no-salt" kind, the kind with "all natural flavors," the kind with "artificial flavors added" … and the list goes on and on…

Add into this confusion all of the varying medical reports that debate which of these types of food is better for our health, and the whole situation becomes even more confusing!

Unfortunately, in our world, people’s approach to LOVE and also to Christ’s command to "love one another" is filled with just about as much variety and confusion as the grocery-aisle: "Reduced-commitment love," "No-commitment love," "love with self-serving motives added," "artificial love that gets what I want for a time and then leaves the rest in ruins," and again the list could go on.

We as children of God will, at times, also struggle in our understanding of "love." Then we also struggle with putting that love into action in our dealings with one another. There is no doubt that Jesus very clearly commands us to love one another, but what does that mean and how do we practice it?

To find an answer we go this morning to Calvary where Jesus offered Himself. Good Friday is still almost two weeks away, but there is so much that comes together at the cross that one meditation on one day each year simply cannot reach the full depth of what we can learn as we see our Savior suffer and die. There on the cross, as we consider what Jesus has done for us, we see the perfect kind of love. The perfect love is demonstrated by Christ and it is that love which He also admonishes us to follow.

This morning Jesus speaks to you and says: "LOVE ONE ANOTHER WITH A "CALVARY" LOVE" I. It is a love that glorifies God; II. It is a love that follows Christ; III. It is a love that declares discipleship.

I.

After Judas left the "upper room," Jesus speaks to the remaining disciples and in His words He says, "“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”[v.34]

In one way this commandment was not new at all. God had commanded from the beginning God’s expectations included "love your neighbor as yourself" (cf: God’s question to Cain, etc.). In Leviticus God says, “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19:18).

The love for one another as well as love for God was nothing new; but what Jesus was describing was the old command to love one another in a new atmosphere…a new quality…a new setting in which to pursue that love. As we heard John write in the epistle reading: “Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write to you (which was the same command to love one another), which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:7-8).

What was NEW about Jesus’ command to love one another? The newness was in the fact that He—the Messiah—had now come. Jesus had now fulfilled the Law on behalf of all people and was on His way to suffer and die for all sins. In the Old Testament, the people heard the command to love one another, they had the Ceremonial Law and they kept that law and showed their to God & one another by keeping it. Yet they failed and could not keep the law perfectly and were thus condemned in their sin. Under the realization of their sin and the condemnation sin brought, the people looked forward to the Messiah who would come and make all things new. They waited for the Messiah who would be the light of the world shining life and salvation into this sin darkened world. NOW, Jesus has come! NOW, He has fulfilled these promises. When Jesus spoke these words He was on the brink of suffering & dying for the sins of the world. He, Himself, was providing the perfect model of what perfect love is. He had come and would now die to wash away all sins, so He said, "A new commandment I give to you…love one another. It is the same commandment, but a whole new Light is shining on it because I have come and demonstrated to you My perfect love for this sinful world.

As Jesus spoke to His disciples, just hours before the events would begin that would lead to His death, He said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. "If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately.” [vv.31-32] Jesus speaks of Himself being glorified and that glory also glorifies His heavenly Father, and with the Father being glorified the Son is also glorified. It seems a bit confusing, but it shows the close connection between the "persons" of the Triune God. To glorify the Son is to glorify the Father because they are one united God, though distinct persons.

Jesus was moving quickly toward His suffering and death, and yet, Jesus said that the Father would glorify Him IMMEDIATELY. If we consider what followed later that night and on Good Friday, it may be hard to call that "glorified." God was mocked. Jesus was ridiculed for calling Himself the Son of God. People from below the cross—all the way from the passers by to the religious leaders to the soldiers and even to the fellowmen being crucified—all mocked and scoffed! Where is the glory in this??

The visible glory would come Easter morning when Jesus rose magnificently back to life. However, even in that death there was glory and God was indeed glorified because in that death, Jesus was following God’s will. Jesus glorified God by giving up His life for the Father’s desire that the sinful world (including us!) would have salvation. So by following His Father’s will and going forward in the plan of salvation, Jesus showed His love for His Father and for us, and thereby glorified God at the same time.

Earlier in this same Gospel account Jesus is recorded as saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor” (John 12:23-26).

A grain of wheat has to rot, it has to die in order for it to be "glorified" in a plant that grows and produces many more wheat grains. Jesus uses this to illustrate the truth that He too had to die in order to be glorified and to glorify His Father through the redemption that would be accomplished.

If we consider Jesus’ whole life and ministry we see how He was glorified by His heavenly Father even in the midst of His time on earth when He had taken on a "servant’s form" (cf: Philippians 2:5ff). At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry at His baptism, the Father declared from heaven, "THIS IS MY BELOVED SON IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED!" (Matthew 3:17). To be "well-pleasing" to God is to be glorified by God and Jesus’, God’s Son, was.

Nearing the end of Jesus’ ministry on the Mount of Transfiguration, the Father again spoke from heaven and said, "THIS IS MY BELOVED SON IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED, HEAR HIM!" (Matthew 17:5). Again, God declares that Jesus had done all things well. He was going forward in the Father’s plan thereby glorifying His Father in all things, and the Father glorified and spoke well of Him.

Our "CALVARY LOVE" is one that glorifies God by following His will. We show "Calvary Love" By following God’s commands and doing what is pleasing to Him not out of compulsion but out of LOVE for Him and for one another. In his first epistle John writes, “This is the love of God that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).

We glorify God when we live according to His Word and that is LOVE. If we live contrary to God’s Word it can NOT be love. No matter what anyone else might tell you, anything that is contrary to what God’s Word says is NOT "love." It is not love for God and therefore, cannot be love for one another either.

Jesus once said, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Our Christian lives DO glorify God. They DO show a love. They show love like that of Christ, not only for God but also for our fellow sinners.

II.

This "Calvary Love" to which Christ encourages us also follows His example. As 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.” [v.34]

The love that Jesus describes and models for us is a love with PURPOSE. It is a love with PURPOSE coming from a will and desire to serve others, wanting to do this act of love for someone else. It is a love that is not self-directed, but rather is directed outwardly with a beneficial and God-pleasing purpose.

Jesus’ purpose in showing love to us is certainly that He came to be our Savior, to live and to die so that all sinners might be redeemed from their sin and thereby have the gift of eternal life. Again in His first epistle, John writes, “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (I John 4:9-10. God’s love is such a PURPOSE-FILLED undeserved love that it presents the deepest love we could imagine. A love that loves someone even when he is completely unlovable! A love that loves someone even to the point of sacrificing ones own life for him!…which is exactly what Jesus did.

This is the kind of love we seek to show as we follow Jesus’ example, but we find many hurdles to this kind of love. In his second letter to the Corinthians Paul wrote to those Christians, “I fear lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I wish, and that I shall be found by you such as you do not wish; lest there be contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, backbitings, whisperings, conceits, tumults…"(2 Corinthians 12:20). The list could go on, but in this list alone we see many things plaguing our world. How many people will refuse to "backbite" someone else if backbiting will somehow help them? How many have no selfish ambitions that are not really too concerned with anything except what will please ME? How many people don’t whisper about someone else when they can’t hear…and then try to deny it later and pretend to love them? OUTBURSTS of WRATH, contentions, whisperings, conceits, tumults are NOT love, but they ARE the kinds of things to which our human natures naturally turn. These are obstacles to a perfect love which follows Christ’s example.

Jealousy can also be a hurdle. As again John writes in his first epistle, “For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you” (1 John 3:11-13).

When we’re out there in the world and we see someone who has something we don’t have, do we show love? Heed the warning of Cain’s example. Abel’s offering was accepted, Cain’s was not. Cain grew jealous and eventually killed his brother out of anger and hatred. When we see something in someone or something that the other person has that we desire, we may become jealous and show anything but love to others.

The world IS going to hate us because it is opposed to God and we are for Him. Will we become jealous of the world because they seem to have such a care-free life, because they seem to have so much "FUN." Are we going to be jealous of what is WRONG and SIN? That would not be following Christ’s example and is not love.

We may want greater honor. This is an obstacle that afflicted the disciples. In Luke we hear, “Now there was also a dispute among them, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. And He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves” (Luke 22:24-27). Will we contend for greater honor? Not if we are following the example of Christ. We will find our greatest honor in Him and being in His kingdom.

Other hurdles could be mentioned, but whether it is a jealousy, a desire for honor, a selfishness, wrath that wants our own way—whatever it might be our sinful nature has these obstacles in the way. The hurdles try to get us to love with an imperfect love or with our own definition of love, but we can follow our Savior to Calvary and there find an example of TRUE LOVE to follow.

“Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us” (Ephesians 5:2). A "Calvary Love" is one that is willing to sacrifice itself for another. "By this we know love,” John writes, “because [Jesus] laid down His life FOR US!” (1 John 3:16). Jesus Himself said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13).

We might consider it a great thing indeed to lay our physical life on behalf of someone else’s physical life. However, consider what happened on Calvary. When Jesus laid down His life for His friends it was not just in terms of a physical life, rather it was for SPIRITUAL life and ETERNAL life.

Greater love has no one than this than to lay down his life—to sacrifice one’s self—for his friends’ SPIRITUAL needs. That is love with a PURPOSE! This is something each of us needs to consider greatly. It is one thing to recognize what we can do to show love and help someone physically in his earthly needs, but we need more than that to consider their spiritual needs. I need to lay down my fears and sacrifice my desire to "stay out of it" to help someone who is caught in a sin. I need to lay aside my desire to be popular and to fit in with the crowd in order that the needs of my friends’ souls might be met for their benefit. Greater love has no one than this than to be despised by the world, to be scorned, to face hardship, but to have the purpose of serving one another’s souls.

When Jesus said, "love one another" there is no greater love than to follow His example which did everything for our eternal well-being, for our souls’ health, and our life & salvation. To do likewise, we may need to set aside some of the things that we hold dear or Christian freedoms that we have in order to minister to someone else’s spiritual needs and thereby show a "Calvary Love." Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:19-22).

Paul did not compromise on God’s Word but he adapted to the different people whom he met and to whom he ministered. He did this so that he could serve the souls of those people. Loving one another means to recognize that there are significant differences between the many sorts of people, but that it doesn’t matter because each person is a soul redeemed by Christ and "one whom I wish to love and to serve."

Do not look at that person "over there" as the man who is not well- dressed, that is not dressed up to what your standard is. Rather, look at him as a soul in need of salvation who desperately needs to be clothed (or remain clothed) in the righteousness of Christ. Don’t look at the person "over here" who always seems to be in trouble, has been in jail several times, and who knows what else. Rather, look at him as a soul who needs deliverance.

Even in our own congregation, there are those of you who sit in the balcony, some in that back corner and some in the other; some in the middle and some in the front on either side. On a given Sunday, you may never meet nor converse with many of the people with whom you’ve worshipped. You have different jobs to which you go during the week, you have different friends, different places you go, different things you do, but when you come together LOVE ONE ANOTHER. Love one another with a love that seeks the soul’s benefit because all the other things matter nothing. It doesn’t matter where you sit. It doesn’t matter where you work or what you do as long as you do it to the glory of God (cf: 1 Corinthians 10:31) and look out for each other’s spiritual well-being.

III.

This "Calvary Love" that glorifies God and follows Christ’s self-sacrificing example, also then declares our discipleship. Jesus says, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” [v.35]

Last week we celebrated Mission Festival and heard of all the opportunities and ways by which we can convey the Gospel of Christ to those in need. One of the greatest ways of all is to show love to one another because that will "shine" in this world of hatred and false love.

In the early New Testament, secular historians recorded the observations of the unbelieving heathen around the growing Christian Church. They said, "Behold! How they love one another!" In those early New Testament days, the people outside of the church couldn’t help but notice the bond that the Christians shared. They couldn’t help but see the LOVE that they not only had for "this Savior" but for one another. They supported one another, they helped one another, they bore one another’s burdens (cf: Acts 2:44ff), and people saw and noticed.

Now too, people will notice if we love one another. If we as a Christian congregation love one another, supporting one another, helping, bearing each other’s burdens, guiding, correcting, admonishing, encouraging, and the whole realm of Christian fellowship, others WILL notice.

If we love one another as we go out into the world and show them the love of Christ in what we say and how we deal with them, they WILL notice, God’s Word will be proclaimed, and our discipleship declared.

Our love for one another and the declaration of our discipleship also becomes assurance for us. As we find that love of Christ working in us and see our love for one another growing as a result ("We love Him because He first loved us, 1 John 4:19) that will be a testimony from the Holy Spirit that we are children of God. Returning once again to our epistle reading, “…whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him…” (1 John 2:5). As we show love to God by following His will, our exercising of Christ-like love is also a testimony—a strong testimony—that we belong to Him.

So this morning, as communicants come forward to individually, personally, and also together receive the blessings of God’s love from Calvary, you will be receiving the very body and blood of Christ. Think of the love and glory that comes to you in that! You are receiving the sacrifice of the Son of God which He offered for You. He is giving this to YOU to assure YOU that YOUR sins are washed away! With that strength and reassurance for your faith, go forward and love one another just as Christ has so graciously loved you. Amen.

—Pastor Wayne C. Eichstadt