Sermon 2: A New Command For A New Life

Sermon 2

A New Command for a New Life

Principal “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved Text you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34)

Summary Our life in Christ is blessed with joy if we respond appropriately to Jesus’ command that we love others as he has loved us.

Key Terms New, as I, must

Outline

Scripture The Scripture that I am going to be talking about today is found in Introduction the gospel of John at Chapter 13, verse 34.

This verse falls within what is known as the Farewell Discourse of Jesus, which runs roughly from John Chapter 13 through the end of Chapter 17.

The initial setting of the Farewell Discourse is the Last Supper, which as you know took place on the night before Jesus died on the cross for us. Jesus had gathered the disciples to celebrate the Passover.

This particular Passover, though, was different from every other Passover celebration that had ever been celebrated. It was not only a celebration of God’s grace in delivering Israel from the bondage of Egypt, as it had always been. But it was also the occasion on which Jesus chose to reveal more fully a new expression of God’s grace that would make it possible for us to be in the loving presence of God now, and for all eternity. By God’s grace, we would have a new life in Christ. What was new about this new life in Christ? Several things, each of which were revealed at this Passover dinner:

First, a New Covenant between God and people, made possible by Christ’s death for us on the cross, that whoever entrusts his or her life to Jesus as Lord and Savior will have eternal life with God.

Second, a New Celebration of God’s grace, in what we call communion.

Third, a New Connection with God in Christ, through the person of the Holy Spirit.

And finally, a New Commandment that would embody, that would enable, and that would characterize our new life in Christ.

It was a New Command for our New Life in Christ

This new command is first recorded at John 13:34. Jesus said to his disciples:

Scripture John 13:34 (NIV) Reading 34"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."

Prayer Father, you sent your Son to proclaim this New Command. Please open our hearts wide to receive it. Teach us through your Holy Spirit how we should respond to it. Enable us to glorify you through our obedience to Christ’s command. As we obey, Father, help us to experience your presence more deeply, and to rejoice in our relationship with you. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen

-2- Sermon I think that it’s likely that almost everyone in this room has, at one Introduction time or another, read the words of John 13:34. My experience with discussing Christ’s new command with others, though, reminds me at times of a story that a dear friend of mine told me. It’s a story about a famous Presbyterian minister named Samuel Rutherford, who lived in the 17th Century.

Rutherford was a pious and eloquent Christian minister and author. He was known for his spiritual and devotional work, including a book entitled Letters. A famous preacher named Charles Spurgeon said that Rutherford’s Letters were “the nearest thing to inspiration which can be found in all the writings of mere men.” Rutherford was also a member of the Scottish delegation to the Westminster Assembly, which wrote the Westminster Confession of Faith.

In any case, one Saturday, a pauper appeared at Rutherford’s door, asking for a room for the night. Rutherford took him in, and apparently went back to preparing for the following morning’s sermon. Meanwhile, it was Mrs. Rutherford’s custom to gather her servants and any visitors on Saturday night to teach them on some religious subject. This gave her husband a chance to finish up his sermon.

When everyone had gathered, Mrs. Rutherford asked, “How many commandments are there?” The pauper answered, “Eleven.” Mrs. Rutherford later told her husband that the pauper was unusually ignorant in matters of religion because he didn’t even know how many commandments there were. She apparently didn’t ask the pauper why he had answered “eleven,” nor did Mr. Rutherford disagree with his wife’s assessment of the pauper’s religious knowledge.

Well, how many commandments do you think there are? This is not a trivial question. It's not like asking whether you know how many continents there are, or whether you know the boiling point of water. It's not like asking how many apostles there were, or -3- whether you can name all the books of the Bible.

The reasonthis is not a trivial question is that the quality of our relationships with Christ and others, and the amount of joy that we experience in those relationships, can be directly traced to our response to what the pauper called the 11th commandment.

Proposition You see, our lives in Christ are richly blessed when we respond appropriately to his command that we love others as he has loved us.

How should we respond?

I would suggest that we should respond in at least three ways.

-4- Exposition I. Because Jesus’ command is new, we should notice its importance

Jesus drew attention to this command by saying that it was “new,” and then he emphasized its importance by calling it a command. It’s as though Jesus said, “Listen up! New rule!” And then Jesus used the word “command” to describe what he would ask us to do, which he had never done before in his entire earthly ministry, and would never do again! The word “command” is a word associated with a rule given by God himself. Jesus was emphasizing that he, as God himself, was commanding that we love each other as he had loved us.

And that wasn’t all. Jesus emphasized the importance of his command in at least three more ways:

First, Jesus used repetition. He spoke the command 3 times, which his hearers would have understood as a way to make the command emphatic. He first said the command at John 13:34, and then he repeated it at John 15:12, and then he repeated it again at John 15:17.

Second, Jesus used timing. He gave us the new command at the pinnacle of his ministry, at the same time that he proclaimed the new covenant, the new celebration of God’s grace in communion, and the new connection to God through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Third, Jesus made explicit statements to emphasize the importance of the new command. Statements like these:

John 13:35: “By this, all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” This verse comes right after the new commandment itself, so it is clear that Christ’s particular kind of love would distinguish his disciples from those who were not his disciples.

-5- John 14:15: “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

John 15:10-12: “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 1I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

In spite of all of Christ’s emphasis on the importance of the new command, the new command goes unnoticed by many of us. Reverend and Mrs. Rutherford apparently didn’t notice it either, based on their reaction to the pauper.

Do you now see the importance of this command? I hope that our response to the new command will demonstrate that we understand its importance.

-6- II. Because Jesus’ command is not optional, we should obey it.

Jesus didn’t say, “A new suggestion I give you: . . . As I have loved you, so you have the option to love one another.” What he said was, “A new command I give you: . . . . As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

We must obey, because our Lord commands. He has the authority to command us, because he is God. We also have a moral obligation to obey him. Before we loved him, he first loved us by dying for us on the cross. “Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other” (1 John 4:11). We should love one another as Jesus first loved us.

According to opinion surveys, a surprising number of us have not made the connection between the love that we receive from Jesus and the love that we are required to give to others. For example, according to a study done by the Barna Group, 45 percent of Christians say that the statement, “God’s grace enables me to forgive people who have hurt me,” does NOT completely apply to them.

How is it possible that Jesus could die on the cross to purchase our forgiveness from God, and yet we feel entitled to refuse to forgive each other?

We should respond to Christ’s command by accepting it as a command, rather than as a suggestion.

So our first response to Jesus’ new command should be to notice its importance and our second response should be to resolve to obey it as a command.

Which brings us to our third response . . .

-7- III. Because Jesus’ command is relational, we should rejoice in it.

We can see that this command is relational in three ways:

First, the command itself specifically relates, or compares, or aligns Christ’s love for us to our love for others. It says, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” To relate to Christ’s love in this way, we have to become students of his love for us. And there are so many ways that Jesus loves us.

He offers us a relationship of love. He came on a mission from heaven to save us. He treats us humbly, in obedience to God. He forgives us. And he serves us.

We are filled with joy when we become students of Christ’s love for us. Let’s rejoice in his love!

Second, Christ’s command is relational because we can’t obey it without an ongoing, personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t give us the command and then leave us alone. He is with us every step of the way, giving us the wisdom and strength that we need to obey his command.

And our obedience to the command is an expression of gratitude to Christ.

When we forgive others, it’s a way of saying, “Thank you, Jesus, for forgiving me.”

When we offer loving service to others, it is our way of saying, “Thank you, Jesus, for sending others to serve me.”

When we provide food, or clothes, or money to others, it is our way of saying, “Thank you, Jesus, for providing me with food, and with clothes, and with money. -8- We are filled with joy when we experience our personal relationship with Jesus as we reflect his love to others.

Third, this command is relational in that it tends to improve our relationship with other people in remarkable ways, and this also prompts us to rejoice. I’ve seen Jesus restore broken families and broken marriages and broken friendships as a result of obedience to this command.

Are you willing to enter a new phase in your relationship with Jesus by following in his footsteps of love?

-9- Conclusion Jesus wants us to have a loving relationship with him that spills over into the lives of others through obedience to his new command. If we take notice of the importance of Jesus' new command, and obey it, we will find joy in our relationships that is only possible through Christ.

I’ll conclude by returning briefly to the story about Reverend and Mrs. Rutherford.

You recall that Mrs. Rutherford had thought that the pauper was woefully ignorant in matters of religion, because the pauper thought that there were eleven commandments, rather than ten.

On Sunday morning, Reverend Rutherford got up very early in the morning to go to church, in order to pray and read Scripture before preaching. On the way, he came upon the pauper, who was praying out loud. When Rutherford heard the pauper’s prayers, it became clear from the depth of the prayers that the pauper was in fact a highly-educated, deeply-devoted Christian. The pauper then admitted that he was not a pauper at all. He was an Episcopal Archbishop named Usher. The Archbishop had wanted to hear Rutherford preach, but because of the hostility at the time between the Episcopal Church and the Church of Scotland, the Archbishop was afraid to reveal his true identity, until then.

Rutherford, to his credit, responded lovingly and humbly. He asked the Archbishop to preach that morning. The Archbishop chose John 13:34 as his text, and it was in the course of that sermon that Rutherford and his wife apparently learned of the importance of the eleventh commandment—Christ’s new commandment.

So I ask this: How have you responded to Christ’s new command? Have you dismissed it, as Mrs. Rutherford did at first, or have you embraced it, as she did when the Archbishop preached?

-10- Whether you have ever noticed the importance of Christ’s new command before, I hope that you now understand how important your response to this command is to our Savior.

Will you pledge, with God’s help, to obey this command? If you do, God’s Word promises that you will experience loving relationships with Jesus and others. Christ’s joy will then be in you, and your joy will be complete. And the world will know that we are followers of Christ, who lives, and reigns, and loves each of us to the very end.