the mark of a christian

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Series: Conversations with Jesus
John 13:31-35
“The Mark of a Christian”
Symbols - we see them and we immediately think of what is behind the brand
- Let’s see how well we do…
While the cross is perhaps the most prominent symbol of the church
- Jesus used a different symbol to distinguish His disciples
- John 13:34-35 (read)
- Jesus shared these words, part of a larger talk, in an upper room
- Final words, as He was transitioning, preparing to leave
- Words to His disciples, words to us, the church, which in effect said:
- “If you’re going to be My community…”
- “If there is to be an uprising, a revolution…”
- “If you are going to be My blessing, receive My blessing…”
- “If you are going to effectively engage culture and change this world…”
- “Then several things must happen.”
- We’ve looked at the first
1) YOU MUST CREATE A CULTURE OF SERVANTHOOD
- Jesus got up from the table, took off His outer garment, took up a towel and basin and said:
- “The way of God is the path of servant hood, that’s the first lesson in the upper room”
- “If you’re going to represent Me, be Jesus wherever you go”
- Then “Be a servant because I am a servant”
- “I came not to be served, but to serve. It must be the same with you.”
- “If you are intent on pushing yourself to the top, then realize this - you are pushing yourself from Me.”
- And here’s the second
2) YOU MUST BE A COMMUNITY DEFINED BY ITS LOVE
- “My people will not be known by their nationality, ethnicity, language, locality”
- Jesus said, “My disciples, My church, will be distinguished by its love for one another”
- But love can mean a lot of things
Illustration – some magazine recently did a whole cover story on the new science of love
- Which turned out to be a lengthy article on how people in increasing numbers are using the internet to find lasting love
- Be it eHarmony or Chemistry.com
- Or a number of other more niche websites, including:
- Rider2love.com, that brings bikers together for a ride or for a lifetime
- Singlefirefighters.com, where you can meet a firefighter without calling 999
- But Jesus was talking about something else, a different sort of love
- Commanding a behavior that, in fact, was new; never before witnessed
- But what is so new about loving one another?
- Wasn’t Jesus aware that the command to love one another had been around since Moses (Leviticus 19:18)?
- It’s when we read on we begin to discover that Jesus was speaking of something that both fulfills and exceeds the law
- More than love one another; Jesus called them to something far more profound
- Something that would brand them, mark them as His
- Be the foundational ethic for the new messianic community
- Love one another as I have loved you
- So what does this look like?
- How did, how does, Jesus love?
- What kind of love sets His people apart, defines them as different?
A) IT IS A LOVE WITHOUT CONDITIONS
- A love deep and constant and penetrating
- Transcending race, economics, status, and every other divide established by man
- This is how Jesus loved, He started with the least
- He went out of His way to love those lives that were a wreck (John 4)
- Crossed lakes to reach the utterly worst of society (Mark 5)
- Went out of His way to love even the unresponsive (John 5)
- Went out of His way to love scandalously
- Bring dignity to the marginalized
- Remove shame from the shamed (John 8)
- Declare that while behavior matters, it’s just not how you get LOVED in
God’s kingdom
- How do I know this is true?
- His love goes out of its way, setting no conditions to love me, everyday, no matter how much I mess up
Application - This is what sets the church apart
- People who love without conditions
- Who love people out of failure
- Who love, even in the midst of disagreement
- Who love inclusively, loving even the unlovely
B) IT IS A LOVE THAT IS STRAIGHTFORWARD
- A love does not dance around
- Not a wimp-like love afraid to say what must be said
- Jesus never flinched from declaring truth, knowing the truth is what sets us free
- A love that did not aspire to be nice
- In fact, most of the time Jesus was not so nice
- Kind, but not nice
- He loved people too much to be politically correct, to say what people wanted to hear
- Rather, because He loved this world, and because He saw the severity of the human condition, Jesus was severe
- Warning those who rejected Him, “If you do not believe in Me, you will die in your sins” (John 24)
- Because He loves this lost world
Application to His disciples
- This is not a license to be mean
- Love straight on
- Love such that truth is spoken, but speak it in love
C) IT IS A LOVE THAT IS GENEROUS
- That expends itself out
- Jesus loved, and loves, with a love that pours out
- Hence, He likened Himself to bread to be eaten, water to be drunk, a vine to receive life (verses 6, 7,15)
- He loved His disciples to the uttermost (John 13:1)
- As much as they could possibly be loved
- This was not a love that trickled out
Illustration - …………
Application - Jesus is saying, “My kind of love does not turn on, turn off, trickle out”
- So let it flow, lavish one another with your love
D) IT IS A LONG RANGE LOVE
- That looks beyond the immediate, to what is best from an eternal perspective
- More interested in expanding faith than accommodating your desire for today
- “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there SO THAT YOU MIGHT BELIEVE” (John 11:14)
- Jesus often seemed to be insensitive to the immediate need
- Not because He did not care, but because He cares too much
- Sometimes we miss God’s love in the moment because we are not seeing something bigger that He is doing, which is an even greater demonstration of His love
Application - love this way, that always asks “what is the highest love I can show?”
E) IT IS A HOLY AND PURE LOVE
- In every relationship, the love of Jesus never lowered itself to something impure, to tangled affections, to the disordered desires of the flesh
- He loved too much to allow this to happen
Application to His disciples - let your affections, your embrace, even your kiss be holy
- Free of something self-centered, something disloyal
F) IT IS A SACRIFICIAL LOVE
- Willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice
- Dying to self, even all the way to physical death
- Which is the essence of love
- This is how we know what love is Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters (I John 3:16)
Application - love so profoundly you’re willing to die for one another
- Sounds pretty impossible; AND IT IS!!!
- It is not found within us
- Its sheer demand and depth cannot be summoned on our own
THIS IS A LOVE THAT CAN ONLY BE LIVED OUT WHEN PEOPLE EXPERIENCE NEW LIFE IN CHRIST
- It can only be shown from a saved heart, from one who has been divinely transformed in the depths of one’s being
IT IS A LOVE THAT CAN ONLY BE EXPRESSED WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS COMPLETE CONTROL OF OUR LIVES
- And when we do love with the power of the Spirit
- It will become the visible authentication of the gospel
- The defining mark of a Christian (Schaeffer)
- The church’s apologetic, it’s rallying cry, it’s amazing outreach, people will be drawn in, everyday.
- At points, such communities have existed, and have impacted the world
- Tertullian, an early church father, reported that the pagans in his day did take notice
- “Behold, how these Christians love each other! How ready they are to die for each other”
- Various orders have existed, still exist, that take these words with utmost seriousness
- Believers who have banded together to support and encourage one another
- Communities bound by a set of commitments
- Infused with a grand sense of mutual covenant
- To bless one another
- Listen to one another
- Learn from one another
- Give to one another’s needs
- And forgive one another’s failures
- But in all too many places, the church is not known by its love, but by the opposite
- Its bigotry, its divisiveness, its criticalness, its judgmentalism, and yes - its hate
- Is this st johns and King’s park “brand”? Do we hate or do we love?
- I hope we love, I know we love, will we love more?
- I know this, that just even this year, I have been amazed at all this church as done, largely in the name of love
- What we intend to do in our own neighborhood: clean up, pray, care, share
- But it has to be the same love within
- Where we bear up with one another, forgive one another, persevere with one another
- Affectionately embrace one another
- For unless we do, the world cannot see the character of Jesus
- And given the world as it is today, is there anything the world needs more than this?
“You can make a difference in your world…if you are different from your world.”