Introduction:
3 Things Jesus Said About God's Glory (John 13:31-38):
- Jesus Glorified God on the Cross. (John 13:31)
- God Will Glorify Jesus with the Resurrection. (John 13:32a,32b)
- Jesus Will Be Glorified Without Delay. (John 13:32c)
Knowing His New Commandment:
- I Must love people how Jesus loves. (John 13:34)
- Served Them (John 13:5)
- Comforted Them (Matt 14:27)
- Prayed for Them (John 17:9)
- Admonished Them (Matt 16:8-11)
- Forgave Them (John 21:15)
- Patient
- Impartial
- Self-sacrificing
- Forgiving
- Gracious
How did Jesus love? (His action)
How did Jesus love? (His heart)
- I Can't love Jesus how people love (John 13:36-38)
John 7:38-39 - "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:54-01:21
John chapter 13. If you're visiting with us today, we see some new faces. It is so good to see you and if you're streaming for the first time It's good to see you too, even though you're seeing me and I'm not seeing you but you know what I mean but if you're new around here, I just Want to let you know we're in a sermon series called knowing Jesus. That's what we're going after as a church. It's nothing fancy But it is eternally significant.
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That we're going after God's Word, and our goal is to move from knowing about Jesus to knowing Jesus.
01:30-01:39
Every passage that we're looking at in the Gospel of John, we're asking what do we learn so we can grow in knowing Jesus?
01:39-01:40
That's what we're going after here.
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And as we get to this section in particular, John 13-16, this section is everything a disciple of Jesus Christ needs to know.
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This is Jesus' last lesson to His disciples before the cross.
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And He begins with the most appropriate subject.
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Today we're going to talk about love.
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So let's go right after it.
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What is love?
02:11-02:15
You know, all week I've been practicing asking that question.
02:16-02:17
What is love?
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hearing that song in my head, "Baby don't hurt me." Come on, everybody.
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Okay, some of you clearly don't know what I'm talking about, but some others of you clearly do.
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What'd you do this week?
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Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.
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Sorry, I tried to think of another way to phrase that.
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is the most overused and least understood term because we use it for everything, right? Like I could say I love my wife. We celebrated 19 years of marital bliss this past week. Big hand for Erin. Yes, yes, yes.
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She deserves all that and more for the last 19 years.
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We say, "I love my wife, I love my kids, I love my dogs, I love hockey, I love Chick-fil-A, we use love for everything." So what is it?
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Well, I Googled it.
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Boy, that was a mistake.
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I went to this website, it was some psychological website explaining what love is from a very, oh, it was, you could tell, somebody thought they were being very clever and intelligent and lofty here.
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But they said love is positive thoughts.
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It's a physical passion that becomes a companionship.
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But there are a couple quotes on this website that just cracked me up.
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What is love?
03:58-04:00
Don't write this down, okay?
04:00-04:11
But if they said, "Love evolved in order to keep parents "and children together long enough "for the children to survive." And I thought that could be a Mother's Day sermon right there.
04:12-04:12
(congregation laughing)
04:13-04:14
That's why we have love.
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So you don't punt those little rascals.
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And then here's another quote.
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Don't write this one down either.
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Here's another quote about love that just warmed me in the heart of hearts of my hearts right here.
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It says, "Historical evidence..." It's so stupid.
04:35-04:47
It says, "Historical evidence suggests love existed in the ancient world." And I was like, "Somebody's getting paid to write this stuff!" Can you believe that?
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There are people in the ancient world that loved each other.
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Can you believe that?
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So dumb.
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Love is the subject of just everything, right?
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so many movies and books and songs.
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What's your favorite song about love?
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Shout it out if you got one.
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What's your favorite love song?
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Okay, nobody's got one.
05:07-05:08
Awesome.
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How about, ♪ All you need is love ♪ Come on.
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♪ All you need is love ♪ ♪ Love, love, love is all you need ♪ Oh, thank you, thank you.
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Try to, come on, let's try to keep up here.
05:24-05:25
It's raining.
05:26-05:30
Like 95% of you just disqualified yourself from the worship team.
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But a couple of you really shined there, I gotta tell ya.
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And Darren is taking note, a couple of you really shined there.
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Shout out to the Beatles.
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You're like, "Are we gonna talk about the Bible?
05:42-05:46
"I think we should." Let's look at verse 31.
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It says, "When he had gone out, "Jesus said, 'Now is the Son of Man glorified.'" Stop there. Gone out. Who went out?
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This is talking about Judas, right?
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Remember last week, Jesus called Judas out.
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You're going to betray me here.
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This is the one that's going to betray me.
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And Jesus dismissed Judas, told him to leave.
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Now Jesus can address the true disciples.
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That's why Jesus wanted Judas out of there.
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Look, I got a lot of things I need to say to the real people here.
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So you go do what you're gonna do.
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Time's running out.
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But notice it says, "Now is the Son of Man glorified." Now it's time.
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The moment of glory is here.
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You see, Jesus sending Judas away.
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Do you realize what Jesus did?
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He was pulling the trigger on His own death because Judas leaving was about to start a chain of events that was about to happen very, very, very soon.
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The betrayal of Jesus, Jesus' arrest, the trial of Jesus, ultimately leading to the crucifixion of Jesus.
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Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified." What do we mean glorified?
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What is glory?
06:56-07:06
I just want to take a second and remind us, we've talked about this so many times in the past, but I just want to give us a quick reminder because this word comes up five times right here.
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And glory is just simply this.
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It's God's presence made known.
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That's what glory is.
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That's what glory is.
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God manifesting His presence so that we know God is here.
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That's glory.
07:25-07:29
I just want you to see three things that Jesus said about God's glory.
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Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him." The first thing Jesus is saying is, "Jesus glorified God on the cross." This is what He's talking about.
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the cross, when Jesus Christ was on the cross, all of the attributes of God were perfectly on display.
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Again, a lot of this is review because this is a theme that has come up throughout John.
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But everything you need to know about God, you see while Jesus was on the cross.
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You see it.
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All the questions that we have, does God love people?
08:02-08:03
Does God love people?
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Look at the cross.
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That tells you how God feels about us.
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He sent his son to die on our behalf.
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Does God love people?
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Does God hate sin?
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Look at the cross.
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That shows you how much God hates sin.
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His son had to die to pay the penalty for my sin.
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That's how much God hates sin.
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Is God sovereign?
08:24-08:25
Look at the cross.
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All of these evil men and their evil plans taking the spotless Son of God and executing Him and God sovereignly in His pen.
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That's how He offered the Lamb of God as a sacrifice to take away sin.
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Is God sovereign?
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Look at the cross.
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Yes, He is.
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Is God faithful?
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Is God faithful?
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Look at the cross.
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You see God's faithfulness on the cross.
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He promised.
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He promised a Redeemer.
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He promised one that would ultimately take our sins away.
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Look at the cross.
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God's faithful.
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So, Jesus glorified God on the cross.
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Letter B, Jesus is saying God will glorify Jesus with the resurrection.
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Look at verse 32, "Jesus said, 'If God has glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself.'" In other words, we're looking, it's not just a cross, it's the resurrection.
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That Jesus' resurrection would be the way that God forever exalts Jesus.
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Full glory, King of kings, Lord of lords, Jesus resurrected.
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That's how God was going to glorify Jesus Christ.
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The third thing Jesus says, letter C, write this down, "Jesus will be glorified without delay." Verse 32, "Jesus said, 'And glorify Him at once.'" We're literally hours away from the cross at this point.
09:50-10:00
I just want to pause here for a second because at this moment, this is right in the eve of some very horrible things happening.
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Jesus Christ was about to be horribly arrested and beaten within an inch of His life before being nailed to a cross and publicly executed and shamed.
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Horrible from man's perspective.
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I just want to pause here and say Jesus saw these horrible things that were coming and what did He say about them?
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God's about to be glorified.
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And I just want to remind you church right now in our world we look around and we see a lot of horrible things happening.
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True or false?
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True.
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A lot of horrible things are happening.
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And I just want to remind you, church, even though, like in this day, our day now, even though it looks like there are a lot of horrible things happening, Jesus Christ is about to be glorified.
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And it might not look like it now, but write that down.
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Jesus Christ is about to be glorified.
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We're going to talk more about that next week, but this week, we're talking about lessons for disciples.
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We're talking about here's what Jesus wants us to know.
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Look at verse 34.
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Here's how it kicks off.
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A lot of incredible teaching in these passages.
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Here's how it starts.
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Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.
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Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
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By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Pretty clear, isn't it?
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Jesus says, "Hey, my time for earthly teaching is about up.
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I've got to tell you some very important things.
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Here's number one.
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You guys got to love each other." In church, you know, I've been in the church business for 20-some years, and I can tell you and I know there are people here and watching that have been involved in church for even much longer than I have that can back me up on this.
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But when there are problems in the church, they are usually not doctrinal.
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999 times out of a thousand, when there are problems in the church, it boils down to someone or someone's refusing to love the way Jesus called us to love.
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It can show up in things like gossip, you know, tearing people down behind their backs, making people think less of someone.
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It can show up as criticism.
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You know, instead of encouraging people, instead of, "Hey, I'm going to be a part of making things better," you think that your spiritual giftedness is just constantly pointing out what's wrong.
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And it's not even wrong.
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It's just not your preferences.
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It just seems that so much hatred in the church shows up in words.
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Getting our snarky little sarcastic comments in, getting our shots in.
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And when the world looks at the church, too often sadly what they see is anything but love.
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The churches have a reputation not for the way we love each other, but for, "Do you hear all the problems they have at that church down there?
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None of them can get along, not even just within the church, but between churches.
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And the world looks at the church and the way that we treat each other sometimes, and the world says, "Why would I want to be a part of that group?
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There's nothing attractive about that.
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There's nothing that draws.
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There's nothing different.
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If I want to be around a bunch of backstabbing snakes, I'll just go to the bar or go to work or go home." So, today I want to talk about Jesus' new commandment.
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If you're taking notes, which I always encourage, knowing his new commandment, number one, write this down, "I must love people how Jesus loves." It's pretty clear, isn't it?
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I must love people how Jesus loves.
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Look at verse 34 again.
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Jesus said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.
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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." Now Jesus said this is a new commandment.
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Now what does that mean?
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You're like, "Jesus didn't have Google because if Jesus would have Googled this, he would have went to that website that said that even, what was that quote?
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Evidence suggests love existed in the ancient world.
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Jesus should have Googled that.
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What does he mean new?
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Well, he doesn't mean recent.
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I'm pretty sure Jesus knew that the command of love goes all the way back to Leviticus 19, 18, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Right?
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So it's not new as in recent, and it's not new as in different.
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It's not new as in different.
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This is a concept that we all know, even if we're not great at singing it, Beatles style, yet, it's a concept.
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Even people that don't know Jesus have the capacity to show love, right?
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So what's new about this?
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What's so new about this commandment?
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I'm going to tell you what's new.
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It's right here in the text.
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Write this down.
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It's new in example.
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This is what's new.
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It's the example.
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Did you see that?
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Jesus said, "Just as I have loved you." That's what's new about this.
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See, Jesus says love each other.
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Well, love each other how?
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Love you the way like my mom loved me?
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Love people the way, you know, my dog loves me?
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Love you the way the other elders in the church?
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Like how?
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Jesus said, "No, love others the way that I love you." That's what's new, the example.
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So the question is, well, how did Jesus love?
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I would keep you here until Father's Day listing them.
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I'm just going to give you five real quick.
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You go through the gospels, you're like, "Okay, how did Jesus love the disciples?" You know, and these are things that we're supposed to do for one another.
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Real quickly, Jesus showed love by, He served them, right?
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He served them.
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We did a whole sermon on that, John chapter 13, verse 5.
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Jesus washed the disciples' feet.
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That was a way of showing love.
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He served them.
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And in the same way, we are to serve one another.
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Talked a lot about that.
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Jesus comforted them.
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That was a way that He loved them.
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When they were scared, confused, fearful, anxious, Jesus was right there to comfort We're gonna talk all about that next week.
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So moving on, Jesus prayed for them.
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Jesus never lied when he said, "I'll pray for you." You know that?
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He prayed for them.
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And that's the way, one way that we love each other.
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We should be praying for each other, constantly lifting each other up in prayer, together and separately praying.
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Jesus, here's another way he loved them.
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He loved them by admonishing them.
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Like, "Ooh, that don't feel like love." No, it doesn't.
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But it is.
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And too often the church is bought into the same garbage that the world promotes and that if you don't agree with me, that means you hate me.
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Right?
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That's what the world says.
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If you don't agree with me, that means you hate me.
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No, I just don't agree with you.
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And we sort of adopt that in the church and we're shy about admonishing and certainly there's a right way to do it and there's a wrong way to do it, but there's a way to do it, to pull somebody aside and say, "Hey, I just want to talk to you about some of these things that you're doing, and is this honoring to Christ, and help me understand, and this is something that God's Word gives clear teaching that we shouldn't be doing this, so I want to talk to you about that." But it's love that admonishes.
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If you see somebody sinning, which is ultimately self-destruction and destruction to others, it would be unloving to just ignore that.
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Love admonishes lovingly.
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And Jesus, He forgave them.
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That was one way that He loved them.
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He forgave them.
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So Jesus says, "You love each other the way that I loved you." And we're like, "Okay, we have a list.
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We have our list.
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This is how Jesus loved, and these are the things that absolutely, this is what we need to do.
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And I could say, "Okay, we're done." But while it is these kinds of acts, it is also the heart behind these kinds of acts.
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You see, we could just go through and make a list of all the stuff that Jesus did, and to mechanically and legalistically promote that in the church.
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Keep the checklist, make sure you're doing those things.
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And we can put on the facade, and we're just trying to look and act nice when deep down it's not in the heart.
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And what is that when you're just putting on a show?
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What is that?
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You're pretending to be something you're not, what is that?
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Hypocrisy?
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Remember, remember when we had that message on hypocrisy?
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Remember that?
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You're like, "Oh, please don't preach that one again." You see, it's not just about going through the motions with a cold, hateful heart.
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That's how some people view it.
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That's how some people do it.
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It's kind of like when you're in a...
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Remember when you were in a fight in high school?
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Remember those fights?
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I was in one fight in high school that my mom knew about.
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the fight, the gym coach broke us up and he said, "Now shake hands!" And you know how it is. Come on, am I the only one? Okay, thank you. Thank you, Kaylee. You know how it is. He's like, "Now shake hands!" We didn't like embrace and go play Connect Four and have Doritos. It was not even looking at each other. We went through the motion, but our heart wasn't in it.
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And that's how some people, "Okay, okay, these are the things that we have to do." But it's also following Jesus' example of the heart that he had behind it.
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So let me ask you again, how did Jesus love?
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Let's talk about the heart.
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Jesus' love is patient.
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Even when they didn't get him, even when they didn't agree with him, even when they completely messed up, Jesus still loved them.
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He still loved them.
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He was patient.
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How are you doing there?
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Are you loving like Jesus that way?
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Or does your patience and therefore your love run out on people?
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It sure didn't for Jesus.
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Are you loving like him?
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Jesus' love was impartial.
21:24-21:27
Jesus' love wasn't just for the type of people he preferred.
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It wasn't just for the type of people he preferred.
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Anybody can love their friends.
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Anybody can do that.
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Jesus' love shows up in the church when we learn how to actively and sincerely love people that we might not prefer.
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You know what I'm talking about.
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Don't point, okay?
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Don't point at anybody in the room, especially not me.
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But it's hard to love people that you don't prefer, that you don't see eye to eye.
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You have different...you're coming from different places.
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And Jesus had quite a mixed group of disciples, and he loved them all.
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Do you love like that?
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That it's truly impartial?
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Jesus loved with self-sacrificing.
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You know, I've been reading this Bible a long time, and I can't think of any verses where Jesus put his needs over anybody else's.
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I just can't think of any.
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It just seems that Jesus was constantly putting other people's needs ahead of His own.
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Constantly.
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He was constantly self-sacrificing, not just on the cross, which was the ultimate, but Jesus was constantly self-sacrificing, even leading up to the cross.
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Do you love like that?
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Or is your love only when it's convenient for you, on your terms?
22:51-22:52
Jesus' love was forgiving.
22:53-23:01
You're like, "Yeah, you talked about forgiveness in the last list, Pastor Jeff." Again, not like shaking hands after the high school fight forgiving.
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Jesus sincerely forgave people.
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He was about forgiveness and restoration.
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Jesus didn't hold it against people.
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Jesus wasn't constantly bringing people's sins back up to them.
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Remember the time you did this?
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Remember the time you did this?
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Jesus is about forgiveness and restoration and moving on.
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How are you doing there?
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Are you loving like Jesus?
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Jesus' love was gracious.
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There's not a one of them that deserved it, but he loved them despite knowing who they really were.
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You know, you can give an excuse for not loving somebody in this church and say, you know, Jeff, you just, you don't know them like I do.
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Well, nobody knows you like Jesus does.
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He loves you anyways.
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Do you love people like that?
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Gracious.
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We could go on.
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But I want you to look at verse 35.
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Jesus said, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." This is the most visible and practical mark of a disciple.
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Jesus did not say, "By this, the world will know that you are my disciple if you have perfect doctrine." That's how they'll know is when your doctrine is just right across the board.
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That's not what He said.
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Jesus didn't say, "By this, the world will know that you're my disciples if you have awesome musicians leading your worship." And we do, but that's not what He said.
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Jesus didn't say, "By this the world will know you're my disciples.
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If you don't skimp on the coffee in the guest reception." But notice Jesus didn't even say, "The world will know that we're His disciples by the way we love the world." See, that's kind of what I wanted to say.
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"Oh, they're going to know.
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They're going to know I belong to Jesus by the way I love them." He didn't even say that.
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Jesus said, "The world's going to know that you belong to Him by the way you love each other in this room." That's what they're going to see, and that's what's going to prove to them that we belong to Jesus.
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You see, Jesus Christ might not physically be here yet.
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He's coming.
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But until then, He might not be here physically, but His love is here.
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That's what the world needs to see, is the love of Jesus Christ manifested among the people who say we belong to Jesus Christ.
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That's what they need to see.
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How are we doing, church?
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Because the world, they might not join us, some of them will, and they might not agree with us, but they're going to know that we are truly disciples of Jesus Christ in the way that we love each other.
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So knowing His new commandment, I must love people how Jesus loves.
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But secondly, write this down, number two, I can't love Jesus how people love.
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What do you mean by that?
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Well, just write it down.
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We're going to explain that.
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You must love people how Jesus loves, but you can't love Jesus how people love.
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Look at verse 36.
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Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus answered him, "Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward." Peter said to him, "Lord, why can I not follow you now?
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I will lay down my life for you." Jesus answered, "Will you lay down your life for me?
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Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times." Verse 36, Peter's question, you know, Jesus, he talked about, he talked about leaving.
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Verse 33, little children, yet a little while I am with you, you will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come.
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And then he launches into teaching about the new commandment, right?
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And at this point, Peter's like, okay, love, Yes, yes, yes, love, got it, got it.
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But Jesus, can we circle back to that thing you said before the whole love speech about where I'm going, you cannot come.
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Can we talk about that?
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Because you know, Jesus said that a lot.
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We've seen a couple instances already in John where Jesus uses this language and he's going to use it some more.
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And Peter's just like, "Hey, I want to talk about that, Jesus," because you keep saying stuff like that, and where are you going?
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And Jesus replies, "Well, you can't follow me now, but you'll follow me later." And Peter's like, "Why not now?
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I'll die for you." And can you imagine the shock?
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Peter's like, "I will die for you." And Jesus just looks at him and says, "You're going to deny that you even know me." Three times.
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Peter had to have been just completely floored by that.
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You're like, "Well, how do you know that?" Do you realize through the rest of this discourse, Peter doesn't say another word.
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Other disciples speak up, but Peter, who's usually the guy that speaks up, doesn't say a word through the rest of this teaching.
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And I believe it's because he was so shocked by this statement.
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Now listen, I believe a thousand percent that Peter was sincere here.
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And I believe that Jesus knew that Peter was sincere in this moment.
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He meant this.
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When he said it right here, I believe that Peter meant that.
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But this is a totally unreliable kind of commitment that Peter was offering up.
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Let me explain that, because you can't miss this.
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Peter's statement was coming from his flesh.
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from, we'll call it, natural affection.
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Now when you read about Peter in the Gospels, I believe this, I believe this a thousand percent.
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I believe that Peter probably had the same type of affection for all of the people in his life that he cared about.
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I believe that.
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I believe he would have said something like this to his wife, like, "Baby, I would die for you!" And she's like, "Oh, Peter, you're my rock." He's like, "That's what Jesus says." That's what Jesus calls me, the rock.
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I believe that Peter would have said this about his in-laws.
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I believe Peter would have said this about the other disciples.
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I believe Peter would have said this about Andrew.
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Hey, you know what, you don't mess with my brother.
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I would die for him.
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I think that's just the kind of guy that Peter was.
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Yet Jesus' reply was, you're gonna deny three times that you even know me.
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Here's the point, church.
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Too many Christians believe that natural affection is enough.
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But that kind of love cannot do God's work.
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Some people think if we just have this sort of eye of the tiger, like from the flesh attitude about following Jesus that that's going to do it and it won't.
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What do you mean by that?
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Have you ever been around a brand new believer that just has so much zeal?
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You know what I'm talking about?
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Raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about.
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You've been around those people?
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Aaron and I could give you a list of people that we've known over the years.
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They're these new believers and they are so fired up that they're trying to be like John the Baptist 2.0.
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They're just like boldly in everybody's face rebuking him.
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You know what I'm talking about?
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They go to their own grandma and they're like, "Grandma, you can't be spending money on bingo.
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You're being a poor steward with what God's entrusted you." offense everybody. You know what I'm talking about? And they think that they're just like killing it and they look like man with that kind of zeal that guy's gonna change the world. They fizzle out.
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How many times have we seen that Aaron? Like dozens and dozens and dozens of times they fizzle out. Why?
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Because like Simon Peter they didn't understand the weakness of the flesh.
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And But the boasting is foolish.
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The natural zeal is not going to get the job done.
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And having an emotionally bold and sometimes explosive personality like Peter, not going to get the job done.
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So here's the point, church.
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You can't simply love Jesus the way that people naturally love.
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You're like, "All right, what did I learn in church today?" The preacher said, "I can't love Jesus the way that people love." I said, "What do I do?
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"What do I do?" Here it is.
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You're gonna wanna write this down.
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We must revel not in our love for Jesus.
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We must revel in Jesus' love for us.
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Do you see the difference?
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Do you see the difference?
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That you're gonna go out and you're gonna change the world because I love Jesus so much!
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Well, maybe you do today.
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Maybe you're feeling it today.
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Maybe emotionally you're plowing through today, but that's inconsistent.
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But let me tell you something that is consistent.
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Jesus loved for you.
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And when you live in that, to say I'm doing what I'm doing because Jesus Christ loves me, because of what He's done for me, do you see the difference?
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It's a matter of power.
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It's a matter of origin and source, and where does it come from?
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Because everyone has natural people love on some level, But there is a kind of love that only comes from transformed lives.
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There's a kind of love that only comes from God's Holy Spirit.
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And it's a love that God's Spirit pours through you.
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And apart from God's Spirit, you don't have it, and therefore you can't give it.
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Call back to John chapter 7.
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Talked about this a while ago in our series, but this verse is just really, these two verses just really just jumped out at me.
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Jesus is talking about this very thing.
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Look at what He says here, "Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." What are you talking about, Jesus?
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"Now this He said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive.
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For as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." And I've got to tell you, like I told you back then, when I look at this verse, in my mind when I think of this verse, when I think of this passage, when I hear it in my head, what I hear is Jesus said, "Whoever believes in me, into his heart will flow rivers of water." But that's not what He said.
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He said, "Out, out of the heart flows the rivers of water." When you believe in Jesus Christ, yes, He pours into you being filled with the Spirit, yes.
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But Jesus here specifically was saying that the rivers flow out, and that's where the power comes from.
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This is the kind of love that He's called us to, and this is the kind of love, church, that He has equipped us for.
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So yes, yes, yes, Simon Peter boasted in the flesh, and he failed.
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But if you turn your Bible over a few pages to the book of Acts, and you see this same man at Pentecost, Acts chapter 2, you're going to see a man who is full of the Holy Spirit.
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You're going to see a different man.
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So how do I fulfill the new commandment?
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I would say live in Jesus' love.
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How do I love the church family the way Jesus said to love the church family?
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Live in Jesus' love.
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How do I love Jesus in a way that I won't fail Him?
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Live in Jesus' love.
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Church, we can't be like Peter and revel in our love for Jesus.
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Look at how much we love Him.
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Look at everything we do for Jesus.
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Look at how much we love Him.
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We can't revel in that.
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What we as a church have to revel in and glorify God in and praise Him for is this glorious And it's truth that He loves us.
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Because when you know about Jesus, you know about love.
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But if you want to truly know love, you have to know Jesus.
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Let's pray.
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Father in Heaven, what a command You've given us.
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And at first glance, it might seem like, what's so new and profound about that?
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When we slow down and really understand what Jesus was saying, Father, it is more new and it is more profound than we can wrap our little brains around.
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So Father, I just simply pray for this church that, Father, you've given us a commandment.
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This isn't optional, but you've also given us the power to fulfill it because it's not about our love for you as much as it is about your love for us.
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Because your word tells us that we love because you first loved us.
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So Father, I pray you would just enrapture us in this profound love of Jesus Christ and let those rivers of living water flow out as Jesus promised.
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In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 13:31-38
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
What is “New” about the New Commandment? (John 13:34)
What are some ways you see love lacking in the church?
“We must revel not in our love for Jesus, but in His love for us.” Explain what this means. How do we go about doing this, specifically?
Breakout
Pray for one another.