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Let's put a mighty, many word to his work in our hearts and may we grow in the grace and the knowledge of the one who sold us, that he gave himself for us in his name. Amen.
Do we have a, oh, I have nothing to write with all this time. Has everybody got a piece of paper that's got these on there? Ladies in the corner, do y 'all need these? Y 'all need one of these?
How many you need back there, three? You got one, Miss Pam? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10.
That's just a cool looking word. That's why I wrote it up there. That is the great word for one another. And I put these down here because if you're ever looking through your, I don't know how many of y 'all use the interliterary, but you'll see that it has, at times it has different endings.
These are just determining how it fits within the sentence, that's all. I lay on, that is the Greek word, although ours is in two words, one another, y 'all can't see that? Okay. It is one another, it's in one in Greek.
It's used over a hundred times in the Bible. I think we have 36 here. A lot of times it's used more than once, and one of those it's used multiple times, and we'll do that one today. And I'm gonna be just honest, I'm not beginning with Mark 950, and the reason being is, I'm gonna go ahead and erase this, and he put those in order as they come in, but John 1334 begins with the foundational one another's, which is love.
All the other one another's flow out of love, okay? So every, as we look at this text, remember, if we come to John 1334 or Mark 950, we just come to those verses in and of themselves, we come into what's called a pretext, which means we pull that verse out, we're just gonna quote that verse and just look at that verse.
Remember, every verse has a pretext, but every verse fits within a context, which means a larger scope of what he's talking about. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna go to John 13, and I'm gonna be honest too, I don't even know if I'm gonna get to Mark 9.
I'm gonna try, maybe I could land the plane very quickly there, but John 13 is huge. Does anybody remember what's taking place in John 13? The whole chapter? All right, well, we'll read it. It's the upper room discourse.
It is Jesus's final instructions to his beloved disciples before he is betrayed, before he's taken to the guard of Gethsemane, before he cries out to the Lord. Not his will, but the Father's will, that he's betrayed, and then he's led off to be beaten and crucified.
So let's read John 13, and we're just gonna kind of walk through it. It says, now, before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that he would depart from out of this world to the Father, and having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
And you see that? He loved his own, even to the end. I mean, he was even loving Judas to the end. During the supper, the devil, having already been put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come forth from God, and was going back to God, he got up from the supper, he laid aside his garments, and taking a towel, he girded himself.
You see, when I read that, reading it this week, preparing not to be too allegorical, but as I come to that, I go, man, this is just a good picture of Jesus laying down his garments of deity, his prerogatives of deity, and to become the humility of man.
You see what Jesus is fixing to do here? He is fixing to do something that a slave would have done. Imagine the king of glory walking in this room right now, and asking you to take your shoes off, and wash your feet.
Maybe washing our feet would be a little bit different, because we probably all took baths this morning. Understand, those people walked everywhere that they went. You understand what was on the road back then.
They didn't have cars. There would be camel increment, there would be donkey increment, there would be dust and dirt. Feet were not real clean. And the king of glory was fixing to wash their feet. He poured out water into the basin.
Verse 5, he poured out water into the basin. He began to wash the disciples' feet, and wipe them with a towel which was girded. So he came to Simon Peter, and he said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet?
And Jesus answered and said to him, what I do to you, you do not realize now, but you will understand here shortly after. Peter said to him, never shall you wash my feet. And Jesus answered to him, if you don't let me wash you, you have no part with me.
And Simon Peter said to him, Lord, then wash not only my feet, but wash my hands and my head. And Jesus said to him, he who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not all of you are clean.
For he knew that the one who was betraying him, and for this reason, he said, not all of you are clean. So when he had washed their feet, he had taken up the garments, and he climbed back at the table again.
He said to them, do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher, you call me Lord, and that what you have said is right, for I am. If I then, the Lord and the teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to do this to one another's feet.
Now, this is not an ordinance given to the church for us to wash each other's feet. I know there are certain groups that say, hey, we should do feet washing and all of that. That's not what it's doing.
It's an example. Jesus even says, hey, what I have done to you is an example of how you are to treat one another. And the example is very clear. Hey, your example is to do things that are not always the most clean to yourself, but to help others.
So he goes on to say in verse 15, for I have given you an example that you should also do as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is no greater than his master, nor is the one who sent greater than the one who sent him.
If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I do not speak to all of you, for I know the ones I have chosen, but it is that the scriptures may be fulfilled. He who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me.
For now, I am telling you before it comes to pass so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am he. And truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives whoever I send receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.
And when Jesus had said this, he became troubled within his spirit, and he testified and said, truly, truly, I say to you, the one of you will betray me. The disciples began to look into one another at a loss to know of which one he was speaking of.
And there was one reclining as Jesus bosomed, one of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved. Imagine being that guy. Man, imagine being that guy. The one being singled out of the one whom Jesus loved.
Hey, people say that Jesus didn't have favorites. It says it right here. He did have a favorite. He had one that he loved, whom he cherished. Was it because John was younger? Could have been. I mean, he was probably in his teens when he was called to be a disciple.
But not only was John a young man, he was also one of the sons of thunder. Y 'all remember who those were. Those were the ones that when Jesus was on his way to Samaria and they wouldn't let him down and they didn't want him to pass through, and they said, you know what, Jesus, why don't you just let us cause fire down from heaven and smoke the whole city?
That's the one who was leaning on Jesus bosom. So Simon Peter gestured to him and he said, tell us who it is of whom he is speaking. He leaning back thus on Jesus bosom said to him, Lord, who is it? Jesus then answered, this is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him.
So when he had dipped the morsel, he took it and he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon the Iscariot. And after the morsel, Satan then entered into him. And therefore Jesus said to him, whatever you do, do quickly.
You see that Satan then entered Judas Iscariot. There's only two people at all in scripture that the Bible says Satan entered. One's gonna be the son of perdition at this time and the next one will be the son of perdition at the end of the age.
So therefore Jesus said, whatever you do, go do it quickly. Now one of those reclining at the table knew for what purpose he had said this. And for some, or supposing that Judas who had kept the money box that Jesus was telling him to go buy things that were needed for the feast or else he should go give something to the poor.
So after receiving the morsel, he immediately went out and it was night. Therefore, when he had gone out, Jesus said, okay, this is we're gonna focus on the last 31 through 38. Notice that these instructions come immediately after the betrayer has left.
So these instructions are for a specific people. It's for his elect per se. Therefore, when he had gone out, Jesus says, now is the son of man to be glorified and God is glorified in him. And if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him immediately.
Little children, I am with you a little while longer and you will seek me. And as I said to the Jews, now I will also say to you where I am going, you cannot come. And a new commandment I have given to you that you love one another even as I have loved you that you also should love one another.
By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have loved one another. And Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where is it that you are going? And Jesus said, where I go, you cannot follow me, but you will follow me later.
And Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you right now? And he said, I will lay down my life even for you. And Jesus said, will you lay down your life for me? Truly shall I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times.
Hey, I just wanna say something right here. Peter gets a bad rap. Understand, Peter is willing to die for Christ. And if you even go back, I think it's into chapter 11 when Jesus is fixing to, he's fixing to go in to remember Lazarus had died.
And they come to him, Mary, Martha, they send messenger, hey, you know, Lazarus is about to die. Then messenger comes later. I think it's like three days later. And he says, hey, Lazarus is dead. And Jesus' response is, good.
Imagine somebody, your loved one's dying and somebody going, you know what, it's good. And Jesus said, that son of man be glorified. Well, as they're heading that way, it says, hey, if we go there, the Jews are gonna kill us.
And what does Thomas say? The one who gets a bad rap as well for being doubting Thomas. Thomas says, you know what? We're gonna go. And if they're gonna kill the Messiah, we'll die with him. That's pretty bold.
And that is what Peter's saying here. Although Peter has done some things that each and every one of us have done in our own life. He gets the bad rap. But he actually is willing to die for Christ. And he actually does, tradition says.
How many of us have been crucified upside down for our Lord? How many of us have been asked to be beheaded for the Lord? How many of us have asked to be put on a stick and torched for the Lord? So back up into verse 33.
He says, little children, I am with you just a little while longer and you will seek me. And as I said to the Jews, now I say to you, where I'm going, you cannot go. And he says this, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another.
Was it a new commandment? And this is a legitimate question for you to answer. Was it a new commandment for, go ahead. Go ahead. Yes.
Leviticus 19 .18, love your neighbor as yourself. Love your neighbor.
Yeah, so was it a new commandment to told to love someone? No, it wasn't. Even Jesus had to clarify that when he said in the Sermon on the Mount, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Now that was an actual turn the culture upside down because the Jews believe that God didn't love the Gentile. He believed that his wrath was kindled against them just because they were not on the line of Abraham.
And Jesus has to tell them, no, no, no, no. Your neighbor is everyone around you. And then he gives a parable. We all know that parable, the Good Samaritan. The Good Samaritan was the one to be despised.
And what did the, they were supposed, people were supposed to show compassion to that person. And they did. Yeah, and nobody did, but the one who was despised. And that was part of showing that you should love your neighbor.
But when he says a new commandment, I give you that you love one another. It wasn't, what makes it new? And I think that's what we need to look at because Jesus didn't say, hey, I give you a kind of an old commandment.
I'm just gonna change it a little bit. No, no, no, it's new. Well, what makes it new? And I'll tell you what makes it new because it's qualified. If it says a new commandment, I give to you, period. And he says, love one another, and that wouldn't be new.
But there's a comma there. And it says that you love one another, how? As I have loved you, as I have loved you. Had anybody in all of human history up to this point loved anybody or any of those disciples the way Jesus had?
No, we actually have a blueprint of how we're to love one another. And it was in love incarnate Jesus Christ. How did he love them? How did he? Well, sure, that's most John 15, 13. It says no greater love than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends.
What's that? Sure, sacrificial love. But what were some other than that, up to this point, he has not laid down his life. And in their mind, although Jesus, how many times had already told them, hey, I'm going to lay down my life.
I'm going to lay down my life. I'm going to lay down my life. And it just right over their head. I mean, we would have been the same way. Here it is. This great teacher has raised people from the dead.
I mean, just probably two weeks, maybe three weeks prior to this, he just had a man who stinketh in the grave, walk out of a tomb. Well, you think they were really worried about someone killing Jesus?
I mean, this man has called dead people back to life again. You know, remember the one time the person was crying and we're carrying the coffin out and Jesus said, get up and walk. I mean, the guy goes, kid gets up and walk, gets out of the coffin.
All right. So when it says he wants to show how he demonstrated love, how did he do it other than laying down his life? Selflessly. What's that? Selflessly. Yeah, selflessly. So let's list some of those things that Jesus did apart from dying, okay?
Because we know that is the greatest thing. But what did he do? What were some things that he did for three and a half years? He served. Sure.
He served them. And that can come under, I've got to see which one I wrote, two Bs there.
How did he, what were some ways he served them? This is the first one I think of, but. But he fed them. He fed them. Hey, they were on daily work, daily pay then, weren't they? And when Jesus came up and he called some of them, what were they doing?
They were working. What, hey, some of them were out there fishing and Jesus says, hey, follow me. What did that mean they had to do? They had to just, boop, drop their livelihood and walk off. Well, what about Matthew?
What kind of cash was that joker making? And he said, follow me. And then we have other one in there. I don't know if y 'all ever remember the one in there. One was a zealot. Y 'all know what he was. Anybody know what the zealots were?
They were terrorists that fought against the Romans. That's what they were. They actually raised up arms to fight against the Romans. Hey, imagine Matthew and Simon the zealot together. I mean, that'd be like getting the left and the right in a room together.
So, his demonstration of love by feeding them. What else did he do for those three and a half years? He did, yep. Matter of fact, first one I think of is Peter's mother. He healed family members. What else did he do?
He opened the word of God to them. That is right. He opened the word. And by opening the word, every one of these was demonstrated. Why? Because he was the word incarnate. He was love incarnate. And Jesus was just carrying out the very thing that the word said that we were supposed to do that we could not do.
So, Jesus, loving one another, most importantly, he opened the word and taught them the word of God, which made him go, you know what? I'm gonna demonstrate what the word of God says, and it's to feed one another.
It is to heal one another. It is to teach one another. And I do all of these things because first and foremost, I love you. I love you. Jesus, he puts an explanation point on the word love. And I don't wanna say loved because he continues to love today.
Now, what are some other ways where it says, he said, even as I love you, that you also love one another. Now, how can we demonstrate? Give me some ways we can demonstrate these to one another. Certainly by opening the word.
Certainly by feeding those who are in need. I don't think any of us could do this unless somebody here's got a special gift I don't know about. I can minister to the sick. You can. And Jesus also prayed.
I'm gonna put here in dying. There's neither one of us. Nobody in here can raise a baby from the dead, but you know what? We can go and help those who are dying and those who have had people that have died.
That is a demonstration of love. What else? Somebody said something a second ago. Prayer. Jesus demonstrated that too. You remember when, although he tells him at the end of this passage that Peter is going to go and he's gonna die in three times.
And it talks about the, he said, the shepherd's gonna be striking and the sheep are gonna scatter. But he says, but I have prayed for you. If you read that, and I'm very detailed in the syntax of how the words relate in that.
And if you go back and you look at when it says you, that's in the plural form. We often think that he's only talking to Peter. He says, hey, Satan desires to sift you, but I've prayed for you. Now, if you were gonna put it in the vernacular of how the plurality of the nouns work, he would say, Peter, Satan has asked to sift you, but he's looking at all of his disciples.
And he says, but I have prayed for you all. Y 'all. Y 'all. Yeah. Yeah, in the Galilee. Oh. You guys. You guys. He said, I've prayed for you alls. And that your faith may not fail. We think that he's actually just talking to Peter.
He's not. He's talking to all of them. Hey, Satan desired to sift every one of them. They all scattered. They all scattered. Even the one that ran away half naked. You know, and he'd come back. So yeah, prayer.
Hey, and not only did he pray for them, he says, I'm praying for you because Satan has desired to sift you, but even in his high priestly prayer, these I have loved even from the beginning. And he intercedes for them.
And then he intercedes, not only he's praying for his disciples, but in love, he's praying for those who would believe because of them. So certainly prayer is a demonstration of loving one another. What else?
All kinds of people. Call to serve and be hands and feet to all. But specifically, we're to be the hands and feet and ministry first and foremost to the believer. And you say, well, I'm not sure if I believe that.
I think it's in Galatians 6 .10. If somebody wants to look that up and see if I'm right or wrong, it's fine. I think it's in Galatians chapter six. That's it. Especially those in the household of faith.
That's right. Especially the household of faith. So I'm telling you right now, if I'm going down the highway and I see somebody broke down on the side of the road, by and large, I'm not gonna stop. I just don't even think about it.
But if I come and I see Andy or I see you, I'm pulling over. You're honking some waves. Yeah, I go, hey man, you got it. No, no, no. I'm there to help. I'm there to help. It's not that I don't care or have any concern for those other people.
I do. But I have a relationship and a love for you that's far greater than these people I don't know. It doesn't mean I don't care. But I have more of a responsibility to minister, first and foremost, to the people of God than the lost and dying.
Well, first. And I know some people may disagree with that, but you're gonna have to point to me a place in Scripture where it says that my responsibility, first and foremost, isn't to God's people. It is.
It's to God's people. Why? Because you're my family. The world's not my family. You're my family. If I was to go out, go to my neighbor next door and take care of his family before mine, what would y 'all think of me?
I would hope some men in this church would take me out back here and tie me up and thump on me. Because my first and foremost,.
My responsibility's to my family. It's to my family. So, what else? Serve all kinds of people. Sure, we are to serve all kinds of people. I think you just hit it, but they really should. And I know you just addressed, in that sense, how we can serve them as...
They were special.
They were special. And we've said it time and time again, God's love is not just one swooping brush that's just equal to everyone and all people. It's not. And I know evangelicalism wants to say that God has to love everybody the same way.
No, He does not. He's God, and He's God in heaven. He does what He wants, when He wants, how He wants, and He didn't consult you or me over it. He loves His people, and He loves them with a special kind of love.
And we've already said it, that He said it specifically in no greater love. So, if you have a greater love, what's the deduction in that statement? There's a lesser love. No greater love than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends, and he says, and you are my friends.
So, the greater love is this, that we'd be willing to lay down our life for our friends. Now, that doesn't always mean, that as we love one another, that I have to go out and actually have my life extinguished.
But am I willing, at times, for the benefit of my brother or sister in Christ, am I willing to put away my prerogatives of my own needs for that? We should. There comes a time, when brothers and sisters in Christ need to be ministered to far more than I need to take care of my business.
But we don't see it that way. Because we're very self-centered, and that's just how we're wired in our fallenness. But if we look how Jesus loved in this passage, we're at one time where Jesus was self-seeking.
Hey, and if anybody had the right to say, hey, man, I'm king of glory, it was him. And he never did that. Even at times when his disciples, he would say to them, now, there was at times where he said, oh, ye of little faith, that I do believe was a stern rebuke.
I do that. But there was times where he said, like in Philip, Philip, how long have I been with you? In the upper room discourse, how long have I been with you? Do you not know if you've seen me, you've seen the Father?
That wasn't, I don't think, a rebuke. That whole context was a loving, trying to continue to teach them right to the end. But there was times where he, hey, you know what? How many times have I told you?
Oh, ye of little faith. So, we got five minutes, 10 minutes. We are to love one another as Christ loved us. And I'm gonna, I'll move this to Mark 9 .50. I would really like to exegete that text because it comes in Mark's, maybe I'll try to tie that into something else.
But if we do not love one another as Christ loved us, we cannot be at peace with one another. We can't. Peace with one another comes first and foremost with peace with God. And it doesn't mean that we at times don't have conflict with one another.
We do have conflict with one another. Even the elders, believe it or not, we have conflict with one another. Not as in we're trying to fight with one another, but sometimes at times we have different perspectives.
But what do we do? In loving prayer, we work those things out because we love one another and we have to come to some type of conclusion. So as we are serving with one another, as we're demonstrating the love for one another, how are we to live at peace?
So let's move this here. And I will come back and do Mark 9 .50 at some point because there's a passage right above that that says salted with fire that I think needs to be addressed.
So you have love.
And I think it's probably about, and Andy may have seen it, it's probably 15 or 20 times this is used. Love one another.
I can't remember exactly. But, and then this one, peace.
Oh, how are we to,.
We got five minutes to figure out how do we live in peace with one another. Give us a demonstration to living at peace. Ma 'am? Hey!
That kills people. Just so you can pray more intellectually.
Let me share this. Yeah, yeah. I saw old Tommy. He was drunk walking down the road. Lord, please help him stop drinking. Yeah. Yeah. That's one of them teaching prayers. What else? That's huge though, Ms. Candy.
Yeah. I like the way she said it. Keep your mouth shut. Zip it. Some things are just better left unsaid. What else?
Others, it's important.
That's a command, actually. That's in the imperative. And that's in the scripture. Esteem yourself less important than others. Look, that even comes with issues of conscience. And y 'all may not deal with that as much, but as elders, we deal with issues of conscience a lot.
There are things that some people feel are absolute, a moral infraction, and it winds up being an issue of conscience. But you know what we do? We don't want that person to offend their own conscience.
So what do we do? We concede. Okay. Look, if you come to my house and you think that eating pork and shellfish and all that stuff's wrong, I promise you, you won't have to worry about that when you get to my house, but as soon as you leave, we're pulling it all out.
I'm not gonna do something that would offend someone. That's living at peace with one another. And Paul even says that, as in Romans, where he says, who are you to judge another man's servant? Whatever they're doing in their own conscience.
If their conscience is convincing them that what they're doing is wrong, it's not for me to do something that would accuse their conscience. That's living at peace. That's not causing conflict. But not only is esteeming one another more important than yourself, but how do we maintain that peace?
Are we to be peacemakers or peacekeepers? Peacekeepers carry guns, although we need them. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Yeah, although we do need those, but we're to make peace.
And when it means make peace, what does that mean? That means that's gonna take some time. It's gonna take, look at, let's talk about these things. Let's work through the difficulties of whatever it is we're going through.
Do you like, you wanna say something, Andy?
Yes, sir. No, I was just thinking how it really needs to take some time.
Or country twine, so. Yeah, it is getting to know one another so that we can live at peace and not be in conflict. But if you're not at peace with the Lord, you will not be at peace with God's people.
You will not be at peace with God's people. I will go back, I will get back to this because I do wanna deal with 49 and 50 at some point.
Any questions? I think as we go through these, we'll go through some more, I think we'll start with love. And as we see, as we go through them, again, we'll probably look at similar passages on a lot of them.
But this is a big list of to-dos for us.
Oh, yeah, there's practical implication right here. Yeah. Yeah. If we're serious about it,.
This is really gonna take some, this is gonna take some humbling on our part and then it's gonna take some effort on our part, too.
Love can be a noun, love can be a verb, but love has to be a disposition of us towards one another. You know what I mean by disposition? God's disposition to all of his humanity is love. All of his creatures, every one of them, is disposition of love.
Now, we can come to different conclusions of how that love continues and people cease to experience all that. But is God's love, is his disposition to all of his creation, is it love? And I would say without hesitation, yes.
Because even in Romans chapter two, when he's speaking to the unregenerate, he says, it's the loving kindness of God that leads you to repentance. What are you doing, oh man? Do you not know that you're storing up wrath for the day of wrath and the righteous judgment of God will be revealed?
Well, if you're storing up wrath for the day of wrath, well, you have to be the unregenerate, correct? And if he's extending his loving kindness to them for the purpose of them repenting, then it means God's disposition towards the wicked is still love.
Now, you and me have a hard time in our mind. I do, maybe y 'all smarter than me. That's fine, I hope you are. Go, man, how can this God who can have so much love and compassion towards this creature still have all this violent and fury and hostility towards the wickedness of that person?
Hey, I can't explain all of that. All I can do is point back to, I think it's in Psalm 50 and our Psalm expert back there could correct me if my address part's wrong, but I think it's Psalm 50, 21, where it says that, who do you think that I'm altogether like you?
God ain't like you and me. If it was up to me, I'd slay every one of them, but God's not like me. God's like God and he has a disposition and love towards his people. And if we did it our way, we would cut it short today for all the wicked and those who'd get saved tomorrow wouldn't under the plan of God.
All right? Any more comments? No? I'll pray us and we can get out of here. Father God, thank you for the love that you demonstrated through your son that he came and he laid down his life. He laid down his life for his friends.
And Father, thank you that we are called your friends, those who have trusted in you. Father, we thank you that we have the perfect example of what it looked like to love one another. And Father, we will fail miserably in comparison to what your son demonstrated.
But Father, I pray that you would, through the power of the spirit, Father, give us the ability to love one another in such a way that we display Christ likeness to one another into the lost and dying world.
Father, you say, they will know that you're my disciples by your love for one another, not for a love for anyone else, but a love for one another. Father, fill us with your spirit. Open our ears and our hearts to hear the word that will be preached today.
In Christ's name, amen. Hey, here's the fishing hole do lolly for the October 14th and the 25th. We need, if a family can't sign up, we need single, not single people, but if a single person's going, we need two people on there.
But if a family can go, like me and Debra, we'll be all there for that slot. But here it is. If y 'all want to sign up, there's the dates we need. You want me to leave these up here? Yeah. So many. Oh yeah.