Obeying the New Commandment — Sandeep Poonen

The New Commandment to Love One Another

It's good to be here with you. I wanted to share something that the Lord has been Laying on my heart from John chapter 13. I have Been struck by the new commandment that Jesus gave To his disciples as he was leaving the earth.

John 13 verse 34 He gives us the new commandment. We know he had told the Scribes and the Pharisees that all of the law and the prophets hung on to Commandments love the Lord your God with everything you have and love your neighbor as yourself.

But to his disciples as He's thinking of leaving he gives a new commandment, which is a New commandment that I give to you. John 13 34. That you love one another even as I have loved you that you also love one another.

So What I've noticed first is that there are two parts to this commandment. Just like when the Pharisees and the Scribes asked Jesus. What is the greatest commandment? He knew what they were asking. They wanted one, but he refused to give them one.

He gave them two and here too. There are two commandments that he gives. Not two commandments one commandment, but there are two parts to it, which is Love one another. But then there's another part. Even as I have loved you so Even as Jesus has loved me.

That's how I'm supposed to love others. Not by any other measurement not by any other Form of looking at how to love because there are different forms in which we can think of loving. Jesus says look at me.

Not look at how I love the world. Look at as I loved you. You ought to love one another. So then the question I then ask is how did Jesus love me? That's the question that I need to ask for myself and This verse in John chapter 15 verse 9 is what I want to point you to John chapter 15 verse 9 in the same conversation with the disciples.

Receiving the Father's Love

Jesus tells me how he loved me. John chapter 15 verse 9. Just as the father has loved me. I Have also loved you. This kind of may not be something that we immediately think about of Jesus's love for us.

We may not we may immediately think of many ways in which Jesus loved us and we think of Jesus's actions towards us but Jesus himself Didn't just choose to love us. He didn't do it saying I'm God. I Am love.

I'm fully God. I'm just gonna love you. No, he came fully God and fully man. And as far as I can tell he gave up Equality with God to where he could just love by default. I don't know if you think about the life of Jesus and I wonder if you think of his life here on earth.

Whether he loved by default. And the reason why I I say that is because we can think like Jesus Lived without sin by default as if it wasn't even an issue. As if there wasn't even a temptation for Jesus and we know that's not true.

We know that Jesus was tempted in all points so in the same way I Realized from John chapter 15 verse 9 that even Jesus was fully God and he had infinite love. He didn't automatically love me by default.

It wasn't by default that he loved while here on earth. He loved by dependence he loved by receiving the love of God as a father and That shows me Jesus as a helpless person first saying Lord father I must first receive your love and as I see you Receiving your my your love to me in that way.

I will love other people this is a Huge encouragement to me and a huge Burden then can be lifted because I can make a false Image of Jesus to where he just came so naturally for him to love. I don't believe that that was true.

Because it tells me that the way he grew to love his own disciples Was not from some in inner strength that he had but by looking at the father's love. So he loved others by receiving the father's love.

He found the strength to love other people by going and immersing himself and Drenching himself in the father's love over him. That is the first Thing that I have to learn about this commandment is where do I get the strength for it?

Where do I go to the source of it and Jesus tells me in the commandment the source of it is my love for you but if I go a little bit further I find that the source for His love Jesus is love to me. Was the father's love to him just as the father loved me.

That's was his model. He overcame the devil not by speaking the word which was he was the word. No, he depended on the Word of God. He was made like his brothers and sisters in all points so he overcame sin by quoting the Word of God that was given to him and He loved other people By first going to the father and saying father.

How do you love? How do you love me? I? Want to mimic. I want to copy that love. I want to channel that same love let that same love flow. That is flowing into me. And so then I find that the life of Christ was like an Automobile that was filled up with gas all the time and that was the source of his rest not because he loved by default, but that he loved by dependence and In that he is my example.

He's not somebody who's at a higher standard or a different standard and having some secret source of love that I cannot have. As the father has loved me. I have loved you John 15 9 and so Jesus is telling me.

You want to know how much I love you go to my source too. You must know how much the father loves you. I Again, I'm thinking of the story of the prodigal son. When the prodigal son was confronted with his sin.

He didn't look within himself. He knew he was a sinner. He smelled the filth of the pigs around him. But he His instinct was my father. I must go to my father and In the story it took him a long time to get to the father's house.

Because it's a story and Jesus was telling a story, but when the father was a long way off. When the sorry when the son was a long way off the father ran out to meet him in our lives the moment We are confronted with our sins.

The question is what is our response? We can look around and Blame other people. It's what Adam and Eve did. It's that person's fault. It's this other person's fault. We can look inside and beat ourselves up.

We're no good. We're just not gonna amount to any good. I was not gonna be the source of salvation for the prodigal son. The source of salvation for the prodigal son was he looked up and saw his father.

And he didn't beat himself up, even though he had plenty to beat himself up, but he didn't blame other people. I'm sure he could have found reasons to blame other people as friends who cheated him maybe or any other thing like that.

But the source of salvation was when he looked and he thought about his father and dear brothers and sisters. This is the same Salvation that will come to our lives too. Is when we stop looking around.

Stop looking inside and beating ourselves up and look at the father. Consistently many times in a day we can be tempted many times. We can be tried to look around or to look inside and God's first message to us is look at me.

God's first message to me is look at me. That was the story about the prodigal son that changed my life. Because What I was always being beset by and what was always on my mind in my sins and in my trials was me and my challenges and my unfaithfulness.

But the story of the prodigal son that transformed my life and I saw it in a picture. I'm sure you've seen pictures of the prodigal son that we've shown. Where the picture was not showing the prodigal son's face, but showing the father's face.

He didn't even know What the son looked like? He didn't know if he was weeping. He didn't know if he had a black eye. You don't know if he had lost an eye. You don't know if he had scars on his face. He may have had all of that because of all the loose living he had.

We don't know any of that though all we see is the father's face and God was telling me through that. You can look around. You can look inside the plenty of black eyes. You've gotten plenty of scars that will be there for the rest of your life.

There are plenty of things like that, but the question is in this moment. What are you gonna look at? Come and see my face Despite all the black eyes. That's my fault. Despite all the challenges that I face on this earth.

That is my fault and cultures fault and sins fault. Look at my face and I found that the Christian the new covenant Christian the one who's born again is one who's looking at the father's face and seeing the joy and the satisfaction and the relief and the happiness that the father gets.

Just as the father has loved me I Have loved you and through all the trials that Jesus went through he was constantly looking up and that's my first point is In this seeking to obey the commandment just love one another as I have loved you.

Well, how did Jesus love me? He loved me by first looking at the father and seeing the father's love over him. This was a beautiful communion the life of Jesus was primarily a beautiful communion between the father and the son.

The Father and the Son

We Have to take a step back and see ourselves as the third party in the story of Jesus. For a moment we have to take ourselves back and see father and the son and The beautiful life that Jesus lived all that the father has given me will come to me.

This is a deal between the father and the son. I'm just I'm just Part of the deal, but the deal is between the father and the son. Father and I are one. This is a beautiful relationship in his whole life.

You know the first words that we have recorded of Jesus ever it's in Luke chapter 2 and That's when he was in the temple and his parents had lost him and he comes as the first recorded words of Jesus when he was 12 years old.

His parents come to him and Jesus has been gone been missing for three days and Jesus tells his parents. Don't you know I'm supposed to be about my father's business. Who did he tell this to? He told it to his Physical father.

We know it wasn't his father, but he told it to Joseph. Joseph who had cared for him for 12 years like his own son. He tells him looking Joseph and Mary in the eye. Not trying to insult Joseph obviously by telling him didn't you know?

That I'm supposed to be about my father's business. What does that mean to me to me what that means is as soon as Jesus was able to speak. He has been born with the Holy Spirit. He was filled with the Holy Spirit from birth.

The Holy Spirit had always been working in him and from birth I believe Jesus must have been telling Joseph and Mary God's my father. I Say Yahweh you don't even want to say the name. It's YHWH and that's all the whatever they had in the Aramaic or whatever the language is there.

But he was telling his parents from as long as he could remember. I have the Holy Spirit in me. That's groaning father daddy. From four five six seven eight he was telling his parents God's my dad. That when it came to 12 years old and they were looking for him and they couldn't find him.

Jesus was like haven't I been telling you for at least eight nine years as long as I could speak. And God's my father. I'm gonna be about my father. That's I've been telling you for maybe close to a decade.

That's how I understand that even as a 12 year old Jesus had Been telling them must have been telling them. This is my father. I'm about my father's business. It was a primary Relationship between the father and the son and that's what kept him and that's was what was so traumatic on the cross when Jesus.

That deal that he had not only for all eternity, but even every day every month every year of his life. It wasn't about the leopard wasn't about all Lazarus even his dear friend. It was about the father and the son.

Jesus says it's better actually that I go. Because I want you to have that relationship. I want you to have access to that special deal that I had. That's what sustained me when they tried to throw rocks at me.

That's what sustained me when people criticized me and made fun of me saying who's your father? That's what sustained me. I didn't look at them. I didn't look inside. I looked up. And I saw the father's love and dear brothers.

That's what the sisters. That's what's gonna sustain us. It's not a commandment but going to the source of the commandment and seeing Jesus who loved us and Seeing that the source of his obedience to the commandment that Jesus said hey, you need to love your disciples.

How did Jesus get the strength for it not by default? But by dependence on the father's love for him and that is the same source that is available to us. It is better that he went it is better that he went.

So that I can have a relationship with the father and I can also Say as the father has loved me. I'm gonna love my brothers and sisters. So to me, that's the first source of that commandment that dear brothers and sisters.

This is the new commandment. It's the big commandment if you want to call it. This is the one thing that Jesus gave. Let's say you could put summarize so much in that. We need to get good at obeying that commandment.

Then we have to get good at knowing God as a father we have to know him you have to call him dad in our hearts we have to hear that cry and Constantly look up not look around. Not look in look up. I Must return to my father.

I must return to my father in every trial that happens whether you find yourself with the pigs. Or you've even before the pigs where you're feeling the tug to go towards the pigs. This is what we must do.

I look up and I say Where's my father. And he takes us and seats us in the heavenlies, you know, we sang that song father of Jesus. That is love's reward that I get a father. I get the father of Jesus.

That's the reward of love and I have I don't even have a candle to hold a favor who wrote that song. But I believe as it says in scripture that we are seated in the heavenlies and so before we live prostrate at the At the throne God says that's not your place.

Even though you don't even deserve to be in heaven. First of all, it is of hell. Yeah, it's fine that you're seeking to be prostrate at the throne of God. But your rightful place because your child of God is on my lap.

You're seated in the heavenlies in Christ and Christ. It says in John 1 18 was seated on the lap of God. And so we must first be seated on the lap of God. Knowing God as a dad. It's an intimate father an intimate dad and it's seated there in the heavenlies.

And we sang a few songs about heaven too earlier today. I want to ask you what do you picture when you see heaven. If I would ask you to draw a picture of heaven. What will it what would you draw? If you were to ask the children if you were asked to draw a picture of heaven.

What would it look like if you were to draw? I have a feeling probably there'll be a rainbow there. Because that sounds that looks beautiful. I had. I think there's a rainbow there. In fact, I'm not studied all the details.

I think there's a sea of glass. There's a throne. There's angels. I've never seen a picture of heaven. If you are a kid ask thousand artists to draw a picture of heaven. I've never seen one picture of heaven where I see also.

Next to the throne a slain lamb. Never. I've never seen a picture of it. I'm not searched extensively but That pollutes the picture of heaven from a human standpoint. It pollutes the picture of perfection.

When you see a lamb that's bloodied but there is no heaven if there's no bloodied lamb and That is where we now get closer to as I have loved you now Jesus is saying as you Look up and see the father and you're seated on the father's lap.

You're seated on the throne on the father's lap because we're a child of God, even though we don't deserve it closest to the throne. Even before all the elders is the slain lamb and Our painting of heaven has to be modified To make sure that there's a slain lamb always front and center as we sit on the lap of love.

That's what makes us Jump off the lap of God and fall prostrate. He first draws us in is the kindness of God that brings us in and we must. When we are birthed the first thing that comes out of our hearts must be Abba, daddy.

And as we're seated in unexplainable love the love of God as a father. That's when we must see The slain lamb and we must take in the slain lamb. 1 John chapter 4 verse 10. Again, love is the question.

The Lamb Who Bears God's Wrath

We're asking love one another as I have loved you. 1 John 4 10 in this is love. Not that we loved God but that he loved. The father loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation to be the wrath taker.

To take away all the anger of God directed to us. Because of our sin not because we're horrible people but because of our sin that was on us. He made us in his image. But because of sin the wrath of God had to be directed in us and God sent his son to be that wrath taker.

And Romans 5 8 he says when we were still sinners. Romans 5 10 while we were his enemies enemies this is the love of God that was extended towards us that Jesus took all of the wrath of sin against us and That is what we need to then take in.

Seated on the lap of God. We have to take in how much God loved us. And how much Jesus loved us. I believe that The prodigal son story. The story of the father and the youngest son the story of the prodigal son and the father ends with this statement and The father and the son began to celebrate.

That's the end of the story for the youngest son. We don't know what happens after that. Because then the older son comes in but that's the final statement of that story in the prodigal son. The father and the youngest son began to celebrate.

The celebration must come first. The celebration the great joy that the father has over me comes first but then. After the celebration is over and we are confident that the father has accepted us in the beloved.

He wants to open ourselves up to what it cost him after. We had squandered everything what it had cost the father to have the feast. Who paid for the feast? Who paid for that fatted calf to be fattened?

Who paid for that robe that's on your that you're wearing right now. Who paid for the sandals on your feet. Who paid for that ring? What authority comes with that ring? What what was the cost for that.

And God wants us to have those conversations with him on his lap. He invites us in he gets us to celebrate. That's day one of the prodigal son coming home. But we're fools if we remain in day one. We're pampered immature children and we're sure to leave again.

If we don't get to day two. Where we wake up the next morning and the celebration is evident. There's a clear sign that there was a celebration and God wants to ask him. I have what God wants us to ask the question who paid for all of this.

What paid for such love to happen. God doesn't want us to hold back from celebrating with him. God wants us to celebrate with him. But we must then ask the question who who killed that lamb that's slain right here.

What is that? Slain lamb. Doing in such a beautiful picture of perfection in heaven. We have to ask that question. Love one another even as I have loved you and as we see the father's love secure in his love.

Knowing that that is the source of our identity. We sit there and understand God, what did you who killed that lamb? Why is sin messed up? Well, so why did heaven's original picture Get messed up by what looks like a like a slain lamb.

And we find out that there's a greater beauty in heaven because of the slain lamb. This is not a human beauty we have to take that in and we have to see that this is the price that Christ had to pay for us as The father loved me.

So I loved you. That's what I did. I took the full penalty of your sins if I understand things correctly. God is The most the highest being of all if I understand things, right the angels are More powerful not more important more powerful and Humans are less powerful than angels.

That's what I understand. I believe from Hebrews says that you made God Jesus less made man less than the angels. So you've got God angels in terms of power and in man and It says that Jesus became a man so he took the form of Somebody that's less powerful than the angels and we know now in heaven.

He's still a man Seated on the throne of God is The form of something less powerful Than even the angels and I think the angels can't understand it. It says there in 1 Peter. He angels love to look. You're long to look into this mystery and I've thought about it this way since I can't understand that I think of God man and ant and What would you think if you were invited to the White House and You saw sitting in the Oval Office an ant.

What would you think of that? Who is this ant Wouldn't ask you the question. What is this ant doing in the White House? This is the place for the White House. This is where men sit it gives me a little picture of what is in heaven when Jesus became a man.

He became somebody so little That even the angels cannot understand it long to look into this mystery of God who became so little then finally the third part of that command is John chapter 13 is Love one another.

Loving Those Who Betray and Desert Us

Even as I have loved you and We can't diminish that part of the verse. We can't diminish that part of the commandment. I Thought about this as related to the two commandments. I want to ask you honestly think about this if somebody had come to you and You didn't know the answer of Jesus and Somebody had come to you and said what is the greatest of all the commandments in the law and the prophets?

Would you have picked? The two of them to be equal Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Let's say you knew those two commandments. The question I asked myself is would I have equated the two?

Because I'll tell you in my human Desire to follow Jesus I'd say you can't equate anything with loving Lord with everything you got. That's got to be the greatest commandment bar none. But then I see I understand.

I don't understand the Wisdom of Jesus where Jesus said no. There's a second like unto it. Love your neighbor as yourself is equal to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength.

Similarly I intend to think that Loving Jesus and Experiencing the love of Jesus over me. There's nothing that comes close to that and We can think about devotion to Jesus as being so unique and by itself.

But Jesus doesn't put it that way. Jesus says love one another even as just as much as I Have loved you. Jesus Equates the two and I have to recognize The importance of Jesus equating the two and we see that in one John two.

John meditated on this For years and when he was in his old age. He says this is the commandment that you've gotten that you got to love one another as well. And he equates the two to you can see that in one John three and one John four when you have time.

This is the commandment and he doesn't separate the two. He says you got to love one another as well as love. Verse 21 John 3 23. I can quickly show that to you. One John 3 23 repeats it a couple of times.

I think in one John 4 as well. But one John 3 23 This is his commandment. That we believe in the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another. John 2 equates the two he had heard it When he was here in the Last Supper.

And John chapter 13 if we want to turn there, this is where that commandment is given. He starts off and I just want to read the first four verses of how Jesus Shows us how we ought to love one another.

Jesus Washes the Feet of His Betrayers

In John chapter 13 verse 1 it says that he knew that his hour had come where he would depart out of this world. John 13 1 and returned to the father and having his loved his own who were in the world.

He loved them to the end. During the supper the devil having already put into the heart of Jesus 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 got up from supper laid aside his garments and taking a towel he girded himself.

Here's Jesus showing his disciples that he loved his disciples. To the very end. So we have to picture the scene here. John chapter 13 1 through 4 gives me a little bit of that picture. It says in verse 2 that the devil has already entered Judas.

So that's Judas one of the twelve sitting there the devil himself. I don't know if we've ever met anybody with the devil himself inside of them. But here's a man with the devil himself inside of him. He got these other 11 disciples who are arguing about who's going to be the greatest.

After he leaves after Jesus dies. He also knows that all these disciples are gonna deny him and desert him. None of these guys are gonna stick with him in a in an hour or two. Maybe. And this is after Jesus has spent three and a half years laboring in these disciples.

This is the scene around the table. Looking at it from Jesus's perspective. Looking at it from Jesus's perspective. He's been investing in them. Loving them teaching them for three and a half years and what he has in front of them is one man Who's got the devil himself in front of him and the rest of them a little bit better, but not much.

They're all gonna desert him and it's in this backdrop That Jesus says I'm loving them to the very end. These are the people that he loved to the very end. Including Judas who had the devil inside of him who was going to betray him in a few minutes or hours in my.

I think in most people's looking at this passage. We tend to look at the act that Jesus did. We tend to say, you know, how? dirty a job it was to wash these people's feet and the disciples their feet was so messy and dirty from Walking in the roads and so Jesus took this basin and did this most menial or base of tasks.

I Don't think so. It was definitely base. It was definitely menial. It wasn't Jesus's job to do it. He did a very humble thing but I'll tell you I have done more me base tasks than that and Humans have done much more base tasks than that.

Helping lepers helping Sick patients who can't control themselves their bodily functions anymore. Cleaning them up day after day after day month after month. Some of you have them so yourselves may have done it.

There are many nurses people have done these again out of love for family members. Washing a person's feet with water isn't that menial compared to something else some other things that we may have done for aged family members for sick people who we chose to volunteer and help with think different things like that and so I don't feel the focus needs to be on the act as much as the focus needs to be on who Jesus was doing it to and Jesus was doing this to people who are gonna betray him and A lot of even corporate people will come in and say hey look here's an example of servant leadership.

This is not servant leadership in the corporate sense is Still loving themselves. They still love themselves. They're still getting paid a lot more money than the people. They're servant leading. They're still making millions.

So we can say servant leadership. That's not certainly sure they're gaining. By flattering them and giving them nice perks to do that's corporate servant leadership. This is not this is a completely different kind of I don't even want to call it servant leadership.

This is kind of humble love. He was washing the feet of the man who was gonna betray him. In the corporate world, it's like giving a big bonus to the guy who's selling all your secrets to the competitor.

Which that's not servant leadership. No corporate person will accept that but that's what Jesus was doing. He loved them to the very end. He was washing the feet of the man who was gonna Backstab him and he was washing the feet of all these other disciples who are all gonna desert him in a few hours.

Loving Enemies Through a Transformed Heart

Jesus was Practicing what he had always Demonstrating what he had always practiced but was preaching when he said love your enemies do good and These are the people he loved to the very end. My nature cannot fathom that instinct.

Think about the people who have hurt you the most and The question is that's when we see Jesus's command of love. That doesn't mean we have to grab Basins and we'll go wash their feet. It doesn't mean that we have to pack care packages from them, but God's looking at the soil in my heart and saying what is The description of your heart towards that person.

Is It a dry parched land or is it rivers of love? Even though the rivers of love may say stay away from them. Because they just hurt you even though the rivers of love may say you probably don't want to keep in touch with them.

That may be still the case, but God's asking me and God's asking us. Love one another doesn't mean you have to do this or do that. That is why we've never it's never been about you have to grab the basin and wash other people's feet.

That's insignificant. My question is First who are the people you should be washing their feet to is the question and so the Lord has been directing me to the people who have Hurt me or the people at work who I don't get along with easily.

And now God's not asking me not to grab a basin to wash their feet or to wash their cars or to give them gift Certificates nothing like that. God's asking me to look at my heart and saying is there a dry parched land or is there rivers of living water and Maybe it's neither but which one is it closer to?

Is it a trickle of water every now and then of love? But then dry and God says I want to transform your heart. What you do to them is completely different. He never washed the feet of the Pharisees, but he died for them.

He had a heart full of rivers of love. He Rebuked them. He called them vipers. But his heart was full of love towards them. It was demonstrating that he died for them, too. And I want to love everybody.

But especially the disciples of God with that love and it's not at all about what I do with my actions. God's asking me to look at my heart in a particular instant and maybe grabbing the wash basin. God's always looking in my heart and saying What are you doing?

And I tie it back again to the story of the prodigal son again, this is I'm using my imagination the end of the story in the prodigal son. Luke chapter 15 is the father and this younger son begins to celebrate then Celebrations going on then the father leaves the house and goes outside to talk to the older son.

And that's where Jesus ends the story and we don't know whether the elder son came in. I don't get the sense that the elder son came in. I Hope he did not sure he did. But I've asked myself Who am I in the story?

If I'm the younger one in the story and I have enjoyed the celebration. What is my responsibility to the elder brother? Me as the younger brother. What is my responsibility on day two on day three. After the celebration is over and I look on the next day and I talked to my father and he tells me Here's who paid for it and I see the slain lamb.

That's what paid for the celebration. I Fall at my feet. I fall at his feet. I fall prostrate and then I go out To love my elder brother back into the house and I'd love the continuation of the story to be how the younger brother Went out and was able to be a representative of the father's love to the elder brother.

That's the commandment. Love one another as I have loved you. They don't they don't know what my love is yet. They don't know me as a father. They haven't seen the slain lamb like you have but you have you go love them as I have loved you.