Preached in Markham Baptist Church, May 2, 2004.

John 13:34-35

SHARING OUR FAITH:
Part 2 - OVER THE FENCE

Gene Getz, a pastor in the Dallas area, tells of a man who had been attending his church for a little while and who came to him and said, “I’ve been attending your church for a while now and I’m not sure I’m a Christian. I’ve attended other churches all my life. In fact, I’ve served as an officer in several churches. But I’m not sure I know what the Christian life is all about.”

Unfortunately they could not finish the conversation, so they arranged to meet the next day. And when the man walked in to Gene Getz’ office, Gene wondered what had convicted the man. He thought maybe that it was his sermons. But no, it wasn’t his sermons. What impressed the man the most were the people who made up church Gene was pastoring.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this before,” he said with a note of intensity in his voice. “These people really care about each other. There’s real love here." And then he said, “I’m convinced that I’m really not a Christian. But I want to be.”

Gene said, “I had the privilege of leading this man to know Jesus Christ personally. But I only 'drew the net'. It was really every member of that local body of believers who brought him to Christ. It was their love, their unity, their Christian attitudes and their behaviour that had convinced him that he should do something about it." 1

I don’t know if the man knew it or not, but he was experiencing our Lord’s plan for evangelism. He was the result of our Lord’s strategy for sharing the good news.

We read of his plan in John 13:34 and 35: “A new command I give to you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Jesus says, “A new command I give you: Love one another.” It’s not that the Old Testament didn’t teach love. I do not believe that Jesus is saying, “Hey here is something you have never heard before.” Rather He is saying, “here is a fresh emphasis that my followers are to stress.”

It is new in the sense that love was not present in the Jewish regulations and laws. Faith in God up that point was cold and written on tablets of stone. But Jesus brings something new - a faith in God based on a relationship in him and written on people’s hearts.

When we read these words of Jesus we need to keep in mind the promise that God made to His people through the prophet Ezekiel. God tells the people in Ezekiel 11 and again in chapter 36 that He will give them a heart of flesh for a heart of stone. This image has to do with relationship. God promises that there will be a day when the relationship with His people will be based on love, it will be a living relationship, no longer based on the law but one which is based on love and the indwelling Spirit.

So when God gives us a new relationship, He gives us a new command - love one another. I believe that Paul speaks of this new living relationship in 2 Corinthians 3 where we are told that we are letters from Christ “written not with ink but with the Spirit of God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (verse 3). So God has given us new relationship – a living relationship through faith in Christ and the indwelling Spirit. And with this new relationship comes a new command.

So Jesus is saying, Let your faith be warmed by the love of God and let your heart beat with love for one another. Jesus brings a fresh emphasis on the love of God, and love for others. This is will be the distinguishing feature of my disciples.

So in that sense it is a new command, a fresh emphasis. Also, you will note that this is a command. This is not a “new option”. This is not a “new choice”. It is a command. We have no choice. There are no options. We are to love one another.

And we open our mouths to offer an objection to say, “Surely you don’t want me to love so-and-so. Her personality is so hard and prickly. Surely you don’t want me to love so-and-so? Do you know what he did to me? Do you know what he said to me?”

And Jesus says, “Yes I know all that, and yes I want you to love each one. This is a new COMMAND.

And we open our mouths again to protest, “Yeah, but...”

“No buts about it.” Jesus interrupts. “This is a new command.”

“Oh alright, but I won’t like it.”

Wait, wait - before you stomp off feeling that your arm has been twisted. There is more in this passage to discover. Jesus tells us how to love. “A new command I give to you; Love one another. As I have loved you. "

So the type of love that we are to have for one another is a Jesus-type love. So what was His love like?

* Does Jesus forgive every wrong you committed against him? Yes. Then you forgive others.

* Does Jesus hold a grudge against you for a sin you committed against him 10 years ago? 5 years ago? Yesterday? No. Then you hold no grudges.

* Does Jesus love only those who will return His love? No. Then you love regardless of people ability to love you back.

* Does Jesus seek the least and the lost and lonely? Yes. Then we must do likewise.

Think for a moment, my friends. Who in the congregation do you consider to be the least? It may be someone you wish was not in the church. And you keep telling God to move that person – that they’d be much happier at St. Andrews Presbyterian than here. But Jesus isn’t calling that person to move, He is calling you to love. Calling is too soft a word, He commands you to love that person. Who is the least? Maybe it’s someone who has hurt you. Jesus is calling you love that person. Maybe it’s someone you disagree with. Jesus is calling you to love that person.

But this isn’t any easier, it is only harder – hold on, hold on. For Jesus here not only gives us a fresh emphasis on love and tells us how to love, but He brings with Him a fresh ability to love one another.

A new command I give you; Love one another. As I have loved you. That is key. For it is only as I experience the unconditional love of Christ that I am able to love others unconditionally. O, the wonder of Christ’s love. I could sing of His love forever and never come to its end. We could try to describe it but would never be able to contain it. Christ’s love for you is that high, that wide, and that long. Scripture is always trying to get us to take it in that God loves you and has demonstrated that love in Christ who has laid down His life for you. There is an old hymn that has as its chorus, “I am so glad that Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me, Jesus EVEN me.” Even me! With all my faults, given all the times that I have failed Him and made His work here on earth that much harder. He loves even me!

That is important to grasp – for Scripture makes it plain that people who cannot love others have not tasted the love of God. 1 John 1:4:19-21: “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

We must first experience the love of Christ as and as we do we are able to love others. So people when people say to us, “How can you forgive that person?” we respond, “I can forgive because I know forgiveness from my loving Saviour”. Or when they ask, “How can you continually serve that person?” we say, “It is because I have a Saviour who came and served me by giving His life for me.” Or, “How can you continually give your time and resources and attention to those people?” We say, “I have a Saviour who has given me everything.”

So Jesus does not simply command that we love, but He enables us to love, by filling us with His love.

Now it follows from this that if we have no love for one another then people have every right to question the reality of Christ’s love in you, in us. If we do not practice generosity, or hospitality, or if we do not warmly welcome strangers into our midst then the world has every right to question the reality of Christ’s love.

They do? Yes. This is what Jesus says in verse 35: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”

You see this is our Lord’s evangelism strategy. This is our Lord’s strategy for sharing the faith around the world, but especially over the fence. Listen, our friends are watching us. Our neighbours are watching us. Our children are watching us. Every smile and every tear, every act for good or for ill is noticed. And they are looking to see if the love of Christ is real.

It is as they see Christ’s love demonstrated at work in his body, they want to be a part of it. They look at the love of Christ at work in His body and they say we want that, then we share the truth of Christ’s work on the cross and His resurrection.

And make no mistake the world is hungry for such love. You know the old song, "Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places"? So it is in the world. People are hungry for Christ-like love and when they see it demonstrated in the body they say, “We want that.”

Sometimes we think of evangelism and sharing the faith, that it must be one-on-one. And we think that we must be able to verbalize our faith, that we must be able to give our testimony, and there is an element of truth in that we need to be able to give a reason for the hope that is within us (I Peter 3:15)

But my friends, Jesus gives us here a corporate strategy, a way for each of us to be involved in sharing the faith with our community and world. There may be some who aren’t that good at verbalizing their faith. But boy, they can make a great pie and they can take it over to someone who is sick. And Jesus says that’s evangelism. If you love one another, all people will know that you are my disciples, that my love is real and genuine.

And it needs to be that practical. The love that we have for one another needs to be more than a warm fuzzy feeling. It needs to be more than me saying to Doug, “I love you my friend, my heart pounds with love for you, hope you have a good week - bye.” It needs to be practical, our love for one another needs to be demonstrated.

It means a phone call, it means a letter, it is love expressed practically. And so many of you are good at it. A number of you have done it these past months by hosting or participating in wedding showers. Some of you have expressed love for another in the congregation through cards and flowers and phone calls and food.

But some of you have yet to do it. You don’t understand that what we are called to cannot take place in an hour on Sunday morning. That what we are about here requires more than simply coming to worship on Sunday morning. We have to express love to one another all the time.

You are still hard, you’re still unloving. Some of you are waiting for someone to express love to you. My friends don’t wait.

Take Jesus Christ up on His promise. And this is a promise you know. "As you love one another, all men will know that you are My disciples." Take Him up on this promise. Say, Okay God I’m going to take you up on Your promise.

I see that it is a command to love one another. I see that I must show love practically, just as Jesus has loved practically. I see that He enables me to love, for I have tasted His forgiveness and grace, So I will do it.

I will show love to the least and lost and the lonely. I am going to show love to those who hurt me. I am not going to wait for the congregation to show love to me – I am going to make the first move and I am going to hold you to your promise God. I want people to recognize that you are alive and well in me.

And I’m going to love those who are unlovely. For I realize that your Son said, “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?” No I will love all of God’s people but especially the unlovely.

And it doesn’t matter if the rest of the congregation doesn’t follow my lead. I am going to seek to bring the love of Christ to light in this congregation. It doesn’t matter if no one else invites me to their house I’m going to invite people to my house.

I’m going to encourage, uplift others because you have promised that people’s eyes will be opened to who you are and what you’re all about through the love I give to others. And God, I’m going to watch you fulfill this promise as I live in obedience to your command to love one another.

1. Gene A. Getz, Loving One Another, 1980, Victor Books, California, USA,  p. 66