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Muskegon SDA Church

The Way of Love

Jason Sliger

The Commandment of Love

Loving Father in heaven, we are thankful that we can come into your presence and know that you have a blessing for each 1 of us.

And Father, this morning as we've Come away from the busyness of the week.

We pray, Lord, that you would speak to our hearts and draw us nearer to you.

If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to John the 13th chapter.

While you are turning there, John chapter 13 is where we find Jesus and his disciples in the upper room.

They are about to partake in what would be the last Passover that would have any significance to it.

Jesus has just been betrayed by Judas for 30 pieces of silver.

The transaction has already been laid out.

Judas has told them when and how and what he would do to betray Jesus over to them.

It's a couple of hours at this point before Jesus would be found in the garden of Gethsemane.

They're pouring out his heart to the Father in that prayer that we should pray, not my will but thine be done.

Shortly after that, we would find Jesus standing before Pontius Pilate, and then just hours after that, he would be hung on the cross.

And so in the upper room at this time, there is a lot that is weighing on the heart of Jesus.

He just has a few hours left with his disciples before he would no longer be able to freely interact with them because of his betrayal and crucifixion.

And while Jesus is there in the upper room looking at the dimly lit faces of his disciples, his heart is burdened with a message that he wants to share with them.

In fact, John 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 is all of this advice that Jesus is trying to condense down.

Those chapters happen between the upper room and the Garden of Gethsemane, and he's there pouring out his heart to his disciples.

But this morning, I wanna take 2 verses and pull them out.

2 verses that are relevant to our lives today, and of course to the communion service.

John chapter 13, verse 34, it's a passage that we're familiar with.

Jesus looks at his disciples, he says this.

A new commandment I give unto you, that you love 1 another as I have loved you, that you also love 1 another.

Some people refer to this commandment as the 11th commandment.

It's a new commandment, Jesus says, that he gave to them.

However, we know as we study the word of God that this wasn't something that was necessarily new.

It was found throughout the Old Testament, the concept of loving 1 another.

In fact, you find it all over the place in the New Testament as well.

About 19 times you find that phrase, to love 1 another, in the New Testament.

Mentioned by John, mentioned by Jesus, and also mentioned by Paul.

But here in the upper room, Jesus is weighed down with this sense of separation that's about to take place between him and his disciples.

These disciples that are bickering amongst themselves, who would be the greatest?

These disciples who 1 of them is a devil that is betraying him.

These disciples that are about to be the ones who are to carry the gospel to the entire world.

These disciples, Jesus feels burdened with the commission that he's about to lay upon them, and he says, love 1 another as I have loved you.

Now, of course, you know that prior to this, Jesus in his discourse with a young lawyer who came to Jesus and asked him, which is the greatest commandment?

You know, Jesus told him, thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor, what?

So he's already kind of laid this principle out.

And a Bible student will notice as they compare these 2 passages, Matthew 22 and John chapter 13, you find that Jesus, although they're similar, there is a very stark difference between those 2 statements.

He tells the lawyer to love your neighbor as yourself, but then in the upper room, he takes it up a notch and he tells the disciples to love each other as he has loved them.

Now, I'm gonna suggest to you this morning, out of the 2, the easier of the 2 is to love 1 another as we would want to be loved.

But I think if we're gonna be really honest with ourselves and introspective and search our hearts, we would actually find that we struggle with that 1.

To love 1 another as we would want to be loved, to treat each other as we would want to be treated.

Yet Jesus in the upper room is saying, no, no, no, no, no, not just that.

Now I want you to take it up a notch and I want you to love 1 another as I have loved you.

The love that we don't see very often, but a love that I believe the world is longing to see.

Jesus repeats this in John chapter 15, and then he gives an example of what it looks like.

Jesus again talking to his disciples right before he's about to go to the Garden of Gethsemane, they're making their way over there and Jesus says this in verse 13.

"'This is my commandment, that you love 1 another, ' and he says, "'as I have loved you, ' sorry, that's in verse 12, Now he says in verse 13, greater love hath no man than this, than that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Verse 17, these things I command you that you love 1 another.

Jesus is repeating himself and he always does that because he's trying to get something across.

He says, "'To love 1 another, "'to love each other as Jesus has loved us.'" And then he gives this example of what it looks like.

He says, greater love hath no man than this, than that he what?

Now listen, Jesus never asks us to do something that he wouldn't do himself.

And he's about to give this greatest expression of what this love looks like, that he would lay down his life for people who hate him.

That he would lay down his life for people who have sinned and caused him to go to the cross.

That he would lay down his life for a group of people who may not appreciate it the way they should.

And he's giving us this example of what it looks like to love 1 another as he has loved us.

Something that is worth taking some time to reflect upon.

I'm sad to say, it's sad to say rather, that I believe that this type of love is sadly lacking in our churches today, is it not?

You see, the concept of love has been cheapened in our society today.

And we've kind of gone to the point in our churches where if we put up with 1 another, we think we're doing a good job.

Listen, when we get to heaven, we're not gonna be putting up with 1 another.

Listen, when we get to heaven, there is not going to be a single person in the kingdom of heaven that you don't wanna hang out with.

Because all of our hearts will be so transformed that we will love 1 another as Jesus loved us.

There was nobody that Jesus didn't like hanging around with.

There was nobody that Jesus did not love from the lowest to the highest class in society.

But I believe that this kind of love is sadly lacking in our churches today.

We have a hard time maybe just putting up with each other for a couple of hours at church when we should really be loving each other as Jesus loved us.

I think this is the kind of love that the world is really longing to see.

A love that is not merely professed intellectually, but a love that is expressed among God's people.

You see, if we have a hard time loving 1 another here, how are we gonna do it out there?

If we have a hard time getting along with each other here, how is the world gonna think that our religion has done anything for us.

You know, Jesus makes a very interesting statement in the very next verse after Matthew 13, where he says to love each other as he loves us.

This has always been very gripping to me as I've read this passage.

He says this, he says, by this, by what, what is this?

By loving 1 another as Jesus has loved us.

He says, by this shall all men know that you are my what?

How is it that the world knows I'm a disciple of Christ?

Because I believe in the state of the dead.

Because I believe that I'm part of the remnant church of Bible, listen, I'm not knocking these things because we understand these are all very important.

God has given us his word so that we can find the truth.

The Way of Love- Part 1

I can't think of a better person to follow than Jesus, amen?

Well, it's a pleasure to be with you here again this morning and I trust that the Lord has a blessing in store for each 1 of us.

And I trust that the Lord has blessed each 1 of you as well.

I invite you to bow your heads with me and we're gonna start with a brief word of prayer and then we'll dive into our study together.

Loving Father in heaven, We are thankful, Lord, that you have come to give us an example that we can follow.

And may the song of our hearts this next week be, I will follow thee, my Savior.

This morning, Father, as we reflect upon your word, we pray, dear Lord, that you would speak to us through it.

In John the 13th chapter, we find Jesus and the disciples alone in the upper room.

They are having a very meaningful conversation, well at least Jesus is having a meaningful conversation with them.

And his heart is burdened with a lot of things that he needs to share with his disciples before he's finally led to the cross.

As you know, the disciples were not in a very teachable frame of mind at this point.

They were arguing amongst themselves about who would be the greatest.

They were jockeying for the best position on the left and the right of Jesus at the table.

They really had a lot of strife inside of their hearts.

Judas, as you know, has already betrayed Jesus at this point.

And while all of this is going on, this dynamic in the upper room, Jesus really hits to the heart of the issue.

And he makes a statement in John 13 in verse 35 that we read last week in our sermon together, but we're gonna look at it a little bit more today.

By this, Jesus says, "'Shall All men know that you are my disciples, if.

Now, in the general sense, we oftentimes apply this Bible passage to mean that we should love everybody.

That would definitely be an application to the Bible passage.

But given that we know the context and what's going on in the upper room, the more specific application of the Bible passage is that Jesus is telling the disciples that the world would know that they are his disciples if they have love for 1 another in that group.

All those people that are bickering amongst themselves who should be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus says, if you love 1 another in this group, the 12 of you, that this would be the example to the world that you are my disciples.

And of course we know that as we look at Acts chapter 1 and Acts chapter 2, as we see the disciples there coming together in unity and experiencing this love that Jesus has talked about in John chapter 13, the result was indeed The world knew that they were disciples of Christ.

The gospel went to the world at a very rapid pace.

This morning what I wanna do is I wanna take a look at this concept of love in the Bible.

The word that we know as agape in the Greek.

I think there's gonna be a couple of lessons that we can learn that will help us in our personal walk with the Lord and also in our interactions with other people.

The servant of the Lord writes in 1 of the periodicals in 1901, the Southern Review, January 1 of 1901, she writes this statement.

He only who loves his fellow man to a purpose can know God.

The Bible says, he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love, right?

So she's saying if we don't love our fellow man, we cannot know who.

That should give us some pause for thought.

She goes on and she says this, this is the reason why.

This is the reason why that there is so little genuine vitality in our churches.

Why is there little vitality in our churches?

Now what do you think of when you think of the word vitality?

This is the reason why, she says, that there is so little life, energy, excitement in our churches, why?

Then she goes on, she makes this bombshell of a statement that I had to read several times before I really got the grasp of it.

It says this, theology is valueless unless it is saturated with the what?

The first time I read that to me, Dori, when I first saw it, she was like, wow, I've never heard that.

And of course, I thought the same thing when I read that.

Theology is valueless unless it is saturated with the love of Christ.

Now, what do you think of when you think of the word saturation?

The word saturate means it cannot hold anymore.

It's like the sponge on your sink counter in your kitchen that dries up throughout the day, and then the dishes are timed, it's time to wash the dishes, and you get that sponge out, and you put it underneath the water and it fills up until it is saturated with water, cannot hold anymore.

And she says that only when theology is saturated with the love of Christ that then it becomes what?

If we want our theology to have value to it, to others, we should first, what?

His love in the human heart will lead to the doing of works that will bear fruit after the similitude of the character of God.

Then she says, in the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul defines what?

Christ-like love, which is what our theology needs to be saturated with.

1 Corinthians 13 defines Christ-like love.

And then she says this, it would be well to print this chapter in small type in every paper issued by our presses.

Did she, do you think that she thought this chapter was important?

Every paper that comes off of Our printing press should have 1 Corinthians 13 somewhere on the page in small type.

And she also tells us, interestingly enough, that this chapter should be read every single day.

You think that would change us if we read that chapter every day?

Thinking about it, reading it, meditating on it, thinking about it, reading it, meditating.

And then she quotes 1 Corinthians 13 and she concludes by making this statement.

This chapter is an expression of the obedience of all who love God and keep His commandments.

It is brought into the action in the life of every true believer.

Every true believer will have this experience in their life.

This morning, I want you to go with me, if you would, to 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

We're gonna delve into this a little bit more, because I don't know about you, I want to know God better, amen.

I wanna have the character of Jesus, amen.

So we ought to spend a little bit of time understanding this.

Now let me, before we get into this, and actually today we're really not gonna get into 1 Corinthians 13, that's to come as we continue to unfold this series.

But let me make this statement here at the very beginning.

Unfortunately, 1 Corinthians 13 has kind of been relegated to the wedding.

1 Corinthians 13 has kind of been relegated to the love chapter between a husband and wife or between 2 people that are dating each other.

I wanna tell you this morning, 1 Corinthians 13 is much more than that.

It is much more than that, and it is lacking, I believe, in our churches today.

You know this already, but when the Bible was written, it did not have chapter and verse divisions in it, so it would have just read like a letter.

The Way of Love- Part 2

Father in heaven, we are thankful that we can come before you this morning as your children, knowing that we serve a God whose ear is bending low to this earth to hear our petitions.

And Father, this morning the prayer is simple.

As we take our Bibles in our hands and study it, we pray, Father, that you would take the message and send it home to our hearts, that it would change us, Father, to become more and more like Jesus.

We thank you for hearing our prayer, for answering it, because we pray it in Jesus' name, amen.

If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn with me to 1 Corinthians, the 13th chapter.

This is where we're gonna be spending our time together this morning.

Last week, we began an introduction to this study of this chapter, the chapter that has sometimes been referred to as the Psalm of Love.

1 Corinthians 13 is probably world-renowned in Christian circles.

And in this chapter, Paul tells us he defines the very essence of what the Christian character is made up of.

But before he gets into that, he actually gives us a little bit of a preamble that we studied in our time together last week in verse 31 of 1 Corinthians chapter 12, right before he introduces this concept of agape.

He says there in verse 31, but you should be eager, this is in the New English translation, for the greater gifts, the gifts of the Spirit that he has just outlined.

And then he says, now I will show unto you a way that is beyond comparison, or as the King James puts it, a more excellent way.

And so Paul takes this time to describe to us the gifts of the Spirit and how important they are to the longevity and the prosperity of God's people, to the success of us fulfilling the gospel commission.

And he uses that as a contrast that he is making in 1 Corinthians 13.

That as important as the gifts of the Spirit are to the work that God has given to us as a people, as important as they are to our church, even more important than that, the more excellent way, the way that is beyond comparison, is what he is going to outline for us in the very next few words in 1 Corinthians 13.

Now, the main point that he is making here is that as important as these are, they are worthless.

The fruits of the Spirit are worthless unless they are infused with this agape love that he is about to show us in 1 Corinthians 13.

Now, last week we looked at a quote that I wanted to reiterate again this morning just so we can have this fresh in our minds.

Sometimes it's good to have a little repetition.

And this comes from the Southern Review, January 1 of 1901.

This was such a paradigm shift in my mind when I read this quote that I think it's worth repeating this morning.

It says this, he only who loves his fellow man to a purpose can know God.

Only those who know God can, or rather, only those who love their fellow man can know God, and that's a Bible principle.

This is the reason why, or this is the reason that there is so little genuine vitality or life in our churches.

And then she says, Theology is valueless unless it is what?

And we talked about saturation and what that means.

It is so full that it can't take any more.

Theology has to be infused, it has to be saturated with agape love in order for it to have value.

This is something we really need to meditate on.

We need to think about, we need to ask that the Lord will give us this experience, not only collectively as a group, but individually in our own personal lives, that our theology that we believe in our minds will be saturated, filled to overflowing with agape love.

And in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, Paul is outlining for us there the character of God.

He is breaking it down into its component parts, what the character of God is made up of.

Now as we're looking at 1 Corinthians 13, we're defining this word agape.

And we spent a little bit of time last week looking at the different Greek words on agape, or rather the different Greek words on love.

And we looked at the definition for agape, which is a desire to do what is best for another.

So agape is a desire to find somebody and do what is good for them.

Irrespective of how that might make me feel, irrespective of what position it puts me in, I simply do it because I want somebody else to benefit in a positive way.

Agape is not dependent on another person's response in order for it to exist.

It loves not because of what it gets or how the other person responds, but because it cares for and wants the best for others.

You know, the more I study agape and the more I've looked at 1 Corinthians 13, the more I realize it is very difficult to actually define what this love is.

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The Way of Love

The Way of Love- Part 1

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