Church Today-Sermon Only-Week 6-Love One Another

Abundant Grace Community Church Sunday Worship Service LIVESTREAM
Church Today
Love One Another
Sunday, August 18th 2024
Phil Courson
John 13:34,35
Introduction
Let Us Love Others the Way Jesus Loves Us
I. A New Commandment
“A new commandment I give to you…”
New - kainos - refers something brand new, of a new kind, unprecedented, unheard of
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new (kainos) creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
“For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” Ephesians 2:14-16
II. Love One Another, As I Have Loved You
“Love one another…”
The command to love one another has always been the for the people of Israel.
“You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:18
What makes this commandment by Jesus ‘new?’
“as I have loved you”
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends...“This I command you, that you love one another.” John 15:12,13,17
Jesus is not only setting the standard on how to love, but through His death on the cross He gives us the power and ability to love the way he loved.
“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
What hinders us from loving this way?
Could it be we don’t understand the depths our selfishness and self-centeredness?
Could it be we don’t think much of Jesus love for us?
Could it be we don’t measure ourselves against the standard of Jesus’ love, but by how people love us?
Self-sacrifice is the highest expression of love!
III. My Disciples
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
In his Apologeticus, Tertullian reported that the pagan world admired the love that Christians had for one another: “See how they love one another! . . . How they are ready even to die for one another!”
“The church is to be a loving church in a dying culture.” Francis Schaeffer
IV. Conclusion