Outline of Sermon Shared at Bangsar Lutheran
Church on
(A very sweet and cheerful place of worship indeed, I wish only that I'd replace my 'office attire' with a t-shirt!)
John 15:9-17,
"Just as the Father has
loved me, I have also loved you; remain in my love. If you obey my commandments, you will remain
in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commandments and remain in his
love. I have told you these things so
that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete.
"My commandment is this - to
love one another just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this - that one lays down his life for his friends.
"You are my friends if you do
what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because the slave does not
understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I
have revealed to you everything I heard from my Father. You did not choose me,
but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that remains,so that whatever you ask
the Father in my name he will give you. This I command you-to love one
another.”
v
Passage not just about
loving each other, but the greatest way of doing so.
v
Love defined in and through
action:
·
our statements about our
beliefs really refer to our expressions/manifestations of said beliefs, when we
say that “Sivin believes that his exam will be
difficult”, we derive meaning from this by observing him, the amount of time
he’s spending on his studies, his worrisome features, etc. When we say that “Richard likes so-and-so”,
again we infer this from his actions, his words, his shyness, his anxiety,
etc.
·
Is there some metaphysical
‘entity’ or some spiritual ‘substance’ called love? Can we ‘refer’ metaphysically to love the way
we can regarding angels and demons?
There may or may not be – I don’t think the Bible needs to assume that
there is! What’s important is that the
Bible doesn’t give any meaning to love in
the abstract.
v
Jesus is the exemplar of
self-giving, of the ‘laying down of one’s life; from Jesus’ ultimate Act of
Surrender, we learn :
·
the meaning of love in its
most powerful forms and dimensions
· the practice of love in its most Supreme manner, by He Who embodied love
Our purpose now:
Understanding more about
loving each other by way of examining the
laying down of one’s life (particularly our Lord’s), and WHY this way is the ‘greatest love of
all’. WHY is self-giving the greatest kind of love? Why is love the greatest when expressed in
the laying down of one’s life?
1.
Laying down one’s life is
the most courageous kind of
love
·
I
think it takes guts to love. It takes
guts to center ourselves on persons other than ourselves, to dispense with
our pride and resources for the sake of others.
This is why it’s true that loving comes with maturity, it’s powerful,
it’s strong.
·
Love inspires courage, it spurs us to do what initially seems frightening,
unfamiliar – the Incarnation? Putting
yourself in another person’s situation in all its
complexity, vulnerability, uncertainty, in all its pain.
·
Jesus is God courageously
defined in relation to us, our
situation, our problems
·
Jesus laid aside His
‘equality with God’, Phil 2:6-7
2.
Laying down one’s life is
the most costly kind of love
·
when we give our lives, we
are not only giving something which belongs to us, we are also giving up our very
capacity to give(!); after you’ve sacrificed yourself, you can’t give
anything more…
·
the only thing worst than
not giving our best, to give that which means nothing to us (R.Zacharias)
·
there is helplessness, even
humiliation. We can probably add to
Paul’s statement, “Very rarely will a man die gloriously for another. But God demonstrated His love for us by dying
shamefully on the cross.” (Rom 5:7).
·
The Cross was an intra-Trinitarian tragedy; on
3.
Laying down one’s life is
the most competent kind of love
·
It is the most effective,
the most restorative kind – nothing heals a tense relationship better than
self-giving
·
nothing REVERSE the cycle of evil
better than sacrificial action; imagine your enemy suddenly giving up his
rights/possessions for you, how can evil
and hatred breathe in such a context?!
·
Relationship theory of
atonement compared to legal theory : God was
RECONCILING the world to Him through Jesus Christ. Did Jesus die to change God’s attitude
towards us, or to change the OUR attitude towards God?!
·
The Cross defies our
understanding this side of eternity; Scripture uses many metaphors top capture
the aspects of atonement, but the full dynamic process will be in principle
hidden from us until we see God ‘face to face’ (now we see but a poor reflection
mirror). Now we can barely understand
the MORAL universe (a’la Job!), we can hardly
understand the problem of evil – are we saying we understand perfectly the
SOLUTION to evil?!
·
Question traditional ‘penal
substitution’ theory of atonement via a transfer of
penalty.
·
Jesus’ sacrifice did not put
love into God’s heart where previously there was none
·
Jesus’ sacrifice was not the
punishing of the Son by the Father who had to otherwise punish humanity! “Oh I have to condemn somebody, it’s either you or Jesus. Because I love you, I will take it out on
Jesus!”??!!
·
Platoon analogy, the idea of
Rescue (not unlike the Exodus)
4.
Laying down one’s life is
the most credible kind of
love
· it’s a sad fact that criticism of others come very easily for us, doesn’t it? The contents of your criticism could be valid but the act of it could have zero credibility. God, I believe, is more concerned about you loving your fellow-person than telling him off.
·
The Cross wasn’t only a
victory over evil, it was a victory of love.
·
How many of you believe that
God experiences change??
·
And this love gives God the
moral credibility to deal with our sin; AFTER the Cross God was more qualified
than ever before to transform sinners.
·
The Cross changed God,
giving Him a kind of authority
·
Hebrews 5:8-9, “…Jesus
learnt obedience from what He suffered and, once made PERFECT, became the source
of eternal salvation for all who obey Him.”
5.
Laying down one’s life is
the most conclusive kind of
love
·
Giving one’s self
constitutes the most certain, the most indisputable demonstration of love there
is
·
you can’t say, “You don’t love
me, Lord!” I don’t think people who
refuse the lordship of Jesus Christ have ever truly understood His
actions and why He did them. The fact
that many people can make fun at the crucifixion of Christ proves to me that
they don’t realise what He’s done; see what happened
to the Centurion.
·
Would you ever ever laugh in
mockery at your friend if he put himself on the line for
you?
· “For God SO LOVED the world that He gave His Only Son that whosoever believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
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