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Tag Archives: Love
The Lord’s Day Sermon Manuscript for April 28, 2024
Here’s the link to download the manuscript if you are interested:
Lord’s Day Sermon Manuscript for January 28, 2024
Here’s the link to download the manuscript if you are interested:
Daily Encouragement
It seems I notice more and more our faith in Christ becoming visible through gladly obeying Christ’s commands each time I read the Scriptures. Today, John chapter 13 ends in that way.
John 13:34-35
[34] A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. [35] By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
As you might know, Jesus is beginning his farewell to his disciples. Obviously everything Jesus says is important but this is the first thing he says which gives it an added emphasis.
To circle back to what he said might bring up a question—what’s new about the commandment? If we compare this commandment with loving your neighbor as yourself then we can easily spot the difference. Jesus has raised the standard of love to say—love each other the way I have loved you. These disciples have seen how he loved them and others for nearly 3 years.
His ultimate display of love is wrapped up in the farewell. He knows that he is about to lay down his life for them. He asks his disciples to do the same for each other. Why? Well, the way we know Jesus loved us was clearly displayed on the cross. So too if we lay down our lives for each other then ALL MEN will know that we are Christ’s disciples.
Of course laying down your life for each other will not likely mean physical death though it’s possible. But it most certainly means that we are dying to self. It means we are gladly serving others and their needs not just ourselves.
This extraordinary love has massive implications in the world. To make Jesus known comes not only through word but also deed. When we focus on and believe in how Christ has loved us—his enemies who are tax collectors and sinners—then we should not find it so difficult to love each other.
Go make Jesus known! Know him and make him known!
Thanksgiving Day
What is giving thanks?
—it’s a response to someone who gave things to you. And the things given were not earned. (For example, our paycheck is something you shouldn’t give thanks for because you worked for it).
—the response is vocalized which should be accompanied by a particular disposition toward the person who gave to you.
—the response of thanksgiving does not require that the person who gave to you be superior to you. Most certainly God is worthy of our thanksgivings everyday but other people who have given to you ought to receive a thankful response too.
—thankfulness requires that you notice these things. You must be aware of what you have been given was undeserved.
—because to be generous here, we can possibly forget. An opposite response to someone who gave is to forget the response of thanksgiving. This could be due to not stopping to think about what has occurred or there’s just too much going on in life therefore you did not remember the kind deeds done to you.
—while forgetfulness is a possibility for not being thankful, more often than not it is out of pride. We think we deserve everything and the world ought to take notice. They ought to be thankful for the opportunity to give to me kind of attitude. On a more subtle note of pride, we might abhor the gift and in doing so we abhor the giver. Now, we will likely respond with the words of thanksgiving but they are just words. The gift isn’t what I wanted or needed and we think there’s no benefit from it.
—though we could breakdown piece by piece the steps from pride to unbelief I don’t think that’s necessary. The major problem with not having a heart of thankfulness is unbelief in God. This is the root of unthankfulness. Because if we trust in the Lord, we of all people know and understand that God has been gracious and merciful to us in every respect throughout our entire life. When we turn our attention on the fact that we deserve the consequences of our sin—the miseries of this life and eternal death itself. But Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners like us. He took the death that we deserved and we get forgiveness and counted righteous by faith in him. To all who have turned from their sins and trusted in Jesus, we will be saved. From that understanding, we of all people ought to be thankful!
Daily Encouragement
As the story of Lazarus wraps up at the end of John 11, there are different responses to this amazing resurrection. Some believe. They see the signs as from the only place they could be—God. That makes Jesus unique in some way to them. At the very least they believe Jesus is from God.
Others do not believe. In fact they begin to plan his death. They say it out loud if you were wondering why—John 11:47-48
[47] So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. [48] If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
They didn’t see the evidence that others saw. What they wanted was to keep their place and nation at the expense of not believing that Jesus was the Son of God. They should have seen it through the many signs. The evidence is stacked against them. Anyway, they gave up trusting in God to keep the temple and nation. These were not to be substituted for God himself but it seems that’s what they had become.
Instead of seeing God through the obvious signs Jesus was showing them they looked to the temple and nation as evidence or maybe something else. Are you satisfied with a dead building as evidence of God? I’m not. And you shouldn’t either.
So how do you get people to see Christ for who he is? How do you cause people to hear the gospel and believe? Warnings or wooings? Or both?
This Lazarus event was a clear example of wooing. They should have seriously wrestled with the signs not against them. God has used both with the people and Pharisees. Why did neither of them work with some?
Notice this statement by Jesus about warning and wooing—Matthew 11:16-19
[16] “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates,[17] “‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ [18] For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ [19] The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
To simplify what Jesus is saying here—I came wooing you with wonderful signs and John came warning you to flee the wrath of God through repentance. Jesus played the beautiful flute and John sang the funeral song (a lament—dirge).
Why did they not listen? There are a few possible answers but only one satisfies to me. What is it?
The Lord’s Day Sermon Manuscript for November 19, 2023
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Daily Encouragement
At the beginning of our journey with Christ, we see things differently than we do later. It seems one way but later we see the true reality of what happened.
Notice how the disciples understand how they found Jesus but in reality notice how it really happened:
John 1:35-37
[35] The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, [36] and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” [37] The two disciples *heard him say this, and they *followed Jesus.
We know that God sent John to testify of the coming of the LORD. He does that to these two disciples and they follow Jesus. But notice how they explain that to Peter:
John 1:41
[41] He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have *found the Messiah” (which means Christ).
The pattern continues with Jesus and Philip:
John 1:43
[43] The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He *found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”
John 1:45
[45] Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have *found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
God is the one who pursues us and finds us! But you might say, “But were they not looking for Messiah anyway?” But then I’d ask, “Why are they looking for Messiah and how do they know what to look for?” The answer is God had made promises to them through his word.
We must not miss the fact that God sought us and bought us with his redeeming blood. He is the one who reconciled himself to us. If we get this wrong we will not live a very Christ-centered life. It will be me-centered and we know how that plays out. It is simple but true: God saves! Turn your eyes upon Jesus!
The Lord’s Day Sermon Manuscript for July 23, 2023
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The Word Is Not Imprisoned 