Go to VIDEO
This is my command: Love each other.
John 15:17(NLT)
Stop the first one hundred people you meet on the street and
ask them this question: "What's wrong with the church
today?" You will get plenty of
answers!
It's so easy to criticize what others are doing. If you look diligently enough you can find
something wrong with everything.
A
farmer's neighbor was so negative, criticizing everything and anything. The farmer bought a new plow, the neighbor
said it would rust soon. The farmer
remarked how it was good to have more rain this year, and the neighbor lamented
that his crops would rot at the root with all this rain. It went on ad nauseam.
The farmer determined he would find something to cheer up
this bottomless pit of despair. He went
out and purchased the finest hunting dog, and secretly trained him to fetch
by walking
on the water, instead of swimming.
When hunting season came the farmer invited his sour neighbor to go with
him. When the first flock passed by, the
farmer and his friend shot several ducks each.
The farmer yelled to the dog, Fetch! The hound darted, his feet barely skimming
the surface of the lake. He scooped up
four ducks from the water and was back in an instant, dry as a bone. How
'bout THAT? questioned the
farmer. Remarked ol' sourpuss, Cain't swim, can he?
Well, the church is something else altogether. If we are honest we can see that most
churches are 98% wonderful; the other 2% we manage to mess things up. The problem is that unbelievers, and even
critics within, focus on the 2%, and not the productive 98%. It is wrong to judge all ministers by the few
who fall into gross sin. It is wrong to
judge all committee members by the few who do nothing or just cause
trouble. It is wrong to put all members
in with the hypocritical few who aren't faithful to their Lord.
We ought to judge the church at its best, not its worst. The church's best are the ideals and
principles upon which it was founded by Jesus.
Jesus addressed his disciples, with the command (the word means to point out the goal), to love each
other. To love means to seek another's
highest good. Our goal is to find ways
to lift each other in the church. That
puts us at a fork in the road. You can
criticize, or you can build up, but you cannot do both.
So this morning we want to talk about our goal as a church:
Loving...as Christ also loved...
A deeper study of how to love each other is contained in
Paul's letter to the Ephesian church (5:25-32).
The passage deals with
marriage, but we can see how Paul points to the relationship that brings
blessing in the church family.
Jesus loved the church (us), and He saw potential for good in
each of us. He called us branches of his
own vine. In fact, the word
"member" is synonymous with the Latin root for "limb." Each of us who are members of the local
church, the body of Christ, is a limb.
Jesus is the vine, we are the branches.
The Lord expects to see fruit produced; He wants us to be great limbs,
bearing wonderful fruit.
Now, as any gardener will attest, a crop must be
cultivated. It doesn't just happen.
Churches are like that.
We are a collection of branches, and the Lord can certainly grow us, but
there is also some cultivating that needs to be done. Given the right care, the church can be grown
and built up like a vineyard.
So let’s look at the kind of love we can have towards each
other; the kind of love that bears
fruit in the Father’s vineyard:
Sacrificial Love
For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ
loved the church. He gave up his life for her.
Ephesians 5:25(NLT)
Jesus sees that kind of potential in you and me. We are the embodiment of the heart of Jesus
Christ. That heart is filled with all
kinds of good things. What kinds of
things?
In the heart of Jesus was the willingness to be a sacrifice
for the whole world. In the church you
will always find members (limbs of the body) who are ready to give. Jesus wasn't selfish, and his true, fruitful
limbs never demand their own way. One of
the things that warms my heart is the generosity of God's people. It is a common sight to see a Christian put
another's need before his own.
Purifying Love
to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s
word. He did this to present her to
himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without
fault. Ephesians 5:26-27(NLT)
Among the many reasons Jesus gave himself for the church is
that the church might be cleansed of things that harm and drag us down. The guiding principle is uplift! Jesus lifts us out of the anger and
selfishness of the world. Think of the
blind man Jesus healed. With the hand of
love the man received his sight, and his life was never the same again.
Jesus cast demons out; he forgave a woman who should have
been stoned to death. He even met a
murderous young Pharisee named Saul and turned him into a mighty preacher of
the Gospel.
Jesus is still touching lives like that with his purifying
love. He does it through his limbs
– the church members, filling them with the Spirit of hope and forgiveness and
purity. This purifying love makes the
church a sparkling jewel.
Caring Love
No one hates his own body
but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. Ephesians 5:29(NLT)
A husband is charged with the responsibility of cherishing
his wife. Jesus cherishes his bride, the
church. God has seen to our physical
needs, and gives as He determines will be good for us. But this verse emphasizes the spiritual
nourishment of the soul.
The church meets physical needs sometimes, but our main diet
is the building up of the spirit with caring.
Groups gather for fellowship, study of God's word and prayer. We become aware of each other's needs. We worship together, building up the spirit
with praise.
Unifying Love
As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined
to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery,
but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. Ephesians 5:30-32(NLT)
If there is one thing a body needs in order to remain healthy
and useful, it is wholeness.
Wholeness means together as a unit.
We are the body of Christ, a unit.
We are not all the same. Just
like this world, which has a rich variety of different people animals and
plants, there is also great diversity in the church. There are more varieties of Christians than
opinions in a committee meeting.
Now, in spite of all this diversity, there is one unifying,
glorious force: The HOLY SPIRIT OF
GOD. It is the Spirit of God who teaches
us this unifying love; one Spirit – one body.
We are not all the same, but we are all one in
Him.
We may not all act the same; but in Him we can all
act in love.
The church, with this unifying love is much like a football
team; there are eleven men with different talents, different assignments, but ALL
with just ONE PURPOSE: get
the ball over the line.
Armies are composed of thousands from all walks of life, but every
soldier has only ONE OBJECTIVE – win the war!
Bands have different instruments producing different sounds,
but only ONE GOAL – follow the director to play the song.
This is the same as the church with its unifying love. We build together or we fall apart.
Lord Nelson of England was about to enter an important
battle. He heard that two of his
officers were at odds with each other.
He called them in and said, Gentlemen,
give me your hands. The two captains
put their hands in the Commander's hands, and he squeezed them with a tight
grip. Men, he said, Remember the
ENEMY is OUT THERE!
The love God wants for his church is tough, enduring, and
sees beyond human emotions and selfishness.
It gives, uplifts, cares, builds
and unites.
The Psalmist said it this way:
How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony! Psalm 133:1(NLT)
Sacrificial, purifying, caring and unifying love. That is the kind of love Jesus had in mind
when He said, Love each other.
In
the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
No comments:
Post a Comment