As usual, you can find the transcript of the sermon below
JOHN 13:34,35
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
GALATIANS 5:2222 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,23 gentleness and self-control.
John 13:34,35 LOVE IN THIS GROWING SEASON
Springford Baptist Church: May, 3, 2020.
Every growing season is different isn’t it?
Sometimes we get an early spring and the flowers and blossoms burst even earlier than expected. Sometimes the temperatures remain low and there is a deluge of rain and planting is delayed. Later in the season, there may be a shortage of rain and gardens and crops can become parched and dry.
The conditions of sun and rain and wind; calm and storms, all affect a growing season when it comes to plants and fruit. The growing seasons of our lives also affect what happens with what God is wanting to see grow in us.
I have been saying throughout these strange times in which we are presently living, that my ongoing prayer is that we will grow closer to God. Over these next several weeks, we will be looking at the kind of fruit that is meant to grow in our lives through the work of God’s Holy Spirit. God is able to bring growth even in the most unsettled and unpredictable growing seasons of our lives.
The kinds of fruit that God wants to see grow in us as His followers are these: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. (Galatians 5:22)
Today
we will examine the way that love, the love that God intends, can
grow in us in a growing season like we are now experiencing.
When
Jesus was preparing His disciples for life after He would die, be
raised to life, and return to heaven, He said to them, “A
new commandment I give you, Love one another as I have loved you. By
this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one
another.” (John 13:34,35)
The growing season that the disciples faced was not an easy one and Jesus knew how vital it would be for them to hold on to their faith in Him and to love each other.
Now what could be new about love? Wasn’t this already laid out as God’s commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength and you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)
How can Jesus call this commandment to love “new”?
What makes this instruction to love new is in that all important detail, “as I have loved you.”
When we are loving with
our best, but limited capacity we are still falling short of the
immensity of the love that Jesus displays.
One of the aspects of
Jesus’ standard of love that causes our love to look pale by
comparison is that Jesus loves unconditionally.
What will unconditional love look like in this growing season of our lives?
Elsewhere, Jesus talks about loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you. (Matthew 5:44) Wouldn’t that change the whole tone of news reporting and social media discourse these days?
If we thought that we didn’t have new things to discover about love, the reality of this growing season in our lives reminds us daily that we need to rely on God to cause love to grow stronger in us.
It is relatively easy to love those we agree with and those who are pleasant to us. When we see conversations taking a nasty tone and when we get exasperated with people’s selfish and rude behaviour, what does our love look like then?
Love as a fruit of God’s Spirit growing in us needs to be able to respond to the challenges of this growing season.
I have heard people this week saying with desperation, “why are so many bad things happening in our world”? The bad things tend to get emphasized, don’t they?
Here is an example. There is repeated media coverage about how greedy and mean spirited people are.
Then there is this British war veteran Captain Tom Moore (now named an honourary Colonel) who decided to raise funds for National Health Services, in celebration of his 100th birthday, by walking around the garden where he lives 100 times. The response has been phenomenal and he has raised over 32 million pounds and people have been touched and inspired by his simple act of love.
We keep hearing about the struggle in long term care homes to provide adequate care. I have seen first hand how hard the staff are working to ensure that the residents of the home where I work as Chaplain are well cared for. Extra effort is being made to keep residents in contact with family while they are not able to visit at this time. Families are responding by sending notes of appreciation and bringing thoughtful treats for staff. People are really pulling together as a team. Love is growing even when there is criticism and fear.
Love does not diminish in hard times. Love actually rises to the occasion and finds new ways to express itself. This is evidence of God at work.
When in this growing season, we keep discovering new ways to love as Jesus loves us then the fruit of God’s Spirit love can grow in and through us. And something else of great importance happens. People can encounter the living Jesus through our determination to grow in His love.
In a miraculous way, the attention goes to Jesus because people will recognize that we are His disciples, that we are modelling our love after His.
Today on this first Sunday of a new month, we will observe Communion together. When we remember Jesus as He has asked us to in the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the cup, we are remembering that Jesus demonstrated unconditional love for us in giving Himself for us.
“Love one another as I have loved you” compels all of us to grow much deeper in our understanding of love and in our living of love in this unusual growing season!