Now don’t point at anybody when I ask this question; just think about it. Who would be, for you, the hardest person to love? What sort of person would it be hardest not to hate? If you’re a parent, I suspect I know your answer. It would not be somebody who hurts you in some way. It would be somebody who hurts your kids. Mess with me, okay fine, I’ll probably move on and get over it. But mess with my kids and you’ll find yourself messing with me, unless my wife gets to you first. And if she does, then I will be praying for you. All of us who are parents feel that way, I’m sure. We would die for our kids. Some of us might even kill for them.

I want to read you a paragraph from a book called, “Irresistible” by Andy Stanley. He says,

“If you mistreat one of my kids, don’t invite me to lunch. I’m not going. If you mistreat my kids, don’t pretend everything is okay between us. It’s not. You can buy me gifts, send me flowers, offer to loan me your beach house. It won’t do any good. You can sing me songs on Sunday, praise my holy name, and tithe 10 percent of your income to my 401(k). That won’t help either. Until you make things right with my son or my daughter, things won’t be right between us.”

I can’t help but think of Jesus’ exhortation to the Jews in the sermon on the mount. He told them if they’re at the temple with their animal to offer as a sacrifice to God, but as they’re standing there, they remember that they’ve offended their brother, their brother has something against them, Jesus told them, “Just leave your animal there, don’t even bother to give your offering of worship, and go and be first reconciled to your brother, go apologize and make amends, if need be, then come and present your offering.” In other words, it doesn’t do you any good to worship God until you make things right with His kid.

I think of Zechariah 2:8, where that prophet says to the children of God, the people of God, “He who touches you, touches the apple of His eye.” To mistreat a child of God is to poke God in the eye ball with a sharp stick.

In Isaiah 58 there’s this passage about how some ancient Israelites were trying hard to get God to respond to their prayers. They were praying every day, and listening to the Scriptures and the priests at the temple. They were offering sacrifices and even fasting, because they wanted God to be gracious to them, to heal them of diseases, to deliver them from their enemies and their problems, and prosper them. They were saying to God, according Isaiah 58:3, “Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?” And God answers, “Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. 4 Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high.” They were fasting and doing religious things so their voice would be heard on high and God would respond. But God says I will not listen as long as you continue to be so self-centered and mean to people. In verse 6 God tells them what will actually get their voice heard in heaven and have God responding to their prayers. He tells him, “Let the oppressed go free.” And verse 7, “Share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you seek the naked, cover him, don’t hide yourself from your brothers and sisters who need help. “Then [verse 8] shall light break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. 9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’” So He says I’m willing to grant your prayers speedily when you repent and start truly loving one another. Without love for one another, love for God’s kids, we cannot please God or have an effective prayer life.

Andy Stanley goes on to say:

“The opposite is true as well.

Years ago, during a double elimination baseball tournament in which my son Andrew’s team was on the verge of being double eliminated, I experienced something I’ll never forget. The game was tied. Bases were loaded. Andrew was up to bat with a 3-2 count. He was twelve. I could hardly breathe and Sandra [his wife] could hardly look. The pitcher threw a change-up that grazed Andrew’s shoulder. He dropped his bat, trotted off to first base. The crowd (about two dozen of us) went wild. We were one run ahead.

Or so we thought. The umpire stepped out in front of the plate, called the play dead, sent the scoring runner back to third base, and called Andrew back to home plate. He claimed Andrew leaned into the pitch in order to be hit intentionally. Andrew was still up to bat with a count of 3-2.

Sandra gave me that look. The look that says, everybody here knows who you are and what you do. It’s just a game. It’s a look I’d seen and ignored a thousand times. I was about to ignore it again when God saw fit to intervene on behalf of my reputation by sending an angel from heaven. Actually, Allison from Milton. But in the moment, she was an angel from heaven.

Before I could ‘ruin my witness’ as we say in the South, Allison jumped up, grabbed the chain-link backstop, and started screaming at the umpire. He turned and gave her that look umpires give overly enthusiastic parents and then turned back around to call the next pitch. But she wasn’t having it. She didn’t back down and she didn’t sit back down. She would be heard!

“Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? You’ve got to be kidding me! He didn’t lean into that pitch! This is ridiculous!”

It was awesome. I turned to Sandra and said, ‘I love that woman.’ Then the umpire turned back around to Allison and threw her out of the park! Seriously. He threw her out of the park.

We still love Allison. Always will. She took up for our son. You take up for my kid, and I’ll take you to lunch. Heck, I’ll take you just about anywhere you want to go. You don’t have to give me a thing. You don’t need to sing me any songs. If you’re good to the folks I love most, we’re good. We’re better than good. You’re one of my faves.

I wonder where I get that? I wonder where you get that? I wonder if our heavenly… Father… is anything like that?”

Family, I think our heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus are very much like that.

He told us in Matthew 25:31ff that one day He will come back in all His glory with all the angels of heaven and they will be sent throughout all the earth and they will separate all of humanity into two groups, like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. One group will be gathered on Jesus’ right and the other on His left. The Lord Jesus told us that this is what He will say to those on His right: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” Do you realize that He is paying very close attention to every little thing we do for His brothers or His kids (however you want to look at it)? And how you treat His kids is huge to Him. He will never forget it. He takes your kindness to His kids as though you did it to Him personally. You want to worship the King, you want to please the God who made you, you want to be delightful in His eyes, then love and serve these brothers around you and His children elsewhere.

Then the Lord said He will say to those on His left, “Depart from me, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’  [I was in need and hurting and you didn’t care.] 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’  45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’”

It’s striking to me in this judgement scene Jesus described what He doesn’t talk about to either group. He doesn’t talk about the things we sometimes get hung up and focused on. He doesn’t talk to them about their views on various doctrinal matters, how correct or off they were in their interpretations of Biblical doctrines. I doubt we’re going to have to take a biblical theology exam on judgment day. He doesn’t talk about their church attendance record or which church they attended, whether they picked the best one in town or not. He doesn’t talk about rites or rituals or gifts or offerings or any religious activities and whether we did them in the right way and at the right times. The Lord Jesus described the day of judgment in such a way that it appears the determining factor in who will stand before Him, forgiven and welcome into His kingdom, and who will not, is the way they treated His kids. We better love each other. And how blessed we are if we learn to truly do that.

Saving Faith

You see, there is this false idea that pervades churches all over the world today that the faith that saves us is simply accepting certain facts about Jesus, like that He is the Son of God and died for our sins, and that you can have saving faith without repentance and obedience in Christ, without learning to love like Jesus.

But I could show you all night from the Scriptures that, that is not saving faith, that’s not what believing in Jesus means in the Bible. That is believing some things about Jesus. To believe in someone, biblically speaking, is to trust them enough to listen to them, to follow them, to do things their way instead of your way. James 2 says faith without works (of obedience) is dead and useless. John 3:36 says “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” The opposite of believing in Jesus is not obeying Him, because believing in Jesus means trusting Him enough to obey Him. If you don’t obey Him, you don’t really trust Him. So don’t buy into the nonsense that we can have saving faith in Jesus without following Him in our daily life.

And what is the primary mode of operation He leads us in if we’re trusting and following Him? It is love for God and people and our fellow believers, His kids especially. Galatians 6:10 “As we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Faith that works through love is faith that saves. Galatians 5:6, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.”

When Jesus had one last meal with His disciples before He went to the cross, He sought to impress upon them how they are to love one another, to what degree they are to love one another and how important it is.

This occasion is all the more powerful to me when I consider…

The sort of characters those disciples were who were gathered at that table with Jesus.

Some of them had held vastly different political opinions. There was Matthew, also known as Levi, who had been making a living as a tax collector, employed by and helping out the pagan Roman government. Then there was a man named Simon who was also called “the Zealot.” The zealots were a political group on the opposite end of the spectrum from Roman assistants like Matthew. “Zealots” advocated that Jews resist and revolt against the Romans. They typically despised any Jew who sought peace and favor with Rome. So the gulf between Matthew and Simon politically, I think was further than CNN from Newsmax. One was like the person who will not wear a mask anywhere anytime and thinks covid and vaccines are all government conspiracy. And the other wears his mask even riding in the car alone and thinks a refusal to get vaccinated should be a felony. What do you do with those who think very differently than you politically?

Also at the table were guys in doctrinal error, guys who were plain wrong in some of their beliefs. In fact, they all were. They believed the Messiah was basically going to rally the men of Israel for war, overthrow the Romans and establish the Jews as the new world power. They believed God mainly just loved Jews. They had other misconceptions and things they did not yet understand. It’s tough isn’t it when a brother can’t see what you think is so clear in the Scriptures. It’s hard not to assume bad things about his heart and his respect for God’s word.

At that table were guys who had offended the others. One time, the two brothers James and John struck the others below the belt. I mean they cheated. The twelve had been having this ongoing debate about which of them was the greatest and who should get the highest positions of honor in Jesus’ kingdom. James and John got their mother to come with them to Jesus and she knelt before Him and asked if she might make one request. Jesus said to her, “What do you want?” She said, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” It says when the other ten heard it they were indignant (outraged) at the two brothers (Matthew 20:20-24). So here at this table were offenders and offended. Have people offended you? What do you do with those people?

At that table were spiritually immature fellas. There was Peter who would deny Christ three times that night. There was Thomas who would soon earn the name “the Doubter.” Though we probably shouldn’t pick on Thomas. The others probably would have been just like him if they hadn’t had the privilege of seeing Jesus before Thomas did. They all still had some pride and selfish ambition. That very night, according to Luke’s account, it appears they still engaged in some debate about which of them was the greatest. That evening in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus asked them simply to keep watch for Him and pray, they would all fall asleep. They were still spiritually weak and flawed. How do you deal with those brothers and sisters who are slow to learn, weak in faith and immature?

And we can’t forget that also at the table was Judas Iscariot who had already yielded to Satan and worked out a deal with the Jewish leaders to lead them to Jesus in a private setting where they could arrest Him without stirring up the crowds.

Jesus’ Act of Service

According to John’s account of that last meal, John 13, they were all reclining around the table. They weren’t sitting upright in chairs, as it’s usually depicted. Tables were customarily lower to the ground and they all reclined on their sides around it on mats and cushions and such. The owner of the house doesn’t appear to have been there, nor any of his servants. So they didn’t enjoy the customary hospitality of having someone wash their feet when they came in. Many of the streets were not paved, they were dirt and they wore only sandals, and so their feet were usually filthy after walking the streets and foot washing was a significant deal.

I imagine Jesus didn’t feel much like serving that night. I mean He knew that in just a matter of hours He would be betrayed and arrested and begin to endure the penalty for the sins of humanity and He would suffer and suffer and suffer until our debt was paid in full. I can’t imagine the mental agony He must have been experiencing as He anticipated that. And yet rather than thinking of His own comfort at the moment, He looked around the table at these guys that He’d called to follow Him and thought about how to bless them and what they needed to learn.

So He got up from the table and He laid aside His outer garments and girded Himself with a towel and poured water into a basin and then began to wash a disciple’s dirty feet and then dried his feet with the towel. Then He did the same for the next disciple and the next and the next. He washed the feet of the CNN fan. And He washed the feet of the Newsmax fan. He washed the feet of the one who would deny Him. And He washed the feet of the one who would doubt Him. He washed the feet of the weak and spiritually immature and the doctrinally confused. And He came to the feet of the one who would betray Him, the one planning to repay all His kindness with evil, and He removed His sandals and washed His feet too. The King of kings washed the feet of His servants and even the feet of His enemy.

When He put back on His outer garments and reclined back at the table, He said to them, “Do you understand what I’ve just done? I’ve just given you an example. If I’m truly your Teacher and Lord or Master, as you say I am, then this kind of thing you are to do for one another. If you are truly my students and my servants, then you are learning to love and serve. You are learning to inconvenience yourself for the convenience of your brothers and sisters. You are learning to disadvantage yourself for their advantage. You’re learning to take initiative to do the tasks that nobody wants to do. You’re learning to lay down your life for others, even if for those whose political views are very different, even for those who are off in their theology, even for those who are weak in faith and immature. You are learning to serve even those who wouldn’t do the same for you.

To impress on them how essential and how wonderful it is for them to actually put His example into practice in their own lives, He said in John 13:17, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.”

Just knowing these things is not enough to be blessed. Too many people think it’s enough to just attend church and listen to the word and know things. They feel that to attend and sit through the message gives them credit with God. They don’t feel they actually need to make the changes in their life that the Lord calls them to make. But that’s delusion. James 1:22, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” And that passage then says that just hearing the word and not doing it is like a guy who gets up in the morning and looks in the mirror and he sees that his hair is sticking off to the side of his head and he has lettuce in his teeth from the night before and a bat in the cave and all these issues to deal with, but then he walks away from the mirror and forgets what he looked like so he doesn’t do anything about it. It did that guy no good whatsoever to look in the mirror. So hearing and knowing is not enough to be blessed.

But Jesus says, “if you do these things, (if you love and serve like Jesus has modeled for us,) blessed are you.” Blessed means you are well off; you have God’s favor and grace upon you and your future is more wonderful than you can imagine.

A little later that evening, after Judas had left the room, He reemphasized this and told them the degree to which they were to love one another. John 13:34, He said, “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.”

The newness of the commandment was not to love one another, because God had always told his people to love one another, to love your neighbor as yourself. What was new about it was love one another just as Jesus has loved us. And that’s a greater degree of love, because Jesus laid down His life for us. He took our cross. He took our sin and shame upon Himself and bore it all that we might be free. He didn’t just love us equal with Himself. He loved us more than Himself.

I heard a story about a little eight-year-old boy. A true story I’m told. His parents told him that his little sister was very sick and would die if she did not get a blood transfusion, and that he was one of the only people in the world who had the rare blood type needed. So they asked him if he would be willing to let the doctors to take his blood for his sister. He was very somber and hesitant. He didn’t know what was involved. But he loved his sister and agreed to give his blood. So the next day they took him to the hospital where he was put on a gurney beside his little sister. And he was solemn, but brave when the nurse put the needle in his vein and began to draw his blood. After a few minutes of watching the bag fill with blood and transfer to his sister, he asked the nurse, “How much longer will it be before I die?” The nurse was shocked. “You’re not going to die,” she said, but was deeply moved when she realized that little boy thought he had to give all his blood to save his sister. That’s Christlike love, we are not to stop short of that, we are to grow into that for one another, even for the weird and weak and confused and so forth.

The love to which we’re called to is not merely warm feelings, friendly words and hugs. It’s taking out your wallet sometimes. It’s getting off the couch and going to their bedside at the hospital. It is putting the pan on the stove, making the soup and taking it across the street. It is calling them up and offering to babysit. It’s taking time to intercede for them in prayer. It’s getting up at 4 in the morning, because they need a ride to the airport. It is meeting needs with deeds. It’s laying down your life to the extent that they need it.

This is the identifying mark of a true follower of Jesus. Everybody deep down knows that. Verse 35, Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” It is so sad that it has become one of the most famous excuses to not attend church that “Church is full of hypocrites.” In some places that’s probably not an exaggeration. But the world wouldn’t say that if they saw Christians showing the self-sacrificing amazing love of Christ to each other. That’s what tells people you’re the real deal.

Now Jesus, like a wise parent and a good teacher, knew if you really want your kids to get a message, you’ve got to say it more than once and more than twice and you’ve got to say it in various ways. So later that same night, John 15:12, He said, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” So this is awesome that though these guys had fallen short in the level of love they should have for one another, Jesus calls them His friends. But He tells them, “My friends, you have to grow in love. You are to love one another as I have loved you.” If you are my friends, you do what I command you. This is the path of discipleship, this is the path of friendship with God and the Lord Jesus, learning to love to the highest degree.

And this is the path to an amazing powerful and effective prayer life. “16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide [So this is what the Lord intended for them and us. That we would bear fruit, which in this context I believe means the fruit of His nature, love and righteousness. The Lord intends that we bear fruit of love in our lives and that that love abides, that our love keeps burning hot. Jesus warned His disciples in Matthew 24:12, that “the love of many will grow cold.” But Jesus intends that our love grow only hotter until the day we meet Him face to face. Then look at the rest of verse 16:], so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. [Through learning to love like Jesus, we enter more and more into that sort of deep fellowship with the Father that He had and our prayers will more and more powerful and effective like Jesus’ prayers.] 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

Now, we’re going to be doing some praying tonight and this weekend. We want our voice to be heard on high to heal and deliver and intervene, like those ancient Israelites. Let’s get first things first. Let’s tend to the matter that is primarily on the Lord’s heart and that is that we love like Him.

And so I’d like us to take a moment to examine ourselves for how we’re doing in our thoughts and attitudes and words and deeds toward others, one another especially. How self-centered have we been, how loving have we been? And as we see where we’ve been falling short of the love we’re to have, let’s repent of it and confess it to the Lord, because I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and righteous to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.” Let’s take a moment to examine ourselves, asking the Holy Spirit to do His work of convicting us of our sins and helping us to see ourselves as we really are. We’ll give a quiet minute for that, then I’ll lead us in prayer.

…

Lord, I know You’re here. You whom we read of in this book, You are alive and You are standing right here in our midst. I know You love us more than we realize. Thank You for Your mercy and patience with us. Lord You are the worthy king. You are worthy of all praise, honor, glory, dominion, power and authority forever and ever. You are worthy of our surrender, worthy of our obedience, worthy of our hearts and all that we are and all that we have to give. For You King of Heaven created us. And You have given every good thing we enjoy. Our food, You have provided. The strength in our bodies, You have given us. Our wives and children, they are Your gifts to us. The mountains, the lakes, the fish and wildlife we enjoy, are Your creations given to us. The breath in our lungs, is from You. And we have not returned to You the gratitude and honor, respect and priority in our lives that You deserve. All we like sheep have gone astray. And yet, O righteous King of heaven, when You foreknew how we would be, You still took pity on us and You humbled Yourself to become as one of us. You showed us the goodness of the God we’ve neglected and how a man ought to live on this earth. You lived the righteous life that we haven’t. And though You owe us nothing, You willingly gave Yourself as a sin offering for our forgiveness. So Lord to You we bow, to You we yield our wills. You worthy King have conquered our hearts.

We confess, Lord, that we have not loved as we ought. We have so fallen short of the love we owe to You and to one another and to many others. We repent of this Lord. Forgive our sin, and cleanse our hearts of all anger, all bitterness, all jealousy, every grudge, all self-centeredness. As You forgive us, right now we forgive every person who has wronged us and we ask You Lord to be gracious and bless those who have hurt us, to the degree that they have hurt us Lord be gracious to them. Merciful Lord fill our hearts by Your Holy Spirit with an awareness of the reality and the immensity of Your love for us and fill us with the love we owe You and the love for others that You have for them. We will from this moment on walk in greater depths of love for You Lord and for one another. And commit ourselves to continue, by Your grace, by Your enabling, to learn to love like You. O thank You for Your promises. Thank for Your forgiveness. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit. Thank You for the place You’ve made for us in Your kingdom, where we will give You thanks and praise Your glorious name forever and ever. Amen? Amen!

…

The Lord is so good. At the last meal with His disciples, He provided for them and for us a means to receive more of the grace we need on a regular basis. I suspect that a mysterious teaching of Jesus earlier in His ministry made a bit more sense to them after Jesus did what He did at the end of that meal. He had said, John 6:55, “For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” If we could somehow absorb into ourselves His flesh and blood, it would provide nourishment and strength and sustaining power like no other food or drink on earth. His flesh is true food. His blood is true drink.

Well, after their supper, Jesus took some bread…

-James Williams