Discipleship | Pastor Dave Roper | The Church at CW

Good morning, everyone.

Lights, please, like Charlie Brown.

I want to just take a moment and uh go to the Lord in prayer.

Father, we thank you for this day that you have given us.

We thank you for the beautiful weather outside.

We thank you for the privilege to gather here in your house.

Lord, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for the truth of your word.

We thank you for your son Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins and rose again, that we can live forever if we just believe.

We thank you for that message.

And Lord, we ask that today you will prepare our hearts and minds to receive what you have for us.

And God, I just pray that everyone here in some way will hear your word and be moved.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Well, if your first time here is today, I want to say, please come back next week.

Because the A team will be back, and don't judge us only on the B team.

So let me just start with that.

And with that, if you guys would turn in your Bible to John chapter 13, hold that place, and turn to John chapter 15.

John 13 · chapter mention John 15 · chapter mention

We're going to look at just a couple of verses under the idea of the new commandment.

And John 13 and John 15 is where you need to be.

I think that I have kind of explored what the theme of today is under this new commandment.

And I believe it's something that a lot of churches talk about and wish that they had.

If you were to survey pastors at churches and say, what's your greatest area of need, I think they would say this.

And I think they would say that they need more discipleship.

And I think if you were to ask them in what group, they would say, with the men.

Because I just believe that ladies do this thing that is our mindset of discipleship more than guys.

They go to lunch together, they do crafts, sometimes they discuss topics, read a book of the Bible together, read a regular book together, talk about their feelings.

And I think that we think that's discipleship.

And to prove to you that ladies do it more than guys, if I were to walk up to you and say that I have to go meet with my book club this afternoon, you would look at me like I have three heads.

You wouldn't say anything because you're nice and polite until I left.

And then you would say, What's going on with Dave?

He's going to meet with a bunch of women?

Are him and Amanda okay?

Are they having trouble book club?

But I'm just gonna be real.

When I survey the world, meeting for lunch, discussing a book, talking about problems, having spiritual conversations, and sharing feelings about the Lord is something that the ladies do a lot.

But it seems like a lot of times the guys are missing out on a lot of this.

But here's the thing: I think that this could cause some argument, and it might be what the kids call a hot take.

But I think a lot of times we confuse mentorship, which ladies do extraordinarily well, with discipleship.

And discipleship, I've asked several people what it is, and not a lot of people have a clear definition.

So I did what you do when you don't know the answer, and I went to Google, and Google tells me discipleship is the lifelong process of following, learning from, and becoming like a teacher, most commonly Jesus Christ.

Lifelong process of following, learning from, and becoming like a teacher, most commonly associated with Jesus Christ.

A mentorship is a trusted or collaborative relationship where an experienced person guides and supports a less experienced person.

Now that's what happens a lot with ladies.

An experienced person guides a less experienced person, but you can do discipleship without meeting for lunch or discussing problems or feelings or reading a book of the Bible.

It's about learning and becoming more like Jesus.

And I'm gonna submit to you, I think you can do that without a mentor.

You can do it with a mentor too, but I also believe you can have a great mentor and not be doing any discipleship.

Pastor Rick mentioned discipleship in one of his sermons, and he talked to an old pastor friend of his.

He said, What is your church's plan for discipleship?

Remember, all the churches want to know what the plan for discipleship is.

And this old pastor told him, I try to get people to read the Bible.

And if you want to learn and follow and become more like Jesus, your number one point of discipleship is read the Bible.

And I'm gonna add five words to it.

I'm going to add, and do what Jesus says.

I think you need to read the Bible and do what Jesus says, and that is really hard.

And that's why you might need a mentor to help you read the Bible and do what Jesus says.

And we are commanded to go and make disciples, but it's a mentorship type of situation.

And if you're too focused in on your mentor, the object of your discipleship might get a little blurry.

So today, though, we're going to talk about a couple of verses from the book of John.

And when you read the book of John, I want you to know that chapters 12 through 20 involve one week.

From when Jesus went into Jerusalem until he died and rose again, 12 through 20, one week.

And in chapter 13 through 17, inside of that one week, really involves a few interactions and one speech.

Chapter 13, we pick up with Jesus and his disciples in the upper room, and we see that Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper.

He washes their feet, and then he begins this speech that goes all the way to the prayer in chapter 17.

It's called the upper room discourse.

Some people call it the farewell discourse.

It's Jesus' last words to his disciples on the night that he would be arrested.

And if I think about all the things that Jesus said and how important they were, I really think that his last statement, his farewell address, that's something I want to pay attention to.

And if I were to happen to find that he repeated himself in that farewell address, I would probably want to pay attention to that as well.

And if Jesus gave us something brand new, a new commandment, that would deserve particular attention.

But what if I told you that during his farewell address, Jesus repeated himself about a new commandment?

This screams that this is something important.

You need to pay attention to this.

And I believe that's just what we have here in John chapter 13, verse 34.

John 13:34

Jesus says, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

Two chapters later, same speech, Jesus says, This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

And I think that herein lies the key to discipleship.

How do you know if you're becoming more like Jesus and learning from the teacher?

If you follow the new commandment, if you follow his commandment, if you love one another the way that Jesus loved us.

And in John chapter 13, verse 35, one verse down, Jesus tells us, by this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

John 13:35

If you want discipleship, I believe you need to love other people the way that Jesus did.

It'll make you more like him if you do that.

Even if you don't attend the class or meet someone for lunch or read through a Christian book, there's nothing wrong with any of that.

But the way people are gonna know we're disciples is if we love one another the way that Jesus loved us.

So today I want to look at three things.

That's kind of the introduction.

What is this new commandment and why is it new?

The next thing is how did Jesus love?

That's your first blank if you're blank filler inners.

How did Jesus love?

And then we're gonna finish with one thing, and I believe if you will make sure you do this one thing, you don't have to remember all of the different examples.

I think there's some kind of a secret to loving like Jesus.

That's gonna be the last blank if you want to skip to the bottom right now.

So, blank one, how did Jesus love?

The last blank, the secret to loving like Jesus.

So the new commandment, John 13, 34, Jesus says this is a new commandment.

Well, what was new about it?

I mean, haven't we been commanded to love one another all through time?

It doesn't take long in reading Leviticus before you come across Leviticus 19, 18.

And that's where the Bible says, You shall not take vengeance nor bear grudge against the children of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus reinforced this principle when the Pharisees tested him in Matthew chapter 22.

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

They asked him, What is the greatest commandment?

And he said, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul and your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two hang all the law of the prophets.

So all the law of the prophets is summed up in loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and loving your neighbor as yourself.

So what's new about John 13?

Well, all that stuff had been written and said, but here's what you didn't have.

Jesus said, As I have loved you.

And the Old Testament, they didn't have the example that Jesus had set.

And they were commanded to love one another with a great amount of love, as much as you might love your own self.

But at best, it was an imperfect love required of fallen people with no example of what perfect love looked like.

Jesus gave an example that wasn't available before.

And that's why this is a new commandment.

And when he told people to love like he had loved, it was a new thing that we were supposed to do.

Well, obviously, if we're going to follow that example, then we need to see what all of it means.

How did Jesus love?

And that's going to be the crux of what we talk about today.

But first, I want to tell you something that you don't see Jesus do in the Bible.

I've looked and looked and I can't find it.

I won't tell you definitively, you don't see it.

But you don't see Jesus walk up to a guy and say, Hey man, I love you.

I don't see him walk up to a lady and say, Hey, I love you.

I see him say love as I have loved you, and he talks about love all the time, but I don't ever see him just go one, four, three.

And all the men in the room just sighed.

No, I'm just kidding.

You need to tell people that you love them.

They need to hear that, but I don't see those words coming from Jesus' mouth in the scriptures.

But what Jesus did do to show that he loved is number one, he was present.

That's the next blank.

Jesus was present.

The Bible tells us in John chapter 1, verse 14, that the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

John 1:14

Jesus, the word who was with God in the beginning, through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made that was made.

The life that was the light of men that shines in the darkness, that word became flesh and dwelt with us, sinners, here on earth.

Jesus was in the form of God, but he didn't consider it robbery to be equal with God.

But he took the form of a bondservant, made himself of no reputation, and came in the likeness of men to be with us.

He was present.

Difference in being there and being present, though, Jesus shows he loves us not just by being there, but by being present.

You can show you love by being present.

But you ask any high schooler and they'll tell you that there's a difference between being there and being present.

Presence is a big topic these days, especially in the world of telephone distraction that we live in.

The other day a lady posted on the internet, it said, the teens went out to dinner and they surrendered their phones for dinner.

One of my Facebook friends.

You know how I know this?

Because somebody took a picture of all the phones stacked on top of one another.

And you know who I assume did it?

The mom who did not surrender her phone for dinner.

Telephone distractions are just one of many different things that keep us from being fully present, fully engaged.

Jesus was there, and he is still with us present, but he was also fully engaged, engrossed, and planted.

He was in tune with the people.

Presence takes time though.

It takes time to go out and love people.

It takes time to go out and serve other people.

And one of the biggest things that kind of relieves me from being present is my checkbook.

I can just write the check and let someone else go do the work.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with writing the check.

We'll have a time for that later.

But a lot of times I write a check for the wrong reason.

A lot of times I write a check as a guilt reduction tactic.

It makes me feel better when I want to actually be able to be there to help out.

I might write a little more of a check.

Now you can certainly write the check, but I write all kinds of checks every month without any love being involved.

The mortgage company, the power bill, taxes here and there, I write those checks out of obligation or for reciprocity.

And there's no love.

And if you're not careful, a check to the ministry, a check to the Lord, it can get to be just the same.

Trust me, I know.

So given the chance to be present or to write the check, say yes to both.

Support with your finances, but also show up and love people.

Make no mistake, Jesus was president, but he also wrote a check.

And he was present when he wrote that check.

And it was a check that none of us can write when he died for our sins on that cross.

He set the example of being present and covering.

Number two, Jesus met physical needs.

Jesus met physical needs.

You can show you love by making physical needs.

In fact, right before Jesus went into this speech in John 13, he had fed the disciples instituting the Lord's Supper, and he had washed their feet to meet their physical needs.

There's a lot of stories in the Bible.

Jesus healed people, he cast out demons, he met a lot of the needs that were before him, even turning the water into the wine at the wedding, I guess, was an example of meeting a physical need.

But one of the most popular instances that you've heard about since your little Sunday school when you were two or three is in Matthew chapter 14.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

Turn in your Bible to Matthew chapter 14.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

I think you've heard this story before, but it's good stuff.

Matthew 14, verse 13.

Matthew 14:13

When Jesus heard it, he departed from there by a boat to a deserted place by himself.

But when the multitudes heard it, they followed him on foot from the cities, and when Jesus went out, he saw a great multitude, and he was moved with compassion for them and healed their sick.

When it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a deserted place, the hour is already late.

Send the multitudes away, that may they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.

But Jesus said to them, They do not need to go away, you give them something to eat.

Jesus heard it.

The it that is being referenced there is the death of John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin, his friend, the one that went before him.

Jesus heard that he had died.

And so he gets on a boat to go away by himself to a deserted place, and the crowd follows by foot.

Just picture this.

We have Jesus and his disciples on a boat trying to get away, and we have people running around the side of the water they were in.

And if you read Mark's account, which we will in a minute, but if you read Mark's account, the people beat him there.

I mean, this is like taking a cat out to allow it to be free in the woods.

And then you get home and it's there waiting on you, right?

They beat him to where he was going to the deserted place.

I've never taken a cat into the woods, but I needed a joke right there.

They beat him to where he was going, and if you read carefully, Jesus had just gotten bad news.

He wanted to grieve.

He needed to get away, he needed to be alone, he needed to recharge.

He had already done so much.

And they were kind of being inconsiderate.

And he healed them anyway, and then after he healed them, he kept on meeting the needs.

We're going to get into the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000.

So under meeting physical needs, the next one, Jesus allowed his disciples to participate.

I believe that the Lord shows he loves us by allowing us chances to participate.

You see several examples in the Bible.

You can probably find examples in your life about how God loves you by allowing you to participate.

I've noticed what I believe is a pattern that you don't see always, but you do see it sometimes, and it's worth mentioning.

It's five points.

I don't have them on the outline, maybe underneath or on the back.

Here's a pattern of participation that I think we often see in the Bible.

First, there's a problem.

There's a problem.

Number two, Jesus tells people to do something they can do.

Jesus tells people to do something they can do.

Number three, the people obey, even though it's weird.

The people obey, even though sometimes it's weird.

Number four, Jesus does something only he can do.

And number five, Jesus tells the people to do something they can do.

So we have a problem.

Jesus tells us something to do.

We obey.

He does something only he can do, and then we get to follow up with things we can do to kind of end the mission.

Let's turn to Mark chapter 6, and let's look at another account of the feeding of the 5,000.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

632, we're going to read a good bit, but then we'll talk about it, and I'll try to read fast.

Mark 632, so they departed to a deserted place in a boat by themselves.

But the multitude saw them departing, and many knew him and ran there on foot to all the cities.

They arrived before them and came together to him.

They beat him there.

And Jesus, when he came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd.

So he began to teach them many things.

When the day was now far spent, his disciples came to him and said, This is a deserted place.

Really?

No.

And already the hour is late.

Send them away that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat.

So we have a problem.

The disciples have recognized a problem, and they come to Jesus with a solution.

I think sometimes we recognize a problem and take it to the Lord, the solution that we think will work.

And that doesn't always happen like that.

So Jesus answers and says, You give them something to eat.

Now at this point, this is nothing that the disciples can do.

So they argue with him and say, Shall we go and buy 200 dinari worth of bread and give them something to eat?

They say they don't have the resources.

We hear what you're saying.

We'd really love to help.

There ain't no way.

So we have the problem.

And Jesus asked them the question, How many loaves do you have?

Go and see.

This is point two in the pattern that we talked about.

There's a problem.

Jesus tells them, you're going to give them something to eat, and he tells them to go and see.

He tells them to go take inventory.

They had to go take inventory of 5,000 men, plus women and children.

This is a decent-sized football stadium that they have to go and see who all has food, and they have to see who all's willing to give up the food they have after they've been out all day long in a deserted place.

We read over this, but this isn't an easy job necessarily.

I've talked about it before, but it's hard to believe that the five loaves and two fishes was all that anybody had there, especially mamas and babies.

But the disciples had to go see.

They did something that they could do.

And then Jesus commanded them, reading on, to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass.

And again, the disciples are involved in this work.

They sat down in ranks in hundreds and fifties, and we had taken the five loaves and two fish, he looked up to heaven, blessed, and broke the loaves.

That's something that only Jesus can do.

And then he gave it back to his disciples.

We're back into them, being back involved in the work.

And the disciples got to go and hand out the food.

And then after everybody got done eating, He told the disciples to go and pick up the leftovers.

There's a problem.

Jesus tells the disciples to do something that they can do.

They obey, even though that seems a little weird.

Then Jesus does something only he can do.

And then he gives further instructions to finish the job.

He allowed them to partner with him, to show that he loved them.

They got to know him in a new way, and he'll do the same thing for you.

But that middle where you have to obey what he says, even though it seems weird, that's the crux of it.

And keep in mind that God works with us and through us, even though it's not the most efficient.

And even though he doesn't need help, and even though it takes longer, and even though we're going to mess things up, he still gives us a chance to participate.

So we can love other people by allowing them to participate in our work.

I've just challenged a lot of you not to write the check, but if you're in charge of a group or a ministry here today, I'm going to challenge you to involve other people in your work.

And one of the first steps of that is to be present and understand their skills and abilities and talents and then be willing to ask them and challenge them.

And then equip them.

Involve them in the work.

It's a great way to show that you love people, creating opportunities for service.

It's not super efficient always.

And they might screw things up.

And a lot of times it's easier if I just do it myself.

But we should love people by allowing them to participate.

We may not even be bothering them when we ask.

So under this category, if you allow people to participate in the work that the Lord has you doing, you're going to have opportunities to love people three ways under this way.

So we have sub points to allowing people to participate.

The next blank, Jesus empowered others.

He loves people by empowering us.

He empowered his disciples, the Bible tells us, to heal the sick and cast out demons.

I don't think that power lasted because they got another power in Acts 1.8.

He said, You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

And you receive power too when the Holy Spirit came upon you if you're hearing you're a believer today.

Now, how do you empower people?

Well, you can't give them the Holy Spirit.

That's something that only God can do.

So we have a problem.

I can't make this guy get saved.

But what you can do is when God tells you to go and talk to someone, you can go and talk to them and trust that he will do what he only can do.

You can bring people to the Lord.

You can tell people about your story of empowerment.

You can just live an empowered life.

You can bring people into church that isn't church.

I'm not going to name names, but there's a guy here today who cut the grass here before he came in the building, I really believe.

And it's because people just brought him and they give him a job and they brought him into the work of the ministry.

Now here he is.

They live empowered.

You can love people well by empowering them.

Number two, Jesus was patient.

He showed that he loved by being patient.

And if you allow people to work with you, you gotta be patient.

It can't always be on my time frame anymore.

And that really bugs me.

But if I'm gonna empower other people and let them be part of the work, then I gotta be patient with them.

There's really one word that sums up Jesus' patience in all of the Bible.

There's one word, I think, and that word is Peter.

Peter was the guy that spoke up, raised his hand, messed up all kinds of situations.

He was the first one in.

He was the first one to go absolute, never ever, not gonna happen.

Over and over and over, and Jesus just kept being patient with him.

He just kept loving him.

Chance after chance after chance after chance.

Jesus knew that he had a strong leader there.

He knew that he had a guy that was gonna preach at Pentecost.

He had a person of action.

And when you have those things in a person on your team, patience is required.

He was constantly repeating himself.

He was constantly repeating himself to his disciples.

He even repeated this commandment.

Another way to say he was constantly repeating himself to his disciples is he was constantly repeating himself to the adolescent boys that were following him around.

And young men.

Constant repeating over and over and over again.

Mary and Martha.

He was patient with Martha when she was buzzing all around the house while Mary was sitting at his feet.

And there's another instance when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick.

The Bible says he loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus.

So when he heard Lazarus was sick, he waited two days.

This is Lazarus, who he loves.

But he has to be patient.

It's a problem that he can't, he needs them to know him in a more in-depth way.

So he's patient with that.

When you said your wedding vows, or when you do say your wedding vows, more than likely you're going to bite the hook and have someone read 1 Corinthians 13, wherein it says love is patient and kind.

So be kind while you're being patient.

I'm okay with patience, but kindness and patience merged, no, sir.

I can be kind later.

Another version says that love suffers long and is kind.

So expect some suffering and be kind in it to love like Jesus loved.

The next blank, Jesus cleaned up messes.

Many times in the Bible we see that Jesus cleans up messes.

And interestingly enough, he cleans up messes even if he didn't create them, even if the people should have known better, even if they didn't talk to him about it first, and even if they did talk to him about it first and didn't do what he said, he still cleans up messes.

Mark chapter 9 is an example.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

In Mark chapter 9, Jesus comes up and he finds his disciples who are in a dispute with the scribes.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

Now the scribes are like the people who know all there is to know about the Old Testament law.

They're the some of the religious authority.

And Jesus enters an interaction where they're disputing.

Now Jesus had given his disciples power to heal people and cast out spirits before, and then this family brought a boy to them and they couldn't cast the spirit out.

So Jesus enters the interaction, and there's this dispute going on, and I'm not sure what they were arguing about, but I have a hunch it had something to do with whether or not the disciples were false prophets because they couldn't do what they said they were going to do.

I don't know, but they're in a mess with the religious authorities right here.

And Jesus enters this situation, and in Matthew's account, he says, This, O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you?

How long will I bear with you?

Now, there's three groups of people here.

You've got the family who brought the boy.

They brought him to the person they thought could heal him.

And then you've got the scribes.

Everybody knew they didn't have any faith.

So I think Jesus is telling his disciples here, O faithless and perverse generation, how long will I be with you?

How long will I bear with you?

He stays patient while he cleans up the mess.

As the story goes on, Jesus heals the boy, he gets him out of the hot, hot water, and then later on the disciples are asking why they couldn't cast the demon out.

And he says, this kind only comes out by prayer and fasting.

Which leads me to the logical conclusion that they had tried to cast out a demon without praying.

What a mess they got themselves in.

And Jesus loved them well by cleaning up the mess.

Even though he didn't create it, even though they should have known better.

On the night of his arrest, Peter took a swipe at Malchus and cut his ear off.

With a garrison of troops there, Jesus healed Malchus's ear.

He cleaned up the mess.

He cleaned up the mess that Peter created.

He cleaned up the mess that his church created.

And we can love like Jesus by cleaning up messes.

Even messes that we didn't create.

Even messes where people should have known better, or where they didn't ask us first, or where they did ask us and did the opposite of what we said.

We can still clean the mess up and show that we loved them.

Your next blank.

Jesus praised and rebuked.

Many different times in the Bible we see Jesus loving people by praising them and loving people by rebuking them.

But again, we have a great example in the person of Peter, and it comes from Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus has asked the disciples, Who do men say that I am?

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

And they've responded by saying that men say you're Jeremiah, some Elijah.

And then Jesus says, Who do you say that I am?

And Peter says that you're Christ, the Son of God.

And Jesus praises him greatly.

He says, Blessed are you, Simon.

Flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven goes on to say, You, Peter, are the rock on which I'm going to build my church.

The gates of Hades will not prevail against you.

You'll have the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

That's high praise.

That's empowering.

That's giving him a job.

That's loving Peter well through praise.

The very next section in your Bible, I don't think it was it right then because it says from that time, but the very next section in your Bible, a few verses later, it says that Jesus had begun to show the disciples he would have to suffer and be killed and raised again.

And Peter takes him to the side.

Matthew 16, 22, Peter, who has the keys to the kingdom of heaven, takes Jesus over to the side and tells him it ain't gonna be like that.

Basically, that's a paraphrase.

But he takes him to the side, and Jesus says, Away from me, Satan.

You're thinking about the things of men and not the things of heaven.

Again, a paraphrase.

But Peter loved Jesus enough to rebuke him, and Peter loved Jesus enough to praise him.

And I think that we can love well by showing people praise and by righteous rebuke.

And I don't think that we do either one very much in this society.

We don't tell people when we like it, and we don't tell people when we don't.

When we like it, that's the expectation, and when we don't, we tell other people.

That's not the example that Jesus showed us of how to love.

Next blank, you're gonna get out of here in plenty of time to go get your lunch.

Jesus restored relationships.

A great way to show love is working to restore relationships.

You can't always do it, but if it is possible, as much as depends on you, live at peace with all men.

You can't always do it.

But as much as depends on you, if you let a negative interaction sit or let the problem remain and don't try to restore it, you're kind of saying that the problem is greater than my love for you.

If you have a relationship that you'll sacrifice for an uncomfortable conversation, you're saying that my comfort is greater than my love for you.

Don't let your feelings be more than restoration.

That's not the model that the Lord gave us.

If there was anybody who was ever in the world justified to write a dude off, it was Jesus.

And that guy was Peter.

On the night Jesus was arrested, Peter did not have his back.

He denied he even knew him three times.

And one time it appears, if you read Luke 22, Jesus was an earshot of Peter because he looked at him, and then Peter started crying.

Now the backstory on this is that before all that happened, Jesus told Peter and the disciples, you're all going to be made to stumble because of me.

And Peter says, Even if all are, I never will be able to.

And Jesus told Peter, You'll deny me three times before the rooster crows.

And Peter told Jesus, Even if I have to die, I won't deny.

And after all that, Peter still denied knowing him.

About as bad a friend as you can have.

And that's the rock.

That's the church.

But Jesus approached Peter later, and he talked to Peter after he had risen from the grave.

And he says, Do you love me feed my lambs?

Do you love me feed my sheep?

Three denials, three restorations.

And what I want you to notice here about this restoration is who started the interaction.

The Bible doesn't say that Peter came to Jesus to try to apologize and make things right.

Jesus approached Peter to go restore the relationship.

You don't have to wait on somebody to come apologize before you go and try to restore a relationship with them.

And that's a way that I think Jesus loved.

So that's lots of examples about how Jesus loved.

That's what we're talking about today.

Because he says, a new commandment I give you, love one another as I have loved you.

But that is not all the examples.

You can certainly read the Bible and find other ways, and I hope that you will, because I really do believe that's a key to your discipleship.

But the secret to loving like Jesus.

I think that there's one secret that we've talked about, and I think if you do this, then you don't have to keep up with the list of anything.

And we read it in Matthew 14, 14.

We read it again in Mark 6, 34.

We didn't talk about it yet.

But the Bible says this: Jesus saw a great multitude, and he was moved with compassion for them, and he healed their sick.

I'm gonna split a few hairs here, but I think they're hairs worth splitting.

The Bible doesn't say that Jesus had compassion for them.

Compassion is a feeling or emotion that you can have.

The Bible doesn't say that Jesus was compassionate.

That's a character trait.

A character trait that can happen because you are a compassionate person.

So, compassion, let's just look at the definitions, is pity or concern for the misfortunes or sufferings of others.

Compassionate describes someone who shows sympathy concerning the suffering of others that's often accompanied by the desire to help.

So the Bible doesn't say that Jesus had compassion or was compassionate.

It says he was moved by compassion.

So moved, I looked that definition up for you too.

You all know what that means.

On the way to church this morning, I wish this guy would move.

You got here and something's in your seat, you wait around, it doesn't look like they're gonna move.

Move means to change place, position, or state.

Being moved with compassion.

He changed his place, position, or state because of compassion.

It's different than having compassion or being compassionate.

I consider myself to be decently compassionate.

I know that that's arguable because I'm also direct.

And those things don't always go together well, compassion and directness.

But I do have compassion and sympathy and concern.

And as we go into the last point and the worship team starts coming, I want to explain that having compassion or being compassionate is a fairly safe space.

See, because I can have compassion or be compassionate without being moved.

And if I find that I'm moved too much by compassion, that can take me down an unsafe road.

Into a danger zone, so to speak.

Because if you're moved with compassion, then you set yourself up to be exploited, and you set yourself up to be taken advantage of, and you can get overwhelmed, you can get depressed, you can be overloaded, you can be embarrassed, and everybody can be talking about you.

You might even have a breakdown if you're moved with compassion too much.

I believe it can really affect your health.

And so, really, what I've done, I have some defenses.

I have some defenses that help me remain compassionate without always being moved by compassion.

First thing I do is I keep a tight schedule.

Because if I dig really deep, I might be overcome or moved with compassion.

So I keep a schedule full of really, really good things, and I can stay concerned and sympathetic without really being moved.

And I can still identify as a compassionate person.

Now, a second defense.

I blame the person.

I mean, it's easier not to be moved if I just assume that they had it coming.

I don't know what they did, but they must have done something.

They must have had it coming.

That's a pretty quick way to keep me staying right where I am.

Tone down my feelings of compassion a little bit and keep me from taking any steps.

But here's the neat thing.

I only even have to blame the person if my schedule permits me to dig into the situation enough.

But if I get to a place where I realize that it's not the person's fault and that I did have time in my schedule, then my last defense is I just assume that I can't help.

The person's under attack, they're bombarded, but there's nothing in the world I can do to tilt the scale.

You know you can't save everybody.

And those are three defenses that keep me very often from being moved with compassion.

And I stay on the safe ground of being a compassionate person and having compassion for the suffering that I see.

The only problem I have is, as you know, that's not how Jesus loved.

If you want to love like Jesus, you don't have to memorize a list, you don't have to know all the ways he loved.

I just believe you've got to commit to allow yourself not to have compassion, not to be compassionate, but to be moved by compassion.

Drop the defenses, and the rest will come.

You got to stand to your feet with me.

In Matthew chapter 9, verse 35, we see Jesus went out about the cities and villages, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing every sickness and disease among the people.

Matthew 9:35

But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them.

Because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.

And he said to his disciples, The harvest is truly plentiful, but the workers are few.

Pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into the harvest.

Church, we're still living in a weary and scattered world.

And the harvest is out there.

Are you a laborer?

There's a lot of good reasons not to be.

But I believe this: if you make it your goal to find people who need help and help them, you'll love like Jesus and you'll never run out of work.

And if you make it your goal to love people the way that Jesus did, like he commanded us to, the new commandment, you're always going to have a ministry.

And the key to that is not a feeling or a character trait, but it's allowing yourself to be moved.

And I think that is the way that you follow, learn from, and become more like Jesus.

And I think that's discipleship.

Read the Bible and do what Jesus says.

A new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you for this word that you have given us, and I thank you that you loved us enough to send your son to be present with us sinners.

That word that was with you from the beginning.