Community Worship Service - What will we do in response to God's great love?

 

Up from the grave he arose…

We are celebrating resurrection this weekend.  We should do it every weekend, but this one is special.

We celebrate that Jesus rose from the dead.  He died for our sins and rose from the dead.  Hallelujah!

Jesus paid it all.  All to him I owe.

Sin had left a crimson stain.  He washed it white as snow.

That’s a powerful message right there.  God, through Jesus, did everything required to make us right with him.  He did it all!

Will we receive this most blessed gift?  I’m preaching to those who have.

Why am I preaching to you folks?  You know the story.

I love to tell the story, for those who know it best

Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest;

Every year, we still long to hear the story of Jesus and his love.  What a wonderful story to celebrate.  God really does love us.  We long to hear the story.

But having heard the story over and over again, what will we do?

If I am speaking, preaching, or just talking with a new group, I like to bring forth 3 questions.

How long will God love us?

How much does God love us?

What are you going to do about it?

Jeremiah 31:3 tells us that God loves us with an everlasting love.  I like The Message version.  I have never stopped loving you and never will.  Expect love, love, and more love.

John 3:16-17 tell us how much God loves us. 

John 13:34-35 tells us what to do in response to God’s great love.  Be known as his disciples by our love.

Let’s look at our response to God’s great love.  How can we be known by our love?

In John 13, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.  This was a job for the most junior servant.  I think most of the disciples were in shock.  Peter couldn’t comprehend what his Master was doing, but when Jesus told him this is a with me or against me moment, Peter was all in.

Jesus showed his closest followers what love looked like.  It looked like service.  Service opens doors in all directions. 

Well, I don’t speak well in front of people.  How do you work behind a broom?

I don’t think I can organize something like that.  Can you take directions from someone who can?

Sometimes, service is the perfect opportunity to realize our gifts.  I didn’t know that I could be an organizer.  I didn’t know how easy it was for me to talk to people about God’s love.

Sometimes we just pitch in and help 10 other people clean up someone’s yard or fix a window or make a big meal.

Here is what Jesus said about service. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed to do them.

Now that you know what to do, do these things and be blessed.

Jesus talked about more than service.  He talked about a real relationship with God.  As Jesus was in the Father, so too was the Father in him.

He told his disciples to have that same relationship with him.  I am in you.  You are in me.

You want to know the Father?  Know me and you will know him. The Father and I are one.

How do we respond to God’s great love?  We serve.  We grow closer to God.  We stay connected to him as a fruit producing vine does with its branches.

But there is more, and it is a big more.  If you are from the CPC, you hear this a bunch from me, and you will hear it again now.  We are commissioned to take the gospel to the world.  We are commissioned.

We come to the last section of the last chapter in Matthew’s gospel.  The disciples went up a mountain and met Jesus.  Some believed and some doubted.  That’s a statement on our human nature for sure, but Jesus commissioned his followers nonetheless.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

We not only serve.  We not only grow closer to God.  We take the love of God into the world.

The authority by which we are commissioned is the authority of God, given fully to Christ Jesus.

A portion of that authority is transferred to us.  We not only follow God’s directions.  We do so with his authority.  We are his commissioned.  Specifically, we are commissioned to three things.

Make disciples.  Yes, that’s recruiting.  We share life and life abundant and life eternal through Jesus Christ.  We don’t ask people to follow us.  We invite them to follow him. 

We invite people to join us on our journey of discipleship.

Next, we come to baptize.  People need to be baptized as a public statement of what is going on internally.  Profess Jesus before men and Jesus will stand with you before the Father.  Baptism is a very public profession.

Today, most of your church doctrine wants an ordained minister to baptize.  Not all require this, but out commission cannot be fulfilled without baptism.  These new disciples need to get to know the pastor, so just let them know, we have plenty of towels.

The third component is teach.  Yes, we are to teach other disciples.  We teach what we know.  James warns us against all wanting to be teachers.  There is an extra standard of accountability that goes with being a teacher. 

Jesus warned us against being called teacher or rabbi, but we are all to teach.

Can you not teach another that Jesus loves you?  How?  Testimonies are good.

Can you not teach another John 3:16-17?  Memorizing Bible verses is good.

Can you not teach someone the Lord’s Prayer?  Just learn it and teach it as it is in the Bible and then spend some time with new believers understanding what it means.

If you are a new believer, perhaps you don’t want to begin with a discussion of the metaphors of atonement.  That would make for a good discussion at the Ministerial Alliance meeting.

You can teach.  Some may be gifted as teachers. 

We are commissioned with Christ’s authority which is from the Father himself, to make disciples, baptize, and teach.  We are commission to make disciples, baptize, and teach.

And God did not say:  Good luck with that.  We do not go into the world alone.  Surely I am with you always, even to the very end of the age.

Jesus intercedes for us with the Father.  The Spirit is within us and beside us.  God is for us.  We are not on our own to fulfill our commission.

So how to we respond to God’s great love that we know best in the sacrifice of his one and only Son on the cross?

We are known by his love.  That looks like service most of the time.

And next we do two things that include being connected to Jesus like a vine on a branch, growing closer to him, and taking the gospel to the world.

These two things will identify me as an old timer because we old-timers used to say this all the time.

Know him and make him known.

We are known as his disciples by his love and that love looks like service a whole bunch of the time.

We are to know him and make him know.

Amen.