Would you open your Bibles this morning to John chapter 13? John chapter 13. And if you're new to your Bible, it's about, I don't know, pretty close to the back. Fourth book in the New Testament. The title of this morning's message is "The Confounding Life of the Christian." Now to let you know just a little bit about myself, I really like it when things make sense, when they're in the right place. I'm wired in such a way that things should just be straight and in order. I'll often be sitting in a room, and right now there's this thing, I think they call them gallery walls, and people will put pictures up on walls. And it'll be like 15 pictures on one wall. And what people don't realize when they do that is like, it takes a lot of work to get them all straight. And so some people are just fine, like, "Oh, that one's crooked, no big deal." For me, I see that as a sign of the fall, and instead of just dealing with it, I go up and straighten that picture. So, like I told people at my church, if I happen to be over at your house and you see me kind of get up and straighten a picture on the wall, just don't worry about it. It's fine, I'm just making everything a little bit better. So I'd rather have things just be straight than rather be annoyed by them.
Things should be in order, things should be in their place, things should be as I expect them to be. But in this fallen world, our lives as Christians, they shouldn't just fit in. They shouldn't just be one of those pictures on that gallery wall in this world. When the world looks at a Christian, they should see life that they don't expect. It shouldn't quite make sense and it shouldn't quite fit in. In the eyes of the world, the Christian's life should be that one picture that's out of sync. Christians should confound the world.
Now, to confound is about disparity. It's about disparity between what one expects and what one sees. It acts against the expectations of the onlooker. The Christian's life should confound the watching world. And isn't that confounding place where we as Christians increasingly are? In our culture today. The problem is that this can be uncomfortable for us. It can be uncomfortable to be pushed to the margins.
Russell Moore, in a book, he said this: "Too often we are as countercultural as we want to be, and that's not nearly enough to turn our churches, much less the world, upside down." To be a faithful Christian in today's society is often to be marginalized, to be looked upon as a bigot, to be seen seen as abnormal and strange. Now the American worldview increasingly falls into thinking that all that goes on in the world today is about progress. We are always moving forward, and far too often this is about sexual progress. The sexual revolution is about moving us forward. Reproductive rights and homosexual marriage and transgender activism, they're all about the progress of an advanced society and a reforming society. And as for Christians, they need to either get on board or get out of the way. As Christians, we need to see this dissonance with the world around us between the Bible and society not as a hindrance to our witness, but as an opportunity for it. The confounding life of the Christian is, is more reflective of the reality that this world is not our home. Heaven is our home.
Our hope this morning as gathered Christians, our hope is in the The confounding message of the gospel. The power of the gospel shines bright not in how it makes sense to the world, but in how it confounds. Paul writes this in 1 Corinthians: "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him. But we have the mind of Christ." Our faith does not, as Paul says, not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And the power of God is most clearly known in the confounding message of the Gospel.
So for us today, how are we then to live? What should our lives look like? How can our lives reflect this confounding message? Well, there is wisdom this morning for us in the words of Jesus today. As we look at John 13:31-35, we'll see that the life of the faithful Christian reveals the confounding reality of the Gospel. The life of the faithful Christian reveals the confounding reality of the Gospel.
6 · The pastor establishes the broader Gospel context, showing how Jesus throughout His ministry confounded expectations — publicly among the Jews and now privately among His disciples in the upper room
John's Gospel has been laying out a Jesus that exemplifies this confounding life. I think you guys are in Luke right now, and you've probably seen in His public ministry, Jesus confounded the Jewish people and leaders by being everything they didn't expect Him to be. The Jewish people longed for and awaited the coming of a Messiah, a conquering king who would release them from Roman oppression. They wanted the fireworks and the pomp and the circumstances that came with a coming king. And what they never expected was a carpenter from Nazareth. And now privately, here before his disciples, Jesus continues to confound and perplex those around us, who are around him. The Jesus whom the disciples heard teach They've seen him heal the sick and open the eyes of the blind and calm a raging storm and walk on water and cast out demons and raise the dead to life. They've believed this Jesus to be the Messiah. They believed him to be the Christ, the Anointed One, and now he's going to be inaugurating his kingdom. They are excited and leaning forward with expectation. But instead of destroying the mess of a world outside, Jesus is here in John 13 in a rented room, and He's washing feet.
7 · The pastor narrates the betrayal scene with vivid detail, emphasizing the dramatic tension and the symbolic movement from light to darkness as Judas departs
And after washing the disciples' feet, a troubled look comes over Jesus. Look at verse 21 in chapter 13. Jesus was troubled in His spirit and testified, "Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me." What could He possibly mean? John is there next to Jesus, and he sees Peter kind of looks over and kind of gives him the nod. John knows what he means. Ask Jesus a question. So as Jesus is eating and breaking off bread and dipping it in the wine and taking bites, John whispers to Him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus, a piece of bread in His hand, discreetly tells him, "It is He to whom I give this morsel of bread." John's stomach there tightens. Then Jesus, without any flair for the dramatic, He takes the bread, He dips it in the cup, and He passes it to Judas and He says, "What you are going to do, do quickly." The disciples don't understand what's going on. This group of friends is trying to make sense of what's taking place, and Judas abruptly, abruptly gets up, departing from the brightness of the room filled with food friends, and goes out into the night alone. Judas leaves the very light of the world in this moment and rushes out into darkness.
8 · The pastor identifies the literary structure (Farewell Discourse) and the pastoral significance of Jesus' words, framing them as final instructions before the crucifixion
And now that Judas has departed, Jesus turns to address his faithful disciples. He discloses to these true disciples what their lives should look like after he himself departs. Now this section of John, the next 4 chapters, is known as the Farewell Discourse. It's Jesus' departing words to the disciples. It's saying, I'm leaving, this is now how you shall live. This is what you should expect in the days to come. And Jesus cares deeply for those that are His. Jesus spends these hours preparing His disciples for a new reality. For John, these are departing words. These are Jesus' last words in one sense. And everything is going to be different a few short hours after this conversation ends.
9 · The pastor reads the primary text aloud in full, marking the transition from contextual narrative to direct exposition of the passage
Now this morning, we're going to focus on the beginning of this conversation. John 13:31-35. This is the Word of God. When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, where I am going you cannot come. 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. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. This is the word of God. Thanks be to God.
10 · The pastor expounds the first phrase of the text, defining glory theologically and establishing the confounding claim that Jesus is most glorified not in His life but in His death
The moment that Judas departs here, Bears enormous significance to Jesus. The wheels now have been fully set in motion, and the time for which Jesus has come is here. Jesus says in verse 31, "Now, now is the Son of Man glorified." All of salvation history, all of redemptive history has been leading up to this moment. Jesus says, "Now is the Son of Man glorified." Here is when Jesus Christ is glorified. What is this glory? What does it mean? Theologian Sinclair Ferguson defines God's glory as the external expression of God's attributes and perfections. God's glory is the eternal external expression of God's attributes and perfections. Glory expresses who God is. When God is glorified, we see who He is. And Jesus says, "Now is the Son of Man glorified." The glory of Jesus is not seen foremost in the wisdom of His teaching, though no one taught like He did. The glory of Jesus is not only relegated to the faithfulness of life, though no one walked like He did. The glory of Jesus is not found in the power of His miracles, though no one had power like Him. No, the glory of Jesus shines brightly brightest in His death. Jesus has been sent on a mission that runs through death on a cross, and now is that time. It's through Jesus being obedient to death that God glorifies His Son. This is confounding.
11 · The pastor traces the reciprocal glorification between Father and Son and makes the applicatory pivot: Jesus' commitment to God's glory is the model for Christian life
But not only is Jesus glorified through this hour, as you see in the next phrase, it says, God is glorified in Him. So not only does God glorify Jesus, Jesus glorifies God. This was the point of the life of Jesus: the glory of God. He lived to make much of God. He was relentlessly committed to seeing God glorified. That's what His life was about, and that's how we are called to live as Christians as well.
12 · The pastor shifts into personal testimony mode, translating the theological concept of glory into relatable language (pride, boasting) and confessing his own temptation to self-glory as a common human struggle requiring reorientation toward God
Now, glory— it's not a category that we often think about in our day-to-day lives. But glory as a category is really just another word for pride. What do we take pride in? What do we boast about? That's what we glory in. But the life of the Christian, it's not about self-glory. The life of the Christian is not about making much of ourselves. It's about making much of God. Now, for me and my pride and my desire for self-glory, I can spend a lot of time trying to convince other people that I'm as great as I think I am. I can quickly have a very high view of myself. I'll think I'm smart and I want others to recognize that. Or I'll think I'm funny and I want others to see that. Or I'll think I'm organized and resolute and caring. And these are all fine things to aspire to, but the problem is that I'm at the center of all these thoughts. They're all about me and my own glory project. I spend my energy working to glorify myself, and in our sin of pride, we are oriented to this self-glory. But for the Christian, the glory of God should be our orientation, just as it was for Jesus Christ. We must, like Jesus, be committed to the glory project of God.
13 · The pastor brings in the Philippians hymn as a canonical parallel to reinforce the pattern: Jesus' self-emptying obedience unto death results in exaltation to God's glory
And this is the example that Christ sets for us. Paul writes in Philippians 2:5-11, familiar verses I'm sure to many of you, "Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, and therefore God has highly 'exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ, is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father.'"
14 · The pastor articulates the paradox at the heart of the passage: Jesus' self-abnegation for God's glory becomes the means of His own glorification
Here is the confounding reality of the cross. Jesus, in committing Himself to God's glory, He ultimately accomplished His own glory. Or put another way, by living to glorify God, By living to glorify God, Jesus himself was glorified. Look what it says in verse 32: If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once.
15 · The pastor contrasts worldly wisdom (self-advancement, self-glorification) with the Christian call to emulate Christ's commitment to God's glory, naming the confounding dissonance
Now, in the eyes of the world, this is insanity. The world says, look out for number one. The world says, climb the ladder. The world says, it's all about you. The world says live for your own glory, but our call as Christians is to emulate Christ, to live for his glory. And Jesus shows us an unwavering commitment to God's glory.
16 · The pastor invokes the Westminster Shorter Catechism as concise doctrinal summary, grounding the sermon's call in historic Reformed confession
The Westminster Shorter Catechism sums it up beautifully. The first question it asks: What is the chief end of man? And the answer is: The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Like Jesus, that is what our lives are to be all about: the glory of God, exalting God through the lives we live.
17 · The pastor issues a direct series of rhetorical questions pressing the congregation toward personal affirmation of the theology just established, heightening the stakes of belief
Brothers and sisters, today, do you believe this? Do you believe that taking part in the glory project of God is the purpose of your life? Do you believe that what is in Christ far surpasses anything that this world has to offer? Do you believe that living for God's glory rather than your own is the pathway to everlasting joy and everlasting peace? Do you believe this?
18 · The pastor expounds verse 33, emphasizing the exclusivity of Jesus' mission and the solitary nature of His redemptive work
Notice Jesus, He has resolute focus on walking faithfully in obedience to the Father for God's glory. It says in verse 33, the words of Jesus, "Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek Me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come." Jesus knows that the road set before Him, the road to the cross, is one that only He can walk. There is a work that Jesus came to do, and it is one that only he can do. In order for God to be glorified, he must go forward alone. And by walking alone in faithful and committed obedience to God, God will be most glorified and Jesus will be most exalted.
19 · The pastor uses imaginative identification with the disciples to create emotional resonance, then pivots to the second major movement of the sermon
Now put yourself in the disciples' shoes, or I guess sandals in this, or they didn't have shoes on because Jesus washed their feet. In their feet. Put yourself in their feet this morning. And Jesus has just told them— they've followed him through hell and high water— and Jesus has just told them, "Where I'm going, you cannot come." Think about what they must have been feeling at that moment. But before they interject, before they can get a word in, Jesus continues. Jesus goes right on and calls them to emulate his love.
20 · The pastor announces the second major point and frames verses 34-35 as instruction for post-ascension Christian living
So point number 2 this morning: emulation of God's love, verses 34 and 35. Faithful Christians are characterized by emulation of the love of God. In these two verses, 34 and 35, Jesus tells the disciples how they're to live after he departs.
21 · The pastor reads verse 34, introducing the new commandment
I'm leaving you, so Jesus says in verse 34, 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.
22 · The pastor poses the interpretive question (what makes the commandment new?), contrasts Leviticus 19:18 with John 13:34, and identifies the newness: the standard has shifted from self-love to Christ's love
The first question we have to deal with here is, what makes this commandment new? In Leviticus 19:18, the law of God states, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love one another. This has always been central to the Jewish religion. Love your neighbor. Love one another. There doesn't seem to be anything new about this commandment. But look again. Look again. What's new about this commandment is its standard. It's no longer just loving as you love yourself. No, now it's about loving as He has loved us. We love because He has loved. We are to emulate the love that God has shown us. His love is the standard. It's the basis for our love.
23 · The pastor poses the question that drives the next exposition unit
So, how does Jesus love?
24 · The pastor draws on two cross-references from 1 John to define how Jesus loves: self-sacrificial death as propitiation, taking our place to satisfy God's wrath
John writes later in his first letter, 1 John 3:16, he says, "By this we know love, that He," that Jesus, "laid down His life for us." And again, John says in 1 John 4:10, "In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." He came to be the propitiation, that is, the one who satisfied God's wrath. On our behalf. He took our place. He suffered for us. He gave himself that we might become sons and daughters of God.
25 · The pastor pauses the expositional flow to address non-believers directly with a gospel presentation, offering the invitation to faith through a compressed narrative of creation, fall, and redemption
Now, maybe you're here this morning and you haven't placed your faith in God, but know this: today you can become a child of God. There's a holy God, Creator of all, above all, sustainer of all, sovereign over all. He created man and woman for His own glory. He created them and He lived in fellowship with them. And man through sin broke off this fellowship. Man was sent out of the perfect place for fellowship with God, the garden, and sent off. And God since has been making a way for man to be reconciled to God. And that way for man to be reconciled to God is through Jesus Christ through His death and His resurrection. That's the only way that we can be made new. So see the love of God for you in Christ.
26 · The pastor quotes a hymn sung earlier in the service to reinforce the emotional and doxological dimensions of Christ's love, creating continuity between corporate worship and preached word
We sang this morning, "Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus. Spread His praise from shore to shore. How He came to pay our ransom through the saving cross He bore. How He watches over His loved ones, those He died to make His own. How for them He's interceding, pleading now." before the throne. Oh, the deep, deep love that He has shown us. This is how He loves us. He is our mighty Savior and precious Friend, and He will bring us home to glory where His love will never end.
27 · The pastor establishes the ecclesial scope of the commandment (it's for the church, not primarily for the world), directly addresses the local congregation by name, and ties the love command back to the sermon's controlling theme of confounding the world
So His call to us today, His call to us, His new command is, "As I have loved you, love one another." Now remember, Judas has just left the room. And Jesus here is just speaking to his faithful disciples. So this command that he gives is a command for the context of Christian community. It's a command for the church. Love each other. So Providence Community Church, beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Love for one another is is the distinctive mark of Christian community. Jesus here boils down all of the Law and Prophets, summing them up in these words: "As I have loved you, love one another." And this love for one another, this is what confounds the world around us. Church, your love for one another, it will set you apart from the world. It's going to look different from the world.
28 · The pastor clarifies what Christian love is NOT (cultural tolerance, relativism, affirmation without correction) and what it IS (Christ-centered, countercultural, confounding), preemptively defending against cultural misappropriation of the love command
The love of the Christian community, it doesn't find its end in intolerance. The goal of love is not just accepting all people as they are and leaving them there. The love of the Christian community does not find its end in open-mindedness. The goal of love is not accepting truth as relative. What's true for you must be good for you. Love is not failing to tell someone they are wrong. The love of the Christian community finds its end and its beginning in a person, and that person is Jesus Christ and the example he sets for us. Jesus calls to love one another as he has loved us. Our Christian love for one another results in the cultivation, the growth of a countercultural community. Our love for one another should make Christianity strange in the eyes of the world. Our love for one another will confound the world around us.
29 · The pastor expounds verse 35, clarifying that intramural Christian love is the primary witness strategy — not the exclusion of mission, but the means by which the church becomes light to the world
What Jesus says in verse 35, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." This command here, it's not to the exclusion of loving the lost and the spiritually dead. It's not love one another and hate everyone else. No, it's by loving one another that we are reflective of his light. We become lights in the dark world just as he is the light of the world. We bring hope to the world by our love for one another because our love points to his love. It points to the one way of salvation.
30 · The pastor signals the shift from exposition to extended application, previewing two categories (later expanded to three) in which Christ-like love transforms community
So what does it look like for us to be a community marked by loving one another? Let's look this morning at just two ways that our lives are transformed by loving as he loves.
31 · The pastor develops the first transformation (identity), contrasting worldly identity markers (interests, life stage, income, race, nationality) with the church's singular identity in Christ, using Revelation 7 to establish the eschatological pattern of unity-in-diversity bought by Christ's blood
So first, loving as he loves transforms our identity. Loving as he loves transforms our identity. In loving Christian community, our primary identity is found in Christ. Our identity is not found in our common interests. You're not here this morning because you're all Royals fans, or our identity is not found in our marital status or season of life. We are not all here this morning because we all have kids between the ages of 3 and 10 or anything like that. Our identity is not in our income bracket. The church is not for people who make between $80,000 and $120,000 a year. Our identity is not in any of these things. Our identity is in Jesus Christ. All these other categories, these are things that bring the world together. Moreover, identity is not defined, it's not defined by the color of your skin. Identity is not found in the language that you speak. Identity is not rooted in the country or region you come from. No, God in Jesus Christ has broken down the dividing wall of hostility among us. The world, it pushes us to be defined by temporal and fleeting desires. The world tells us to be defined by these man-made categories. The world says, be all you can be. The world says you were born this way. The world says you were known by your desires. What you want is what defines you. What you think must be best for you. But not so in the kingdom of God. Not so in the kingdom of God. We are decidedly different. Our identity is in Christ. In Revelation 7, we're given a picture of a countless multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language gathered around the throne praising God. And they're not brought together because the experience of being together is so cool. They're not together for that experience. They are together because of the object of their worship. They are together because the Lamb who was slain is worthy, and they are people now bought by His blood. Now the church, the church should reflect this heavenly kingdom of a diverse people brought together in Christ, in the Lamb who was slain for us. Notice too, though, that in Revelation 7, in this picture we're giving, given this new identity, distinction is still preserved. There are still people from every tribe and tongue and nation and people, but there's no division. Distinction but no division. You will hear some people say that love is colorblind. If we love one another, there won't be any distinction. But it's in this distinction that we see something of the glory of God. Our God did not create man to be an amorphous blob. Blob where everybody just kind of assimilates to one another and melds in together. No, our God in his glory has created different sizes and colors and styles and, and cultures, none of which better reflect his glory than another. We are together in this distinct community, one in Christ. The church is God's family, all with equal access to God based on the work of Christ. The church is defined by a man, and that man is Jesus Christ. The identity of the Christian community is found in Christ, and that's a result of his love.
32 · The pastor develops the second transformation (relationships), establishing the church as 'frictionful not frictionless,' drawing on the Peter-forgiveness exchange to show that God's grace shatters human stinginess, and grounding the call to forgive in the gospel of reconciliation
So the love of loving as he loved, it transforms our identity to be in Christ. Loving as he loves, it also transforms our relationships. In the Christian community, our relationships are characterized by forbearance and forgiveness. Because we are all about reconciliation, we are to be ministers of reconciliation. This reconciliation doesn't characterize our community on what might be social lines or even ethnic lines, but on relational lines. Because we are aware of all that we have been forgiven of, we are to be a community that is quick to forgive others. We are to love each other because he has loved us. Love acts as the glue that holds a broken people together. The church, the gathered church, it's frictionful, not frictionless. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news this morning, but you are in a room full of sinners. You're in a room full of people that will disappoint you and let you down. But this isn't a cause to leave, this is a cause to love. When Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother, Peter seeks to stretch himself, go above and beyond what anybody would think would be appropriate. He says, "What, 7 times, Lord? I'll forgive him 7 times." That's a lot of times to forgive somebody, 7 times. But Jesus is not impressed by what Peter views as abundant grace. The love that God shows us, the love that we are called to, God's love shatters our stinginess. God's love shatters our stinginess. Jesus tells Peter, not 7 times, but 70 times 7. Peter, you don't even have a category for the love and the forgiveness that I show to others that you are called to emulate. The late theologian Edmund Clowney says this: The love of the saints keeps stretching in both depth and endurance to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge. It is the reach of God's love that stretches our love. It's the reach of God's love that stretches our love. And brothers and sisters, the only way we can get a grasp on the reach of his love is through the gospel of Jesus Christ, to meditate on the transcendence of God. God is so far above and beyond us. No one is like our God. He is greater than we can imagine, as we sung this morning. And we, in our sin, have no way to come to this God. We are fallen and finite, and Jesus— God is the boundless God, the incomparable God. How can we come to Him? It's only through the love that He has shown us through Jesus Christ to reconcile us to Himself. It's here that we grasp the reach of God's love, that our love is stretched. We must be stretched by this call to love others because God has shown this love to us.
33 · The pastor presses the relational application into concrete specificity, addressing the actual people in the room, citing Romans 5 and 1 Peter 2 to ground the call in undeserved grace, and quoting Bill Smith to reframe being sinned against as opportunity rather than obstacle
And it's not some abstract love. It can be easy to talk about loving one another without actually doing anything about it. While God certainly calls us to show love to all people, here Jesus is calling us to love the people gathered in this room. Jesus is calling us to love the people in the church. We are to love those sitting right here, right now. The relationships that we have, they're going to tempt us, tempt us. They are going to cause us to wear thin at points. We'll want to put a limit and a cap on the grace we extend to others in this family. But look to the love that God shows us. Paul writes in Romans 5 that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:24-25, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed, for you were straying like sheep but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls." There is no one who deserves the love of God less than us, straying sheep, sinful, people, but He loves us. And because of His love, we are to love others. So when your brother or sister sins against you, you have the opportunity to reflect this love to them. You have the opportunity to extend grace and mercy to them. You have the chance to bring an otherworldly, supernatural grace into your relationship by by loving as he loved. Author Bill Smith says this: when others are good to me, when others are good to me, there's no need for me to extend grace to them. They need grace from me only when they're out of line. That means the only context that anyone will ever have for experiencing grace from me is when he is in need of it. The only context that anyone will ever have for experiencing grace from me is when he is in need of it. So if you want to be a gracious Grace-filled person, expect to be sinned against. Otherwise, there's no need for love to cover a multitude of sins. Expect to be sinned against. Our expectation as the church should be one that we're going to be sinned against, but our disposition as the church should be one to love one another. Brothers and sisters, be a community that is leaning forward and seizing every opportunity to reflect God's love for us by bearing with one another and forgiving one another.
34 · The pastor acknowledges the structural departure from his previewed outline, signaling an additional application point
I'd said two things, I'm gonna throw a third thing in there.
35 · The pastor introduces the third transformation (time/service), acknowledging existing examples in the congregation and framing service as the practical expression of love
The love of God transforms our time, transforms how we use our time. As a Christian community, we are called to serve one another. We're called to meet one another's needs. And I'm sure this church abounds with examples of people who meet each other's needs, who are daily laying down their lives for one another. Even this morning, Randy was highlighted and just his faithful service on Sunday mornings in preparing this gathering to be able to come together. It's a wonderful thing to be provoked and spurred on by the examples of others. And as the Christian community, we're called to do something. In this love for one another as we serve one another.
36 · The pastor gives the first of three concrete applications: today, find someone and thank them for how God has used them, with specific attention to nursery workers as an immediate example
So I want to give just 3 ways that you might serve one another in the next— today, in the next week, the next month. So today, how can you serve one another? Seek to encourage one another. Build someone up. No doubt there are people in this room that God has used significantly in your life. God has used to encourage you. God has used to challenge you. God has used to speak His Word to you. Encourage them. Don't let today go by without finding a brother or sister and thanking them. And build them up in God's Word. Use God's words to encourage them. Highlight the way that they have considered the interests of others more important than themselves. Highlight the way that they have consistently driven you to what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. So encourage one another today. Find someone, encourage them, thank them. You'll have an opportunity if you're picking up kids this afternoon. Thank them this afternoon. I say that like I'm going to go 2 more hours. We'll be done shortly. Thank them for serving. It is a gift to you that you can sit here under the preached word undistracted. It's very kind. So encourage one another.
37 · The pastor gives the second concrete application: next Sunday, pray about where to sit to intentionally position yourself for Spirit-led encouragement across existing relational boundaries
Second, this week, this next week, next Sunday when you come in, pray about where you're going to sit in church. It's kind of like, what? Pray about where I'm going to sit? No doubt many of you, if you're anything like the church that I'm a part of and churches that I've been a part of, many of you sit in the same place every Sunday. And that's fine, there's nothing wrong with that. But let me encourage you to pray about, as you're pulling into the parking lot, pray about where you're going to sit. The reason that this is helpful and positions us to serve is because when we pray about where we're gonna sit, our disposition is that God is gonna be working as we gather together, and God wants to use me in serving these people. So next Sunday you might come in and sit somewhere else and sit next to somebody you don't know or someone you haven't talked to for a little while. Take that opportunity to encourage them. God wants to do things as we gather together, so pray about where you're gonna sit.
38 · The pastor gives the third concrete application: in the next month, exercise hospitality across difference (life stage, culture), using the baseball-rivalry illustration to make the gospel's reconciling power tangible and slightly humorous
And then lastly, in the next month, I'd encourage you, in order to serve one another, have someone over. Exercise hospitality. Have someone over who's in a different season of life or comes from a different culture from you. And this is just a wonderful opportunity to reflect the love that he has shown us. We are a diverse people that have been brought together by the blood of Christ. And in the church, you will see people that in the world's eyes, they have nothing to do with one another. And I mean, I'm an Orioles fan. Matt's a Twins fan. But the Gospel brings us together. That's a silly example, but that is a microcosm of what the church is. It brings together people. I mean, the Orioles crushed the Royals last night. I don't know if you watched the game. But because of the Gospel, we can be here together. Just keep that in mind. Hopefully this afternoon as well. But that's what the Gospel does. It brings together people Otherwise we'd be enemies, but we are called to love one another as He has loved us.
39 · The pastor synthesizes the three transformations (identity, relationships, time) and returns to the sermon's thesis: our emulation of God's love makes us a gospel-revealing community that confounds the world
So the love of God, when we love as He loves, the way we use our time is transformed. We serve one another. The way we love one another is transformed. Our relationships are transformed. We forgive and forbear with one another. And our identity is transformed. It's no longer about us, it's about being found in Christ and in Christian community. This is what it's all about, being a gospel-revealing community, as one author said. Through the way we live and the way we interact, people see the gospel. Again, John 13:35, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Our emulation of the love of God should truly confound the world. God's love changes the way we live. It reorients our desires and gives us a new identity. It transforms our relationships and changes how we use our time.
40 · The pastor names the final confounding paradox: Christian action flows from restful contentment in Christ's completed work, contrasting worldly striving ('just do it, you only live once') with God's call to rest in eternal security
There's a whole lot of doing that goes on in the Christian life, but here's the confounding reality: we do because our greatest need has already been met. We love because he has loved us. The way we live our lives is rooted not in how much we can get done or how good we look doing it. The basis of our love for one another is His love for us. We do because of what Jesus has done. In the world's eyes, life is all about what you can do, what you can accomplish, how great you can be. It's about your desires and making most of this one life. The world says, "Just do it, you only live once." But God says, "Just rest, you will live forever." The call for us today ultimately is to find contentment. In the work of another, to rest in our future hope, the promise of eternity. This is a life that confounds the world.
41 · The pastor begins the sermon's close by restating the core thesis (Christians confound the world) and calling the congregation to embrace this strangeness as faithful witness, contrasting worldly hopes with eternal abiding
The life that we as Christians are called to, it's not frictionless. It rubs up against that which the world loves. It confounds the world. The world doesn't have categories for the life of the Christian. We are defined by the life and the love and the word and work of another. So let's keep Christianity strange. Let's show the world who we are by our love for one another. The hopes of this world, the accumulation of money and stuff, the satisfaction of sexual desires, the wielding of power and security, they will all fade. John writes, the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. The life of the faithful Christian reveals the confounding reality of the gospel.
42 · The pastor acknowledges the cultural headwinds facing Christians, rejects three tempting responses (compromise, fear, anger), and issues the positive charge: live for God's glory and emulate God's love, grounded in the certainty of final victory in Christ
Each passing day, it can seem that Christianity is perceived as more bigoted, more intolerant, and more behind the times. The communities we live in today, they are rapidly changing and moving away from biblical morality. So do we change? Do we cower in fear? Do we get angry? No, no, and no. We live for God's glory, and we emulate God's love so that all the world might see and know God. They might know that this world, this world is not our home. We are not citizens of an earthly kingdom, but of an everlasting kingdom. And while there are seemingly endless paths to destruction, There is only one hope for salvation in this world, and it's through Jesus Christ. There is a cosmic battle raging, and Jesus Christ, he is the seed of the woman who came to crush the serpent's head. We know that our final victory is secure. We know who wins this battle. Our hope is in Jesus Christ our Lord. And so as Christians, we live confounding lives for the glory of God and loving one another as He has loved us.
43 · The pastor closes with extended quotation from Luther's hymn, allowing the congregation to enter doxological mode, rehearsing the security of God's truth and the permanence of His kingdom in the face of worldly opposition
Martin Luther pens in his famous hymn, "A Mighty Fortress," "And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God has willed His truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure." One little word shall fell him, that word above all earthly powers. That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them abideth. The spirit and the gift are ours through him who with us sideth. Let goods and kindreds go, this mortal life also, the body they may kill, but God's truth, God's truth, God's truth abideth still. His kingdom, is forever.
44 · The pastor closes in prayer, addressing God and rehearsing the sermon's core movements: God's love in Christ, the call to emulate that love, and the security of our hope in Christ's finished work rather than our striving
Would you bow your heads and pray? Father, thank you for the love that you've shown us through Jesus Christ. Thank you for the example that the life of Christ has given us, one committed to living for God's glory and loving us. May we love one another as you have loved us. And Lord, thank you that our hope is secure in this word. Thank you that our hope is secure in this Christ. Thank you that it doesn't come down to what we do and our, our efforts to attain glory, but it's in Christ's glory. So Lord, may you be glorified in our lives, in all we do. May we rest, may we rest in what you've done for us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.