HG150pt1b John 15:12-25 Part 2 Remembrance Day 2020
Notes
Transcript
Welcome today to our Remembrance Sunday Service. We are starting a little earlier so that we can join the 2 minute silence at 11. We shall remember those who gallantly laid their lives down as a sacrifice for peace and freedom, king, queen and country, and for those injured in the same cause, some physically, others mentally.
The Kohima Epitaph in North East India says;
'When you go home tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow we gave our today.'
The First World War was meant to be the war to end all wars but even in our present day, wars are fought and soldiers live, die and are injured. One Day, though, the Prince of Peace will come and wars will cease. In the meantime, we are to pray, so let us do that:
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we remember with thanksgiving those who made the supreme sacrifice for us in time of war. We pray that the offering of their lives may not have been in vain. By your grace enable us this day to dedicate ourselves anew to the cause of justice, freedom and peace; and give us the wisdom and strength to build a better world, for the honour and glory of your name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
There is no better Psalm, I think, that speaks into troubles that come including war, so let us hear that Psalm: (2min)
1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
God will help her when morning dawns.
6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
8 Come, behold the works of the Lord,
how he has brought desolations on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the chariots with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
Robert Palmer (1min10)
How long, O Lord, how long, before the flood Of crimson-welling carnage shall abate? /From sodden plains in West and East, the blood Of kindly men steams up in mists of hate, /Polluting Thy clean air; and nations great In reputation of the arts that bind /The world with hopes of heaven, sink to the state /Of brute barbarians, whose ferocious mind /Gloats o'er the bloody havoc of their kind, /Not knowing love or mercy. Lord, how long /Shall Satan in high places lead the blind /To battle for the passions of the strong? /Oh, touch Thy children's hearts, that they may know /Hate their most hateful, pride their deadliest foe.
Let us stand if we can where we are:
Let us stand if we can where we are:
They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them. We will remember them.
Silence
Silence
Let us pray:
Gracious Father, we pray for peace in our world: for all national leaders that they may have the wisdom to know and courage to do what is right; for all men and women that their hearts may be turned to yourself in the search for righteousness and truth; for those who are working to improve international relationships, that they may find the true way of reconciliation; for those suffer as a result of war: the injured and disabled, the mentally distressed, the homeless and hungry, those who mourn for their dead, and especially for those who are without hope or friend to sustain them in their grief. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
HYMN: Our God in Ages Past
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.
Under the shadow of Thy throne
Thy saints have dwelt secure;
Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
And our defence is sure.
Before the hills in order stood,
Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting Thou art God,
To endless years the same.
A thousand ages in Thy sight
Are like an evening gone;
Short as the watch that ends the night
Before the rising sun.
Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Be Thou our guard while life shall last,
And our eternal home.
This ends the remembrance part of our service today.
Notices
Notices
You may already be aware but Joyce Francis passed away last Sunday into the presence of our Lord. Please hold the family in prayer. The funeral will be on Wednesday 18th in the Church and a burial afterwards. It is by invite only. Also, Ann & Don Smith celebrate their Golden Wedding anniversary on Saturday 14th. Congratulations! Well done!
Our in-house services resume next Sunday and, God willing, Ande Mullin will be taking the service as Irena and I intend to take a few days break.
Prayer
Prayer
Let us come to today’s reading:
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay 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. 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 that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another. 18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’
Verse 13 seems to be most appropriate for Remembrance Sunday when we consider the sacrifice made by men and women who laid down their lives for their Country and family but, of course, Jesus is setting the example, though the disciples were unaware of it at the time. In verse 12 we are told to love one another in the same way that Jesus has. So combining these two verses means that we should be reflecting upon Christ’s self-giving, sacrificial love that took Him to the cross of Calvary - and He did not just do this for His friends but as it says in
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Even when we were still enemies He loved us to the end, to those who are undeserving to bring the blessing of reconciliation with God and eternal life.
John 15 is in three parts. The first part has to do with the vine and the branches, that is Christ and believers, the second part, which is what we are about to look at, has to do with branches with branches, that is believers’ relationship with other believers, and the third part is the relationship of the vine and branches with the world, which we shall also touch on.
We are told to love one another and lay down our lives for one another in following Christ’s example to us. This is the fruit that should be borne in us who are believers.
Now we know that Judas betrayed Jesus but before this passage today we find that Jesus has gone out of His way to give no excuse to Judas in showing him love, friendship, a way out, and a way in. Jesus practised what He preached and He paid the price of betrayal from one He had worked so hard to win. Sacrifice is called for by our Lord from us in our love for one another even if one turns out to be a devil. We can only be friends with Jesus if we obey this command.
It is our relationship with Jesus that enables our relationship with each other. And this is exampled in the fact that Jesus shares His life with us. Typically, a Master does not share with a slave, in much the same way that employers do not share their innermost thoughts with their workers. But what we find is that the relationship that ought to be Master/Slave, Employer/Employee is not that at all for we are called friends. And with friends we share what is going on in our hearts and minds most of the time. We are not Jesus’ slaves but part of His inner circle of friends. Now Paul, in many of his letters, considers Himself a slave and servant of God but that was not placed on him from above but from within himself in his desire to serve such a generous God.
And now it is the desire of Jesus to help His friends succeed and produce lasting fruit. This is what we have been chosen to do. He expects us to be mutually committed to fulfilling our calling. And the main task we have been called to is to glorify God and the main way we do that is by making Jesus known. And the way we start to do this is in obeying the command to love one another.
And that brings us to the third part of John 15 where we find that the world is not exactly on our side. We should not expect the world to like anything that Christians have to say if we are true followers of Jesus. Nothing should surprise us about the opposition that we will be on the receiving end of. Clearly the world’s system is at enmity with God and is under Satan’s influence and power, in so much as God has allowed him. The world cannot stand the light and it hates truth because it exposes them for what and who they are. They do not want to know they are accountable to God for their thoughts, words and actions. Initially their hatred is towards Jesus and that had its accumulation in the cross.
And because of our association with Christ as CHRISTians we are also hated by the world. I hear that the world loves Jesus but what Jesus is it they love? The blue-eyed, blond haired Robert Powell or Jim Caviezel or any of the 60 or so actors who have played Jesus in films? Or Jesus meek and mild? This is not the Christ of the Scriptures who said let the dead bury their own dead, and you brood of vipers, and certainly not the One who will come back in power to judge the living and the dead. This One the world does not like. As Christians we are bewildered that they do not come to faith in Christ who has done it all to save us but they love lies and love deceiving and being deceived.
Today, there is a love for socialism and communism and its promised utopia that believes that humans are basically good and can achieve great things without God, as Marx said in a derisory way that religion is the opium of the people. But the fall of the iron curtain and Berlin wall showed what a bankrupt belief system it was for Scripture makes it clear that we are at our heart very bad, born in sin, in need of a Saviour to lift us up out of the mire that most people seem to want to stay in.
Are we Christians for what we can get out of it for it seems we are increasingly egocentric and more concerned about health and wealth and comfort believing that that is what God is there for? If you watched Joni’s video then we would know that suffering is also part of the will of God. That’s right. Suffering is the will of God. Scripture plainly teaches this. As we get older, especially, we are aware that pain encroaches on our lives. Is God to be abandoned then - like Job’s wife said: Curse God and die? We have a skewed understanding because we have been cocooned here in the West and not able to see the millions of Christians who are living in abject poverty around the world without access to basic healthcare.
The other reality is that we will be persecuted for standing up for what is right, for righteousness’ sake, and we will also be persecuted for sharing the good news of Jesus. We have One who is always with us and telling us to not let our hearts be troubled by abiding in Him but to also be aware that we are among foxes that have been let in the chickens’ pen. We must expect to be hated. In fact, in verse 18, it is certain: You WILL be hated. Are we ready for the vitriol that we see politicians get or what the writer of the Harry Potter books J.K. Rowling got and is getting for saying biological sex is immutable. Truth is the standard that society is trying to undermine. We do not have this luxury as Christians. The world wants us not only to accept them as they are but to praise them for how they are and we do a great disservice to Christ, to them and ourselves if we keep the truth to ourselves.
Preaching the Word: John—That You May Believe (What Christians Should Expect as Theyrelate to the World (15:18–25))
In 1937 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed at the end of the war (1945) in a German concentration camp, prophetically wrote in The Cost of Discipleship:Suffering … is the badge of the true Christian. The disciple is not above his master.… Luther reckoned suffering among the marks of the true church.… Discipleship means allegiance to the suffering Christ, and it is therefore not at all surprising that Christians should be called upon to suffer.Such persecution will be proportionate to the extent of one’s identification with Christ.
We are to live lives worthy of the calling of Christ on our lives and in so doing we condemn the world. Examples in Scripture are many of persecution, see Hebrews 11. Daniel, for example, was never shown to have any sin yet he was thrown to the lions. Perhaps God will save us in such situations and perhaps we will suffer and/or die. But we remember the One who suffered for us even though we are His creation created by Him and for Him. Let us be willing to share in His sufferings who was hated without cause.
Our relationship with God is paramount and we have to abide in Christ or we will not cope with the pressures that can and will come upon us. We can do this best by remembering the sacrifice of Jesus and be thankful He came all the way from Heaven willingly to take our place. Let us take our place alongside Him and take a share of His suffering by living for Christ completely and loving one another as He loved us.
Benediction
Benediction
20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Bibliography
Bibliography
Hughes, R. K. (1999). John: that you may believe. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.