Walking in the Way of Love

SUMMARY

In this sermon, Karl Ihfe explores the concept of walking in the way of love as a core tenet of Christianity. He begins by drawing parallels between inheriting traits from our earthly families and inheriting spiritual traits from our heavenly Father. Ihfe then focuses on Jesus' example of love, particularly in John 13 where He washes His disciples' feet.

The sermon delves into the transformation of the apostle John, from an aggressive and ambitious disciple to one who identifies himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." This change, Ihfe argues, came through John's experience of Jesus' love and the resurrection. Karl challenges the congregation to reflect on whether they show a family resemblance to God through their love, emphasizing that this should be the defining characteristic of Christians in a world that may not share their beliefs or values.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Well, it's good to get to be with you this Sunday. We were hoping to do that last week and just didn't get the opportunity with the crazy weather happening. But the sermon I'm going to preach this morning is one that I had prepared for last Sunday. And so I had written it, in fact, last Saturday I rewrote a huge chunk of it as I was just thinking about what I wanted to say. And I felt inspired by God to say a few things.

And so I didn't realize how controversial it was going to be this week. It was stunning to me, the reminder of how some basic core tenets of Christianity, of the Christian faith are on trial and are they real? Is it something we really believe or is it not? And what will be the standard by which we live and treat one another? You know, as we started this year together, my hope in this series was that we would get to take out the old and bring in the new.

Maybe for some of us it was some habits, some new habits, some new ways of living and operating in our lives, whether it's with other people, at the workplace, at school, wherever it may be. My hope each week has been that we'll think again on some of these core tenets of what we believe. And as Charles said, that we would remember it's not just something from our past, but it has implications for our present. And so we talked about some things like obedience and wisdom and what it's like to be people who are committed to submitting ourselves to the way of Christ. And this morning we're going to talk to some about the way of love.

And I want to offer you a few thoughts. And I know some of you are going to think, oh, you're saying this in response to what happened this week. I promise you. I wrote this sermon last week. Now I've been thinking all about it this week as life has unfolded.

So my hope is that it will be something that will challenge you but also encourage you. Because I think, to me, this is maybe the most important lesson that we could have as we start a new year is to learn how to walk in the way of love. So if you have your Bible, I want to invite you to turn to Ephesians 5. The passage George just read so beautifully for us a moment ago. On your way there, I want to ask you this question.

As you think about your own family, the family you grew up in, how are you like them? What kinds of things did you inherit from your family? As we think about our moms and our dads, if some of us, our parents or grandparents, what are the qualities? What are the characteristics? What are the traits that you picked up from your family?

Now, some of us will say, well, I look like my family. If you've ever seen any, the Ihfe genes are strong genes, right? We just, We can't get away from it.

In fact, I had a few friends who said, there's no way to deny Gabe is your son. You are your father's son, right? This is Gabe. This is our most recent picture of our father son, baseball trip we do every year together. As I was thinking about it, I thought, you know, I actually look more like him when he was born.

Like, the younger he gets, I think the older he's gotten, you know, you tell me. I think you have more in common, or at least I look more like that guy, just the old version of that guy. But what traits did you pick up in your family? You know, I tell you, one of my favorite things I get to do is premarital counseling and talking with young couples who are thinking about a life together. And I'll talk to them a lot about their families of origin, and I'll ask them, what was your family like?

How did they communicate with one another? How did they give and receive love? How did they argue? How did they fight? How did they solve problems?

Why? Because 99.9% of the stuff that we bring into our life we picked up from our family, these family traits. Kind of that whole monkey see, monkey do. And even if we're not conscious of it, and that's part of why I asked my couples to think about it, it's just to bring to their awareness, what are some of the traits and qualities that you have chosen that you have seen lived out in the people that you care and love and respect? And then what are those that we just kind of default, just go to without thinking, without being intentional about it?

Because it turns out, as Christians, it's the same. We grow up in a family together, and we pick up stuff. We pick up traits, we pick up qualities from our church family. In fact, Genesis opens, the first book of the Bible, opens with this statement about how you were created in the image of God, that somehow when people look at you, they get to see some unique facet of our God. Like, you look like him.

And so it's important for us to say, well, do we sound like him? Do we act like him? And I think that's what Paul's point is when he's writing to this young church in Ephesus who's trying to discern and figure out how do we live in the world that's so different from how we live, who believe very different from what we believe, who live differently than the way that we do. And so Paul writes, follow God's example. If you have the NRSV, that translation that says, be imitators of God, therefore as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love.

Just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Paul says, remember you're a dearly loved child of God. This morning in Bible class, we're studying the spiritual disciplines. And we were thinking together in our class about silence and solitude. And one of the gifts that God gives to us in that silence and in that solitude is to remember that we're the beloved.

And Paul says, don't forget church. Remember you're the loved one of God. So imitate him, imitate Jesus. Walk in the way of love. And so this morning I want us to think a little bit about what it looks like to walk in the way of love.

You see one of the main themes that is in the letter of Ephesians. In fact, this fall we're going to jump into the letter and actually walk through the whole thing together. But one of the themes that we have in Ephesians, and we'll come to see it, is Paul's not writing about learning how to power up and control others to keep people doing what you want them to do. But instead it's concerned with treating others the way that God has treated you, to remember how has God treated you. And in response to that, then I want you to treat others in the same way, with the same love, with the same grace Paul calls them to imitate God.

I want you to live just the way he would live if he were living your life in your moment. And the picture that he draws out is like a parent to a child. So it's like a parent watches their. Rather like a child watches their parents and learns to talk and think and act like them. I want you to do the same thing with Jesus.

In fact, the way of love is this major them that also runs through the book of Ephesians. In fact, in chapter one, he starts it by saying, in love, God predestined us for adoption to sonship through Christ. For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God and for all God's people. In chapter two, he says, but because of his great love for us, God, who's rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. In chapter three, we hear it again.

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love together with all God's people, know how wide and high and deep long is that love. And love is the way Paul calls them to walk in love, to live a life worthy of that calling. And so this morning, I want to take just a couple of minutes to ask, well, so what is the way of love then? Like, if we're supposed to imitate Jesus in the way of love, what does that look like? And I want to look at Jesus, but I also want to look at one of his disciples who learned by watching and then living it out.

But before we do, there's a lot of passages in Scripture about love. It's one of the most common subjects that's brought up. In fact, the most famous chapter in the Bible on love is what church? First Corinthians 13, right? This beautiful chapter where Paul just so beautifully writes out artistically describing and giving these beautiful word pictures of what love is like, right?

We read it in weddings, which is a great thing to do. What we often forget is where chapter 13 is, right? It's in the middle of this letter written to this church that's just overcome with conflict and craziness right now. I know you kind of have to suspend your belief here for a moment, but just imagine a church where you have people comparing one another, like, my gifts are better than your gifts, or I'm more important than you. Right?

I know it's weird to think that people would act that way, but just imagine it's in the middle of this church that's fighting, that's disunity, or struggling with really some really crazy sexual immorality. It's in the middle of that that Paul's writing to them says, let me show you a more excellent way to live. And this is what he writes. If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but do not have love, I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and if I can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but I don't have love, I nothing.

If I give all that I possess to the poor, and I give over my body the hardship that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Paul says, it doesn't matter what spiritual gift you have. You could be the smartest guy in the room you could have all the answers to all the theological questions. But if you don't have love, it doesn't matter. Think about the implications of that for a moment. Because I don't know that we actually believe that.

I mean, I know we believe that. I just don't know that we believe that. Right this week was this pushback on me to go, do you believe that, Mr. Preacher Man?

Because I got a thought on a few things.

If I can preach the most eloquent sermons that melt hearts and open minds, but I don't have love, Paul says it doesn't gain anything.

Now that may be a word for us to wrestle with. It certainly has been one that I have to wrestle with. Because if we watch church, how we treat one another, and especially those who don't agree with us, who don't believe what we believe, who don't live the way that we live, when they look at us, do they see any family resemblance to the Father?

What did Jesus say about the way of love? What did that look like?

One of my favorite illustrations of this is Jesus in John 13, right? It's on the night he's about to be betrayed. It's just before Passover, John tells us. And Jesus knew that his hour had come for him to leave this world and to go to the Father. And having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

The evening meal was in progress. And the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power and that he had come from God and he was returning to God. So he got up from the meal, he took off his outer clothing and he wrapped the towel around his waist. And after that he poured water into a basin and he began to wash his disciples feet, drying them with a towel that was wrapped around him.

Jesus knew his time had come.

Jesus loved his disciples were told. And now he loved them to the end. Even knowing each and everyone one was about to betray him. He was sitting at a table with the very ones who would do to him what all of us is. Our greatest fear that those we trust the most would betray us.

But that doesn't stop him. So he wraps this towel around his waist and he starts to wash feet. And it's really uncomfortable. It, it’s this really uncomfortable moment. In fact, so much so that one of his disciples, Peter, is like, stop, please stop.

You can't do this. This is not for you to do, man. This is a servants job. Right? And Jesus says, Peter, unless I wash you, you have no part of me.

He's like, look, if that's the case, then let's do all in. Let's go everything. Jesus says, no, no, no. If you take a bath, you're al right, it's just your feet. This awkward conversation kind of unfolds.

And then Jesus says this. He finishes washing, he puts on his clothes, and he returns to his position, his place at the table. “Do you understand what I've done? He asked. You call me teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am.”

“Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I've set an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly. I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”

###gh this question. Do you understand what I've done? Of course, we all know. No, no, but they will. They will.

And in particular, one of them. One of them will. In fact, it's the guy who wrote this story down. It's John's gospel. But have you ever noticed there's one disciple that is never named in the Gospel of John?

You know who that is? Trick question, right? It's John. John doesn't show up in his own gospel. He's never named.

Have you ever thought about that? In fact, there's this interesting character that shows up in John's gospel and it's the disciple whom Jesus loved. He just conveniently shows up a few times and you think, come on, man, seriously, that's how you're going to refer to yourself? The disciple who Jesus loved? Now, it's interesting, if you look back in the debate of theologians and scholars for centuries, this question of who is this disciple whom Jesus loved?

Who is it? Now, tradition says it was actually John, but there's a lot of folks who go, ah, now doesn't John? Because the John that I know, right, that John from the other Gospels is not the disciple whom Jesus loved. Have you ever just kind of done a little survey of the other gospels and what they have to say about John the apostle? It's really quite interesting.

We learn that he's from Bethsaida. We learn he's the son of a guy named Zebedee and that he's got a brother named James, and he's from a family of some means, some wealth. We know this by Mark's account of John's calling that James and John, sons of Zebedee, are preparing their nets in the boat. They're fishing without delay, Jesus calls them. And they left their father Zebedee in the boat with who?

The hired men, right? So John's father, Zebedee, he had least enough money to not only hire his sons, but some other guys, right? So John's from this family that has some means. Now we also learn that he becomes part of the inner circle of Jesus. Inner circle.

Peter, James, and John, they're with Jesus a lot for a lot of special opportunities. He and Peter, we learn, are really good friends. You know, John was a relational kind of guy. In fact, it was John and Peter that Jesus asked, would you go make the preparations for the meal that we're reading about in John 13? John was the one who helped get that meal together.

But the picture that the other gospel writers kind of present about John is pretty different. And here's what I mean by this. If you look at just what they say about John, number one, we find out he's this aggressively, ambitious guy. Remember John in Mark, chapter 10? He's the one who goes to Jesus and says, hey, Jesus, when your kingdom comes, could we be on your right and your left?

Right? Could we be number one and number two? It doesn't matter which order, just as long as it's us. We like to be the dudes behind you. That when you talk, we go, yeah.

And of course, the other disciples find out about it and they get really upset, right? And then Jesus has to stop everything and go, okay, guys, we need to talk about a word. That word begins with the letter H, and it rhymes with humility, and it's called humility. We need to get a little bit.

Or you may remember the story in Matthew 20, we learned that maybe James and John's ambition runs in the family. Because who does Matthew point the finger at with a story, right? It's who? Mama. Mama comes to Jesus and says, hey, right and left. These two, they got your back. So maybe he comes by that ambition honestly.

But that's not the only picture. We also find out he's got a pretty aggressive temper, right? John's got a short fuse.

I can identify with that, right? I don't know if John was German, but it makes me wonder sometimes. in Mark 9, right, he finds a dude driving out demons and he's not part of the group. And he says, knock it off, pal. And then he goes back to Jesus. He is like, hey, Jesus, some knucklehead over here was driving all demons, but he is not one of us.

So we told him to knock it off. And Jesus is like, John, dude, he's not against us. He’s for us, bro.

Or maybe that time in Luke chapter nine when they are going through a Samaritan village and they won't accept them. And John is like, I got an idea. You want us to call fire down on them? And Jesus is like, no, not… no. What part of this… no.

In Mark 3, we learned Jesus had a nickname for James and John. You remember what it was? Sons of Compassion, right? No, it was Sons of Thunder, right? What do you have to be like, what do you have to be like to get a name like Son of Thunder.

And I imagine they wore that pretty proudly, right? That's the picture of John. He's this ambitious, loud, aggressive, quick tempered, somewhat intolerant kind of guy, right? That is John. So now you understand why scholars are going, the disciple whom Jesus loved, right?

No, not the same dude. It's not the same guy. Why would we compare those two? Now here's what's interesting. That's actually not the only picture of John that we have in Scripture.

If you've read through the book of Acts, right, the story of the early church, we get a really different picture of this guy named John. He's still very relational. In fact, he and Peter are still kind of a packaged deal. They're together all the time. But we see that John starts to play a prominent role in the church, but he doesn't speak and he's never the one talking.

The recorded words that we find in Acts, John's not the one talking, he's just there. But he just keeps being there. When Peter and John are on their way into the temple and this beggar is begging for something, Peter stops and heals him. That's an amazing story. John's with him.

Then the Pharisees and the temple guard come and get Peter and John and they drag him in front of the Sanhedrin because of this event and what they're teaching. And Acts 4 tells us they realize they're ordinary, they're unschooled. Like, where are they getting this from. Peter and John? In Acts chapter 8, Peter travels with John to Samaria to see how the word’s been spread. John just keeps going.

In fact, in Galatians 2 and other of Paul's letters, he talks about how it was John who extended he and Barnabas the hand of fellowship when he saw the way that God was at work in their ministry to The Gentiles. All of a sudden we see this change and we go, what happened to John?

Jesus happened. Jesus’ resurrection happened. And it changed John. It changed his whole life. Like all of a sudden, those moments that he spent three years watching Jesus, listening to him, all of a sudden those memories would just flood back in his mind.

But he saw him in a totally different way. In fact, we're told John was the first one to the tomb on that Easter morning. John was the first one to recognize that it was Jesus on the shore cooking breakfast for them. Right? I just have this image of loose association here, but Forrest Gump, right?

Remember when he sees Lieutenant Dan on the shore and he just jumps out of the boat. I did the boat’s like and he just jumps out. You get the sense. Peter did the same thing. John goes, Peter, there's Jesus and Peter just jumps off the boat.

John's the one. He goes from this brash, loud, obnoxious, intolerant, quick tempered man to someone when he's reflecting on the story of Jesus. What he says, is not my name, but I'm the disciple that Jesus loved.

Why would he say that?

John will go on to write a few letters to the young churches. And you know what one of the major themes, maybe the major theme in all those letters? Love.

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. And whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us. He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.”

“This is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us. And he sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God. But if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” Where did John learn this?

He learned it from Jesus. He learned it by watching him walk in the way of love. He learned it by showing mercy and compassion, by just seeing Jesus just lived this incredible love for others, so much that he would continue that writing in 1 John 4. “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them. And this is how God is made complete among us, so that we will have confidence on the Day of Judgment in this world. We are like Jesus.”

Do we show any family resemblance?

Do we look like him? Do we sound like him? Do we have his cheeks? His eyes?

Do we have his heart?

We love, John says, because he first loved us. That's why we do it.

There's no fear in love. “But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears isn't made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God, yet hates a brother or sister is a liar.

For whoever does not love their brother or sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they have not seen. And he's given us this command. Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”

Now I cannot help but imagine, as John is penning those words, he's not flashing back to John 13, to that moment when we had this really awkward dinner where in the middle of it, Jesus takes off his outer garment and he washes our feet. And then he asks us, do we understand?

And of course we don't understand. But then Jesus says these words in John 13, 34 and 35, “A new command. I give you, love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this…”

By this, everyone will know that you're in the family, that you're a part of the family, that you're mine and I am yours. If you love one another. That's how we know. When we're tracing the lineage of our family tree. Jesus says, the most recognizable quality or trait that someone would know. Your mine.

You're in my family. You're a part of us. It's that you just love, just prodigally. The story, the prodigal son.

You know who's prodigal in that story? It's the father. You know what prodigal means? It means reckless. The one who loves with this reckless love, it's the Father.

And John says, you know what, I've learned by reflecting in my life where I was this rude, obnoxious, intolerant, brash, arrogant, goofball that changed me to become the kind of person who, when I think of myself in the way that Jesus treated me, that I just think, oh, yeah, I'm the one that Jesus loved.

Church, that truth is going to be on trial for these next, maybe have been for years, will continue to be. Will we be recognized by our love? Well, Karl, love doesn't mean. It doesn't.

It doesn't mean people get away with stuff. It doesn't mean that people can just do whatever they want. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about is love. Can we love?

Can we speak the truth in love? Right? Can we walk in the way of love, show others what it's like to be a follower of Jesus. Right?

In the early church, again in Acts, chapter four, it's this amazing story of how the people in that community essentially say, I don't know that I believe what they believe. I'm not sure that I can follow who they follow, But I sure am glad they're here. I sure am glad that they're a part of our family. Like, that's my hope, is that not only the Broadway church, but the church overall, that we would be known for our radical, amazing love because he first loved us.

Does that mean we're going to have to have some hard conversations? Absolutely. Are we going to have to be able to stand up and say, absolutely. But see, the defining quality about how we speak, It's love.

We love because he first loved us. God, may that love be what changes us this week, this day, in this moment. God, I know this week this church is going to face some challenges. We're going to have to deal and interact with folks who don't live like us, who don't believe what we believe.

God, would you show us what it's like to love, to walk in the way of love?

God, this week we're going to have some relational opportunities where we're going to be stressed and push to our limit. Would you help us to walk in the way of love?

God, would you do a number on us the way that you did on John, that sometimes, God, I can be so obnoxious. I can say some things that I shouldn't say. I can do some things that I shouldn't do.

Oh, God, would you open my eyes and my ears. That as Tim reminded God, would you lead us back to repentance, to changing our way, that we too would become so overwhelmed by your amazing love for us? That then becomes the defining quality. That's how we introduce ourselves to other people. I'm the disciple that Jesus loves.

We know it's real because if it could change someone like me, it can change anybody. God, would you help us to walk in the way of love this week? Would you give us a chance to just be prodigal in our love?

Lord, we live in a culture and at a time that is really wrestling with what does that mean? What does that look like? God, would you help us to have a voice in that conversation? But maybe a voice that speaks the truth in love?

God, may we live in such a way that your kingdom would come first in us and it would just continue to break through in our families in our schools, in our neighborhoods, in our workplaces, in our communities. That we would see that same kind of transformation happen. That the gift you gave us at the cross, that empty tomb reminds us that you were willing when we were at our worst. God, when we completely and utterly betrayed you, had left you all alone.

That you gave your life for us because you love us. And now you have asked us to do the same. God, would you help us have the courage to follow you in the way of love this week? Thank you for John, thank you for so many who have lived this beautiful example of love in our lives that we're here today because of it. God, would you help us to walk in that way this week?

In Jesus name, amen.