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In case you missed it, Church..
“that you also love one another!

This is the NEW COMMANDMENT of Jesus.

The Lord Jesus does NOT instruct followers to ‘love the world’ (as God so loved-the world…), but HIS first NEW commandment is to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Jesus asks the Apostles who have been together for three years as a church, iterate followers in community with and taught by the Lord Jesus, to love one another.

We know from story after story how competitive His Disciples are, but now that Jesus will return to the Father His command is that they MUST love each other.

Church

Previously we examined the possibility of who Jesus commanded in:
1. In case you missed it, friend.. and
2. In case you missed it, disciple.. and
3. now I pose Jesus’ command to the church.
NO, the building is NOT the Church.

From an earlier post: Amos – For those who turn justice into wormwood

We may also point ahead to more obvious application of his warning to the church of these last days.

Have you ever really met the ‘christians’ who come to your church?

It’s really difficult in this impersonal 21st century #social environment!

Our relationship to others of the Church pales by comparison to the close personal relationships of the Apostles to each other or even that of the saints of the first century church. Yet have we, the church’ possibly missed a relational community commanded by the Lord Jesus?

Let’s first look to a definition of church and scriptural application.

Church – ἐκκλησία

It’s pronounced Greek: ek-klā-sē’-ä (Key )

Vine’s Expository Dictionary: View Entry Assembly:

from ek, “out of,” and klesis, “a calling” (kaleo, “to call”), was used among the Greeks of a body of citizens “gathered” to discuss the affairs of State, Act 19:39. In the Sept. it is used to designate the “gathering” of Israel, summoned for any definite purpose, or a “gathering” regarded as representative of the whole nation. In Act 7:38 it is used of Israel; in 19:32, 41, of a riotous mob. It has two applications to companies of Christians,
(a) to the whole company of the redeemed throughout the present era, the company of which Christ said, “I will build My Church,” Mat 16:18, and which is further described as “the Church which is His Body,” Eph 1:22; 5:23,

(b) in the singular number (e.g., Mat 18:17, RV marg., “congregation”), to a company consisting of professed believers, e.g., Act 20:28; 1Cr 1:2; Gal 1:13; 1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:1; 1Ti 3:5, and in the plural, with reference to churches in a district.

Since “It has two applications to companies of Christians, it’s worth restating from this definition of church:
- (a) to the whole company of the redeemed throughout the present era, the company of which Christ said, “I will build My Church,” Mat 16:18, and which is further described as “the Church which is His Body,” Eph 1:22; 5:23,
- (b) in the singular number (e.g., Mat 18:17, RV marg., “congregation“), to a company consisting of professed believers, e.g., Act 20:28; 1Cr 1:2; Gal 1:13; 1Th 1:1; 2Th 1:1; 1Ti 3:5
Church briefly defined then is:
- ALL of the CHURCH, every true follower of Jesus, Master and Teacher of the Church.
- EACH true believer joined to the CHURCH personally, relationally, locally and beyond all measure of both distance and time.
This is the Church which the Lord Jesus commands by saying, “Love one another, as I have loved you.”

We are called to Him, therefore we are called into relationship with Jesus AND His church.

And we are called out – to take His love, visible to seekers of the Lord in His Body the Church, the Personal Love of Jesus in the Holy Spirit by which He builds us into His eternal love.

A New Commandment

John’s Gospel builds the case of Jesus’ Authority, questioned by the Jews to whom He was sent.

Before addressing Jesus’ New Commandment given to the Disciples just after the last supper, take a brief look at His explanation about His obedience to God the Father.

A Chain of Command from the Father

John 10 & 12:

“I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me…
… they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.
… the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again…
I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
excerpt John 10 NASB

And Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me.
John 12:44-45 NASB

49 “For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.

50 “I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.”

John’s Gospel has already set the scene for Jesus’ New Commandment. Let the church hear what our Master and Teacher Christ Jesus says to the church.

John 13:

“I give you a new command:
Love one another. Just as I have loved you,
you are also to love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34 CSB

Beloved believer, does everyone know that Christ Jesus is your Teacher and friend? Does the world see your Lord and Savior by your love for one another of His Church?

Are you truly, my fellow saint, a disciple of Jesus?

Do you and Christ’s Church love one another? (And remember, they know us by our love of one another or deny Christ by our lack of love for each other).

The Comfort of Christ’s Authority

John 14:

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.

6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me…

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
John 14:15 NASB

The Spirit of Obedience

Witness by the Holy Spirit of the LORD

Recall that John’s Good News of Jesus Christ, the Apostle’s Gospel of witness begins before time:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

The Apostle John was first a young disciple of John the Baptist, known to many as a Prophet of God. John witnesses:

32 John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’
34 I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
John 1:

John also opens his Gospel testifying to the Authority of Jesus through the same Holy Spirit of the Lord God.

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
John 3:5-6

34 For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure.

35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Do you hear the Spirit of Truth?

“… but he who does not obey the Son will not see life!…

Do you, beloved disciple of the risen Lord Jesus recall this?

Do we, HIS CHURCH, have ears to hear Christ’s commandment to the Church – “Love one another, as I have loved you:” is this not for us?

John 15:

αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ ἐντολὴ ἡ ἐμή ἵνα ἀγαπᾶτε ἀλλήλους καθὼς ἠγάπησα ὑμᾶς
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answer in a minute in case you don't read Greek
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4 Live in me, and I will live in you…

6 Whoever doesn’t live in me is thrown away… and dries up… gathered, thrown into a fire, and burned.

Could this apply to some of a luke-warm church?
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The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John
3:16 ‘So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.
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9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

If you obey my commandments, you will live in my love. I have obeyed my Father’s commandments, and in that way I live in his love.
The Master & Teacher, Jesus – John 15:10 GW

… be as joyful as I am, and your joy will be complete.
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Answer below to English translation of the Greek above.
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“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
John 15:12

A Commandment from the Cornerstone

Verily, verily, you may know is a Hebrew tool of emphasis by saying something twice, here meaning truly, truly. The youngest of Jesus’ Jewish Apostles now emphasizes the strong personal relationship of our Lord’s NEW COMMANDMENT a third time.

Here was John recalling this most important time preceding Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Do you recall the intimicy of this setting in the upper room?

John 13:

So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?

“You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am…

“Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.
John 13:16 NASB

There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved… He, leaning back thus on Jesus’ bosom, said to Him, “Lord, who is it?”

This is the Apostle John, youngest of the Lord’s young Disciples, laying at Jesus’ breast as they all reclined at table. Consider what John means to have recalled Jesus’ emphasis on a New Commandment to love one another.

THE KING OF THE JEWS is about to become the SACRIFICE for sin on a Cross in Jerusalem!

Prophesy of Isaiah

Therefore, hear the word of the LORD, O scoffers,
Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem…

28:16 לָכֵ֗ן כֹּ֤ה אָמַר֙ אֲדֹנָ֣י יְהוִ֔ה הִנְנִ֛י יִסַּ֥ד בְּצִיֹּ֖ון אָ֑בֶן אֶ֣בֶן בֹּ֜חַן פִּנַּ֤ת יִקְרַת֙ מוּסָ֣ד מוּסָּ֔ד הַֽמַּאֲמִ֖ין לֹ֥א יָחִֽישׁ׃

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone,
A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed.
He who believes in it will not be disturbed.

And Jesus said of the church:

… upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Jesus, of Simon Son of John, who the Lord then called ‘Peter’ or ‘the rock’ – Matthew 16:18b

In the intimacy of an upper room meal with the Lord Jesus, who had washed the Disciples feet, it was Simon Peter who motioned to John to ask Jesus who His betrayer would be. Judas departs then the Lord COMMANDS three times that they must LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

This is My Command

12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you.

13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.

14 You are my friends if you do what I command you…

Are you, beloved, a friend of the Lord Jesus? And do you, fellow disciple, love one another – His Church?

“This is what I command you: Love one another.
“If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you.
Comman and encouragement of the Lord Jesus – John 15:17-18 CW

‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John (numerous times)
April 29, 2020
Unless the Father draws you – Bread from Heaven
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life…
John 6:35a

A group of hopeful Jews has begun following this Son of Man from place to place looking for signs that He IS the Messiah of the One God. Now we turn to a sign Jesus shows to five thousand followers in a remote place where He provides bread and fish from the lunch packed for one young man.

Miracles & Signs by Jesus
- The Lord once again makes clear His purpose in Jerusalem.
John 5:

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. – John 5:39-40

What Scriptures? The Jewish Scriptures, of course. And the proofs religious leaders demand will undermine their own earthly authority if Jesus produces such convincing miracles.

Yet like the Prophets the Jews recognized, including John the Baptist, Jesus also points to our natural disobedience of God from these same scriptures.

45 “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope.

Once again Jesus offers us a choice between obedience and turning away from God, not between signs or disbelief.

46 “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

Exodus 16:

2 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה הִנְנִ֨י מַמְטִ֥יר לָכֶ֛ם לֶ֖חֶם מִן־הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם וְיָצָ֨א הָעָ֤ם וְלָֽקְטוּ֙ דְּבַר־יֹ֣ום בְּיֹומֹ֔ו לְמַ֧עַן אֲנַסֶּ֛נּוּ הֲיֵלֵ֥ךְ בְּתֹורָתִ֖י אִם־לֹֽא׃
Exodus 16:4 WLC

4 Then said the LORD unto Moses,

Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no.

Note the significance of the sign of the bread:

Genesis

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. – Genesis 3:19 KJV on consequence of man’s sin of disobedience to the Lord God

And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. – Genesis 14:18 KJV

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”
Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
Matthew 26:24-26 NKJV

Communion – Bread from Heaven

The Apostles will later understand a communion with Jesus witnessed after they depart from Jerusalem with Jesus a second time.

A mountainside overlooking the Sea of Tiberias, Galilee
- John 6: 2 A huge crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was performing by healing the sick. 3 Jesus went up a mountain and sat down there with his disciples.
The men numbered about five thousand. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks he distributed them to those who were seated.

14 When the people saw the sign [the feeding of 5000 with five loaves of barley bread and two fish] he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”
John 6:14 CSB

How would we follow the Messiah?

15 When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king…

These disciples of the big crowd of ‘believers’ were no different from us. We prefer to lead the Lord, to have Him follow us our way. Jesus perceives how some would make Him an earthly King of the Jews. (Even the Apostle Judas had hoped for this.)

The Lord walks away from the crowds and the next day miraculously reappears on the other side of the Sea of Galilee.

Capernaum, Galilee on an opposite shore of the Sea
- John 6: 23 Some boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
26 Jesus answered [those who crossed the sea and found Him in Capernaum],

“Truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled…

“This is the work of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.”

30 Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’

We have already rejected the signs

Then Jesus said to them,
“Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven,
but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
John 6:32-33 NKJV

It’s nearly the Gospel of John 3:16 restated, but here Jesus clearly states that some of the Jews have rejected the Messiah just as most of the world will reject eternal life.

And Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life.
He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
John 6:35 NKJV

“… 54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day…

57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.”

Bread from Heaven – מָן

When we encounter the miracles of God, when our eyes open to see the Son of God come down from heaven we still ask, “What is it?“

58 “This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead.

He who eats this bread will live forever.”

59 These things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.

60 Therefore many of His disciples… [followers, that is, in addition to some of the Apostles] questioned Jesus and many later turned away.]

More signs to the Apostles

Some of the Apostles witnessed signs privately away from the crowds. One of these had already taken place between His sign of the bread to the five thousand and preaching about it in the synagogue at Capernaum.

On the Sea of Galilee

Lake Tiberias – Rome’s name for Kinneret [Sea of Galilee]
- … Darkness had already set in, but Jesus had not yet come to them. 18 A high wind arose, and the sea began to churn. 19 After they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea. He was coming near the boat, and they were afraid.
Do you fear the Living God?

Do you honor the Son?

20 But he said to them, “It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

What next?

Jesus concludes this current teaching about the Father sending the One Son by asking the Apostles about the Spirit of God.

What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing.
The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
John 6:62-63 NKJV

They will see the ascension of the Son of Man, risen from Sacrifice of crucifixion and death!

The Apostles, some who had witnessed the Voice of the Father and the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus, will receive the Spirit. They witness Jesus’ words of life.

Will you with ears to hear and a heart open to receiving the life of the Spirit receive the Word – the truth and the life of Jesus?

For He IS the bread which came down from heaven to satisfy forgiveness of our sins and fill us with the Good News of eternal life.
January 7, 2020
Unless the Father draws you – Signs
Signs from God the Father

Perhaps as one of the multitude hearing the preaching of Jesus you may have missed His relational claim to God as His Father. Even now as one seeing signs on a mountainside and your amazement by the Lord’s miracles, your ears failed to hear His mention of the Father.

And like those in the crowds who followed Jesus for a time, but later left Him when their path to Heaven became steep and dangerous, you may have asked yourself a question like this:

Why would I follow Jesus or worship Him instead of God?

שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהוָ֥ה אֶחָֽד׃
Deuteronomy 6:4 Masoretic Text

“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Deuteronomy 6:5

Previously I asked you to “Follow Me” & support my Christian Social Witness by subscribing to new posts. Most will not.

Why? Same reason that the multitudes did NOT follow Jesus. The Lord asks us to submit to His will in place of our own.

Today we will show some signs of Jesus and address reactions of those who claimed to believe in God while selfishly opposing to follow the Messiah of Israel.

Miracles & Signs by Jesus

The Apostle John outlines several signs and proofs of the Good News that Jesus IS the Son of the Living God. That is to say, Jesus proves to witnesses that God IS His Father and He IS God’s only Son!

Before hearing (or reading) Jesus’ words about the Father, let’s briefly look at John’s list of proofs witnessed by many in several places.

Cana, Galilee
- John 2:7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the waterpots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, “Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast.” And they took it. 9 When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom…
Jerusalem, Judea
- John 2: First Passover—Cleansing the Temple
  - 18 The Jews then said to Him, “What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?”
  - 19 Jesus answered them,
  - “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
  - But He was speaking of the temple of His body.
- John 2:23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.
Galilee, along road through Samaria from Jerusalem
- There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to him and pleaded with him to come down and heal his son, since he was about to die.
Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
John 4:48 CSB

Do you and I tend to require more proof from God?

(I know sometimes my faith falters.)

Jesus provides proof of a miracle here even though the Lord lamented that we so often require signs.

49 “Sir,” the official said to him, “come down before my boy dies.”

50 “Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.”

A pool by the Sheep Market gate, Jerusalem, Judea
- John 5: (Most likely during a second Passover) The Healing at Bethesda
3 Within these [five porches] lay a large number of the disabled—blind, lame, and paralyzed.

5 One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?”

⁸“Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk.

Now that day was the Sabbath…

Son’s Signs through the Father

“Truly I tell you, the Son is not able to do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing… And just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom he wants.
John 5:19b,21 CSB

28 Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of condemnation.
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To be continued... 
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January 6, 2020