99 John 13:34-35 A NEW COMMANDMENT Introduction: In this text Jesus tells His disciples that He is giving them a new commandment. Let us keep in mind that He and His disciples are at the city of Jerusalem. They had met together to eat the Passover Supper. Before eating the supper Jesus washed the feet of His disciples. Then they ate the Passover meal. Judas Iscariot had left during the Passover meal to go to the Jewish leaders and betray Jesus into their hands. Jesus then informed the other disciples that He would remain with them only a short while. Presumably Jesus has instituted the Lord's Supper prior to this text. Since John did not record the institution of the Lord's Supper we cannot be certain about the time element with relation to the text. But we do know that the Lord's Supper was instituted after the Passover meal and after Judas Iscariot left to betray Jesus. Within a few hours Jesus would be arrested by the Jews and carried into Jerusalem to stand trial and to be crucified. Jesus knew that He would soon be crucified. It stands to reason that under these circumstances He would speak to them only of matters which He considered to be of the utmost importance. He would give to them His most important advice. HE does so in this text. I. An announcement of the new commandment V. 34, "A new commandment I give unto you..." This commandment is going to be new in contrast to the Old Testament commandments which were given under the Law of Moses. It would be new in contrast to the Ten Commandments which do not specifically mention "love." It would be new in contrast to the many other commandments which were given through Moses in connection with the Ten Commandments. It would also be new in contrast to the other commandments which Jesus had already given to His disciples during the three years He had spent with them. The first commandment which Jesus had given to His disciples was, "Follow me." "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." In His first sermon which He delivered to His newly formed church, He said, "Let your light shine." More fully, He said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Within the three years of His ministry Jesus had given them many commandments. But now, in those closing hours before His crucifixion and before His ascension He gives them a new and very important commandment. II. What the new commandment was (V. 34), "...That ye love one another..." Now this at first does not sound new at all. The Ten Commandments did not use the word, love, but they were based on love and indirectly they commanded love --- love for God and love for one's fellow man. See Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18. Jesus summarized all of the law and the prophets with the two commandments of Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18. But Jesus was giving a new commandment for Christians and especially for church members to love one another. The old Commandment was given to Israel, but the new commandment was given to a New Testament church. The Old Commandment stressed love for all men. One was to love his neighbor whether he was Jew or Gentile. But this new commandment stresses love for one's fellow Christians. They were still to love all men as is shown by the old Mosiac Law. But the Christian is to have an especially strong love for his fellow Christians as commanded by Jesus. The Apostle Paul stressed the importance of this love in Galatians 6:10. III. The need for this new commandment This new commandment was needed because those diciples were about to go through the most terrible ordeal that they had ever experienced. Jesus, whom they loved and on whom they had depended for leadership, would be arrested, beaten, brought to trial and crucified. His body would lie in the grave for three days and nights. After His resurrection Jesus would soon ascend to heaven and leave them alone in a hostile world. They would need all of the support from one another that they could get. The Jewish authorities who had brought about the crucifixion of Jesus would soon seek to kill them. Stephen would soon be stoned to death. Simon Peter and the Apostle John would be imprisoned and threatened. They would need all the love and support that they could get from one another. In addition to this, they needed this commandment because of their own human weaknesses. They had already been in an argument about who would get top position in the kingdom when Jesus would rule on the throne. Someone in the group had apparently wronged Simon Peter, or at least Peter thought that he had. Peter had asked Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother. He wondered if he should forgive him seven times. Jesus answered that he should forgive hime seventy times seven. If Peter would learn to love as Jesus here instructed him to love, he would learn to forgive seventy times seven. He would learn to forgive without limit. IV. The kind of love Jesus instructed them to have (V. 34), "...as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." They did not really know at that time just how much Jesus loved them. However, they would soon know that Jesus loved them enough to die for them. That is how much Jesus wanted them to love one another. If Jesus had given this commandment back when they were arguing about the top position in the kingdom they would have thought this kind of love is impossible for them. If He had given this commandment while Peter was angry at the brother who wronged him he would have thought it impossible. But there was help available to them which would enable them to grow in love for one another. They were saved and they had the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. The Holy Spirit would help them to grow in love for one another. As they would submit their lives to the Lord's will they would grow in grace and would increase in their love one for another. They would be easier to get along with. They would learn to be less offensive in their words and deeds. They would learn to forgive one another. They would learn to pray for one another and to help one another. Their love for one another would become so strong that they would be recognized as followers of Jesus by the love which they had for one another. V. 35, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another." V. The kind of love which Christians should have for one another today Ia not this the kind of love chich we, as Christians, should have for one another? Is not this the kind of love that all church members should have for one another? Heaven knows that we need the prayers of one another. We, too, live in a hostile world which hates Christ, which hates Bible truth and which hates Christians. We, too, need to be united in love. We do not need to be divided over petty things. We do need to stand for Bible truth, but we do not need to be divided over petty issues. We do not need to be easy to get our feelings ruffled. When they do get rruffled, we need to be ready to forgive. Then when we do wrong someone else, we need to be quick to apologize. We, too, live in frail bodies, which cause us to need the love, help and prayers of one another. We are all subject to accidents and illness. If you are physically heaaltthy and strong, thank God. But you should also be aware that your time for physical affiction is coming. We all need the prayers, love and help of one another. We all have the help of God available to us to enable us to love one another as Jesus commanded. What we need to do is to yield ourselves to HIs will. Conclusion: If you are unsaved your greatest need is to repent of your sins and trust Jesus Christ to save your soul. You need to do that now without further delay. If you are saved, but you need to grow in Christian love, then ask God now to help. Do it now. If you are holding grudges then I am going to ask you to forgive. Do it now. If you are saved and in need of church home and are willing to join up with folks who have the same love for Jesus that you have and with folks who have faults somewhat like you do, then come now and join this church.