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Meditation, Part 7 of 7
"Meditations on Right Behavior"
September 13, 2020
Love others sacrificially as a means of pointing the world toward God.
Pray - ask God for guidance
Study - choose a passage and seek to understand it
Meditate - remove distractions and get quiet
Create - journal, draw, dance, etc.
What is the Bible?
The Gospels tell the story
The Old Testament provides context
The Epistles provide application
John 13:34-35
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Jesus knew his time on earth was short
1-17 - Jesus washes the disciples' feet
18-30 - Jesus predicts his betrayal, Judas departs
He showed his disciples how to serve
He explained that He was leaving soon
31-32 When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
33 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
He told them their defining characteristic would be love
How to Love Like Jesus:
Concern yourself with the needs of the unprivileged
first occurrence in John
Give sacrificially
the standard
sacrificially
Be a conduit
foremost evidence
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Be different
love the same people Jesus loved
Love is our defining characteristic
Jesus's love is the standard
We are the delivery method
You have a unique set of people to love
Matthew 5:13-16
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Near the beginning of His first recorded sermon
Matthew 5-7
Sermon on the Mount
Audience: large crowds of unprivileged (4:23-25)
To a group of people who have struggles
He starts off by explaining the characteristics of those who have recognized their sinfulness (5:3-10)
He explains that life isn't going to get any easier following Him
5:11-12 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
He promises persecution
preservative, flavor, commodity
impure salt of the day
show the path, uncover that which is hidden
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
God's glory, not ours
We are the preservative and flavor of the world
We illuminate the path to God through our actions
Are we giving God the glory?
Luke 9:23
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
Jesus is speaking to His disciples
Luke 9
1-9 - Jesus sends out the disciples
10-17 - Jesus feeds the 5,000
He has already performed a miracle and received their confession of His identity
18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”
19 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”
20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”
21-22 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
23-26 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
27 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”
He predicts His death and immediately speaks of discipleship
Self-denial
Less worldly gain
More pride in Jesus and the Word of God
24-26 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
Even if it costs us everything
After predicting His death
or "come after me"
or disown
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
common for those being crucified
Following Jesus means being less concerned with worldly gain
We are to replace worldly habits with eternal habits
We need to refresh out habits daily