1. New Year's Resolutions are a means to resolve change in our lives
* Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man. Benjamin Franklin
* "Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." ¯ Carl Bard
* "We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives...not looking for flaws, but for potential." - Ellen Goodman
* "Now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people. So overweight people are now average. Which means you've met your New Year's resolution." -- Jay Leno
2. Change seems difficult or even impossible yet it can happen. The presence of Jesus changed people:
* Peter -- Instability to Consistency
* John -- Son of Thunder to Apostle of Love
* Paralytic -- From Sickness to Wholeness
* Zacchaeus -- selfish to selfless
* Demoniac -- Bondage to Freedom
* Sinful Woman -- From Sin to Salvation
3. When people are with Jesus, they stand out
* Apostles -- they had been with Jesus
* One of the marks -- John 13.34-35
4. Church Conflict
Chuck Colson in his book; THE BODY, tells of an incident at the former Emmanuel Baptist Church outside of Boston Ma. The headline read: It was the Right Hook that Got Him. In what could be called a power struggle between the minister and the deacon board turned out to be a disaster from which the church could not recover.
For weeks the deacons had been in conflict with the minister, and it was very evident by the seating in the small congregation. Those who sided with the minister sat on the right side of the church while those who sided with the deacons sat on the left. Realizing this division could not continue, Head Deacon, Frank Fowler went to the pulpit to make an announcement. He smoothed out his paper and began to read; This is to announce a special congregational assembly to discuss pastor Don Waite...
Suddenly, he could not be heard. Florence Waite, the pastor's wife began playing the piano very loudly, the organist chimed in and Pastor Waite began singing at the top of his voice as some of the congregation joined him.
Before they could begin the second verse, Frank unplugged power cord from the organ and another deacon Brain Maguire closed the lid on the piano. Witnesses said there was an eerie silence that seemed to last for minutes. Then deacon Ray Bryson moved toward the Pastor, both men starred at each other in awkward silence, finally Ray returned to his seat, and that is when the trouble really began.
His foot became tangled in a Mic cord and he tripped, falling to the ground someone yelled Pastor pushed him down. Ray also believed he had been pushed and so he got up and hit the pastor in the nose, the pastor's lapel Mic recorded the impact with a loud SMACK!
Flora Waite, the pastor's wife let out a loud scream and several of the members rushed the stage to restrain bother Ray and Pastor Waite. But tempers flared and soon there was much pushing and shoving by several people.
The fight ended when the police arrived to restore order, they took down names for their report and suggested some of the men seek medical attention, in particular Ray Bryson who had a broken hand and Pastor Waite, who lost two front teeth.
The following Wednesday the deacons, Pastor Waite and witnesses were summoned to court, both sides shared the gory details. Neither party would accept blame or responsibility.
Finally the judge issued his ruling. No charges will be pressed at this point, but I urge you to work this out within your own church. Your Jesus Christ may allow this sort of thing in his follower's church, but the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will not permit fist fights as a regular order of a church service.
The leadership of Emmanuel Baptist Church filed quietly out to their cars and drove off in different directions. On the back of each car was a bumper stick declaring, "God is with us at Emmanuel Baptist Church"
In the months to come the church would experience a split, the minister would resign and eventually because the of the publicity, the church closed its doors permanently.
This bizarre incident though real, thankfully is not typical in our churches. We often do not take swings at one another physically. However stories like what happened at Emmanuel Baptist Church and other churches where infighting takes place lead people to make two conclusions regarding why people avoid attending church;
* All Christians are hypocrites
* Christians are always fighting against one another
Is it possible we have forgotten the words of our Savior?
"A new command I give you: Love one another. . . ." John 13:34-35
I. The Expectation of Love -- Always
A. God is Always a God of Love
B. God Expects Love in Return for His Love
1. To Him -- Deuteronomy 6.4-9
2. To Others -- Leviticus 19.8 (Love Neighbor as yourself)
II. The Elevation of Love -- Love as Jesus Loves
A. A New Commandment Based on a New Standard
1. Context of Washing the Disciples' Feet at Last Supper
2. Context of Predicting the Betrayer
3. Context of Predicting the Denials
4. Love Anyway
5. There is wiggle room in Leviticus 19.8; not so with Jesus -- WWJD?
B. A New Commandment Based on New Service
1. Not only humble foot washing
2. Also Humbled sacrifice at the cross
3. In John 15 Jesus gives the supreme example of how to love for one another.
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.
III. The Exposure of Love -- It Reveals: My Disciples
A. Exposes a New Life in Jesus -- without it, no new life
1 John 4:7, 8: 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
B. Exposes a New Identity for People in Jesus (v. 35)
1. The church may have rousing worship, sound teaching, excellent programs, dynamic ministries and great facilities, but that will not persuade unbelievers unless believers love each other and them.
2. Francis Shaffer writes, "The church is to be a loving church in a dying culture. It's not about the show; it's about authentic affection for others."
3. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
C. Exposes the Need for Self-Examination
1. How do you love your brothers and sisters in Christ? Surface or deeper?
Is it a love that is based on likes and dislikes, on what you have in common with others, a love that is based on economic and status maybe it is something that you express on Sunday morning
2. Are you willing to forgive and apologize to others? Or, do you hold grudges?
1 John 4:11, Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
3. Are you willing to go the extra mile for others?
It was the closing night of a summer VBS. The teacher of one of the classes had missed one night and hadn't encountered a boy who had come that night, but who was there that Friday. He only had one hand. It shook her a little... and she began to be afraid that the others might make fun of him. In fact, she was so distracted by this that when time came for the closing program she mechanically led the children onto the stage and told them "Now, let's all build our churches. Put your hands together now, here is the church, here is the steeple . . . ."
Then suddenly, she was aware that she had done. The little boy couldn't build a "church" because he had only one hand.
After a moment of awkward silence, the little girl seated next to the boy with one hand held her hand up to his and said, "Here, let's build the church together."
1. D.A. Carson writes "The new command is simple enough for a toddler to memorize and profound enough that the most mature believers are repeatedly embarrassed at how poorly they comprehend it and put it into practice."
2. Too True -- how will you meet the New Year and display the love of Jesus to others?
