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We are
in that part of Sefer Yochanan, the Book of John,
where Messiah is having his last Passover meal
with His disciples. Messiah continues His final
instructions to His chosen men who will take over
His work. In chapter 15 Yeshua emphasizes our
most important relationships.
Regarding
our relationship to Him, we are to abide in Him.
If we do stay close to Him, by doing those things
that will keep us close - studying the Word of
God, and the Word of God is all about Yeshua;
if we talk to God and Yeshua, and meditate on
Messiah’s life, death, and resurrection, His miracles,
His parables, His teachings like His blessings
which are commonly called “the Beatitudes;” if
we keep His coming Kingdom and the New Jerusalem
before our eyes; if we put into practice the things
He has commanded us to do, then Messiah’s thoughts,
His strength, His Spirit, the Son of God’s divine
energy will flow through us, and we will grow
in godly character, and love. We will understand
that we are here on Earth to serve God, and put
His interests, His priorities, His Kingdom first.
Then we will produce good and lasting results.
Regarding
our relationship with one another, within Messiah’s
Holy Community of Jews and Gentiles, Yeshua has
one supreme demand: This is My commandment,
that you love one another. Love for one another
is not optional. For us, it is a command and needs
to be one of our very highest priorities.
People
in the world are not characterized by love for
one another but indifference, apathy or hostility
toward each other. But we must be characterized
by love for one another.
But what
is love? People today have all kinds of ideas
of what love is, but all too often it is confused
with romantic feelings and sexual behavior, but
love is not based on romantic feelings or sexual
behavior. Romantic feelings may increase or decrease
over time, but love remains. A man may meet a
woman and during their first date ask her: do
you want to make love? But that kind of uncommitted
sexual relationship is not love. Love can be expressed
through sex, but sex is not love.
It is
not love when a man says he loves a woman, but
it is only to get something from her. When you
are taking from the one you claim to love, you
are seducing, not loving. Love is by its nature
giving. Love is always bestowing, imparting, not
selfishly taking.
Some people
confuse love with warm feelings, but warm feelings
alone are not love. Sometimes a parent must discipline
a child, or a wife must disagree with her husband,
or a teacher must correct the student, and there
are no warm feelings, but of course there is still
love.
Messiah
continues: Love one another just as I have
loved you. Greater love has no one than this,
that one lay down his life for his friends. Love
is active. Love is powerful. Love will take the
initiative. Love will take drastic action, if
necessary, to help the one it loves. Love cannot
remain inactive if there is danger to the beloved.
Love will
climb the highest mountain, love will dive to
the bottom of the deepest ocean. Love will come
down from Heaven and hang and bleed and die on
a cross in order to help its loved ones.
In a world
mixed with sin and evil, love must sometimes suffer.
But love will be willing to sacrifice itself for
the sake of the ones it loves. And, this is the
kind of love that the Son of God has for us. He
was willing to give up His comfort, His security,
His place of honor in Heaven, and become mortal,
and limited, and subject to misunderstanding,
and pain and suffering and torture and ultimately,
death on a cross.
Messiah’s
sacrifice of Himself is the supreme demonstration
of His love for us. We are to strive to love each
other in the same way that Yeshua loved us, with
that same kind of powerful, active, taking-the-initiative,
self-sacrificial love.
Love wants
to be friendly, and so Messiah tells us, you
are My friends. Let me ask you a question:
you have a friend or two, don’t you? And, wouldn’t
it be especially nice if you had a very good friend,
who was in a powerful and influential place, who
could help you if necessary? Wouldn’t it be cool
to have the CEO of GM, Ford or Chrysler, or President
of the United States, as your friend?
Now, think
of it - the eternal Son of God, the One who made
the entire universe, the King of kings, the Lord
of lords, the only Savior and Redeemer, and the
Final Judge of humanity, wants to your friend!
But, He has a condition. There is an “if” when
it comes to Him extending His friendship: if
you do what I command you. We can be friends,
if You obey Me, and if you share My good values,
and participate in the great task of world redemption
that God has set before Me. If those are the conditions,
are you still willing to be His friend?
Messiah’s
love for us makes Him friendly, and a friend wants
to tell his as much as possible. No longer
do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know
what his master is doing; but I have called you
friends, for all things that I have heard from
My Father I have made known to you. Love wants
to elevate. Love wants to raise up. Love desires
to help the one it loves to become the best he
can be. The Son of God wants to transform us from
slaves into friends. He wants to turn us from
ignorant slaves, into friends who are informed
about the plans of God, and who then willingly
participate in those plans. Do you?
May I
say that some of us can improve in this area of
being friends. It’s not that we don’t have friends,
but I’m talking about being friends within our
religious community. Some of us go to the synagogue,
and as soon as the service is over we leave, and
think that we have done enough; we have fulfilled
our religious obligations. They don’t stay to
meet new people, to get to know others, to welcome
others, to make some friends here.
My brothers
and sisters, this is not the way we are to conduct
ourselves in Messiah’s Holy Community. We are
to be like Messiah, and strive to be friends with
one another.
To be
friends, you need to stick around, get involved,
do things together, share you mind and thoughts,
like the Messiah did with His disciples. Won’t
you consider reaching out more, making a special
effort to get more involved in the lives of others
here in the synagogue? If you do, others will
be blessed, you will be strengthened, and the
whole synagogue will be built up in love.
Let’s
continue: Messiah’s love for us is based on His
initiative, His choosing of us, not our choosing
of Him: You did not choose Me but I chose you
- I knew you before you knew Me; I was interested
in you before you were interested in Me; My Father
was drawing you to Me before you were ever aware
that you were being drawn to Me. Messiah
took the initiative in our friendship.
I chose
you and appointed you (I placed you in your
position, in your relationship to God and Me),
for a specific purpose - not to make your life
more comfortable or convenient, but that you
would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would
remain. I have chosen you, and put you in
the place you are in, born to the parents you
were born to, part of the family you are in, in
the nation you live in, living in the exact the
time you live, working in the job you are in,
having the friends you have, so that you will
produce good and lasting results. I have chosen
you and provided you with everything you need
to grow in godly character, and love and obedience
and service to God, loving one another, and being
a blessing to humanity. These good results in
time will last through eternity.
And He
has made it possible for these things to characterize
our lives now, so that whatever you ask of
the Father in My name He may give to you. “Stay
close to Me” Messiah tells us, “and love one another,
and you will know My mind, understand My will,
and you will know what God expects of you, and
what is really important, and what you should
pray for, and then God will hear your good prayers
and answer them.”
And again,
because love is so important, Messiah repeats:
this I command you, that you love one another.
Now, King
Messiah addresses our relationship to the world,
and the attitude that the world will have toward
us is not characterized by love - quite the opposite.
If the world hates you (and it will),
you know that it has hated Me before it hated
you. The world will hate you. Expect it. Be
prepared for it. And, understand that the hatred
of the world that is directed toward you has its
origin with its hatred of Me. The world is not
indifferent toward Me; the world actively hates
Me, and this hatred is very old, going back to
the beginning. And, since you are now joined to
Me, the world’s animosity will likewise be directed
toward you.
And you
know what? In one sense that’s a good thing! Because,
if you were of the world - if you were
still part of the fallen, evil, satanic world
system, with its corrupt values, the world
would love its own; but because you are not of
the world, but I chose you out of the world, because
of this the world hates you.
I saw
you headed for death and destruction, and I made
the choice to remove you from this perverse and
dying world, and transfer you into My good and
eternal world. It was My initiative and my choosing.
That’s the kind of good friend that I am. I was
the One who chose to begin transforming you from
within, giving you My Spirit and My values and
My knowledge, which are very different from the
world’s. But, because of that, you will be detested.
Remember
the word that I said to you, earlier this
evening, 'A slave is not greater than his master.'
The master is greater than the slave, and
if they persecuted Me, which they have,
they will also persecute you; the world has
shown its contempt for Me, the righteous Messiah,
the Holy Son of God, full of wisdom and grace
and truth, One who only did good and never sinned.
If they treated Me this way, with hatred, contempt,
opposition, persecution, then obviously they will
treat you the same way or worse; if they kept
My word - which they haven’t, they will
keep yours also - which they won’t. So, how
people understand Me and relate to Me is the way
they will understand and relate to you. The way
the world relates to you will reveal their true
spiritual condition, and where they really are
in relationship with God.
But
all these things - misunderstanding you, making
fun of you, not paying attention to the truth
that you tell them, mistreating you, they will
do to you for My name's sake - because of
Me, and who I am, and because you are joined to
Me, and share My values and understand the truth
I have told you, and because they do not know
the One who sent Me.
The sad
reality of the situation is that the world, even
if they are religious, since most of mankind is
deeply religious - including the Jewish world,
the Hindu and Buddhist world, the Moslem world,
with all their prayers and religious ceremonies
and rituals, don’t know the one true and living
God, who is Yeshua’s Father, the One who sent
Him to save them and bless them and restore them
to God and life. They don’t know God, they don’t
know Messiah, and so they certainly won’t know
or value or appreciate us; in fact we can expect
quite the opposite!
If
I had not come and spoken to them, they would
not have sin - I don’t mean that they would
be sinless - far from it! But they would not be
guilty in the sense of not understanding that
I am the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the
world, and rejecting Me. But I have come to Israel
and I have spoken to them the very words of God.
I am have made it abundantly clear who I am, by
coming from Heaven to Earth, becoming a human
being from the royal line of King David, proclaiming,
declaring, teaching them unambiguously who I am.
But now they have no excuse for their sin.
They have
sufficient knowledge and are fully responsible
for their rejection of Me. And, he who hates
Me hates My Father also. Don’t tell Me that
you love God but dislike Me! We share the same
Name and Spirit, character and essence. I am just
like Him. I am the exact representation of the
Father’s nature. I do and say everything at His
express command. He who hates Me hates My Father
also.
And, it’s
not just Yeshua’s teaching about Himself that
makes human beings guilty and without excuse:
He says, “If I had not done among them the
works which no one else did, they would not have
sin;”
I have
done unparalleled miracles in Israel. I have miraculously
healed so many of the sick, including people born
blind from birth, and people who were paralyzed.
God has used Me to heal lepers, and cast out demons,
and raise people back to life who have died. I’ve
feed thousands from a few loaves of bread and
a few fish. I’ve walked on water, calmed the winds
and waves and storms. Most of Israel’s prophets
didn’t do anything like these things, and these
miracles should clearly tell you that I am close
to God, sent from God, the Messiah and the holy
Son of God. But you have ignored the clear implication
of My miracles, and that doubles your guilt!
But
now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father
as well. Forget all your excuses. Your hatred
of Me has been done with sufficient knowledge,
and you are fully responsible. And, your hatred
of Me really means that you hate My Father, the
living God.
And, this
irrational hatred shouldn’t come as a complete
surprise: But they have done this to fulfill
the word that is written in their Law, ' They
hated Me without a cause' (see Psalm 35:14
and Psalm 69).
That means
that the Book of Psalms is Torah. Even though
in a strict sense, only the first five books of
Moses are the Torah, in another sense, the entire
Bible, including the Prophets, the Writings and
the New Testament Scriptures, are also Torah -
God's divinely inspired Teaching.
If many
of the righteous, including the Psalmist who wrote
Psalm 69, and King David who wrote Psalm 35, who
was one of the best human beings who ever lived,
one of Israel’s greatest kings, and a man after
God’s own heart; if David was hated by the majority
of Israel, who rejected him when they followed
Avshalom in his rebellion - then Yeshua was hated
even more so, and also for no good reason. There
is absolutely no reason for Israel to have hated
Him 2,000 years ago, or continue to despise Him
to this day. He only spoke the truth. He only
went about doing good to people. Our hatred is
totally irrational.
Now my
friends, in spite of these crystal clear words
of the Adon Olam, the Master of the universe,
and in spite of His many miracles, including His
resurrection from the dead, and the incredible
impact He has had on the world for 2,000 years,
more than any other human being, there are people
today, even some who are considered Messianic
Jewish leaders, who are teaching that a Jewish
person can be saved apart from confessing their
belief, their personal faith and trust in Yeshua!
Yes, we
will face the hatred of the world. It can’t be
avoided my friends. It is to be expected. It is
part of what it means to be a disciple of the
Master. But the good news is that greater is He
who has been given to live within us, than the
whole world!
When
the Helper comes - My Spirit, who is also
the Spirit of My Father, and the Helper is a Person,
with mind and will and emotion, He will help you
when you are persecuted, and comfort you and strengthen
you in your trials, and empower you during your
difficulties, and enable you to endure, whom
I will send to you from the Father - I will
send Him because I have authority over My Holy
Spirit, who is also the Spirit of God, that
is the Spirit of truth - the true Spirit of
God, the Spirit who teaches and promotes only
the truth, so that you will continue to learn
the things that are pleasing to God, who proceeds
from the Father -
So, here
we have the Trinity at work - the Son of God sends
the Spirit, who proceeds from God the Father,
and He - the Holy Spirit - will testify
about Me - He will keep pointing you to Me,
and tell you about Me, and who I am Messiah, the
Savior and Redeemer, and what I offer you - salvation,
redemption, being accepted and connected to God.
He will keep redirecting your minds to My importance
and centrality. He will do this directly, as He
works on your minds and hearts. He will do this
as you read the Word of God. The Holy Spirit will
help you see Me in the Holy Scriptures.
And
you will testify also, because you have been with
Me from the beginning. You will testify about
Me, despite the defiance and hostility of the
world. The world will not be able to stop you
from speaking and testifying to the truth about
Me, and fulfilling the task of world evangelism
that I have appointed you to. You can be strong
and bold and courageous, and more powerful than
the world.
These
things - these warning about the difficulties
you will face, but also the blessings and grace
you will receive to enable you to be more than
conquerors, these things I have spoken to you
so that you may be kept from stumbling. If
you really pay attention to what I am telling
you, and believe them, and put them into practice,
you won’t stumble. They will keep you from failure.
They
will make you outcasts from the synagogue
- which has happened in the Jewish community since
the First Century, even as Messiah warned, and
lasts until today, but this rejection from our
former religious communities has happened to many
other nations and peoples where the Good News
about the Messiah has spread, but an hour is
coming for everyone who kills you to think that
he is offering service to God. This has happened
from time to time. In the First Century, some
Messianic Jews were persecuted and killed. In
many places where Catholicism has dominated, the
true Christians were persecuted, arrested, sometimes
tortured and killed, and this was done by religious
people in the name of God, deceived people thinking
that they were actually serving God!
How can
this be? It’s simple: These things they will
do because they have not known the Father or Me.
Let’s
pray: Holy Father, help us to truly know You,
and to truly know the Messiah.
Thank
you for Your love, and Messiah’s love, which elevates
us from slaves to friends! May we meet your righteous
requirements to truly be Your friend!
Lord God,
so work in us, and redirect us if necessary, that
we would bear much fruit, lasting results.
Help us
to expect, and be worthy of, the hatred of the
world, because that means that we are truly joined
to Messiah. And thank You that we can endure it
with the help of Your Spirit.
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