Will You Really Lay Down Your Life For Me?
John 13:34-38 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.” Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Then Jesus answered, “Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!
Jesus gives the most precious of commands in this conversation with Peter. Without question Jesus had taught them to love the Father with all their heart, mind, soul and strength. Now he is calling them higher. The call to love a perfect God seems simple and almost mindless in comparison to loving another man. So frequently are men lustful, selfish, angry, arrogant, rude and unloving and yet Jesus says to love them “As I have loved you”-IMPOSSIBLE, we cry! Do you know what he/she is like? Do you realize what you are asking me? Love God yes, but another human- that’s ludicrous! No- that’s Jesus. Soon after this Peter realizes that not only will he struggle and fail in loving our perfect Savior, he will utterly fail in loving the brothers. Within a few days Jesus asks him “do you love me”-then “feed my sheep”. (John 21:17) Now we can see how 1 John 4:20-21 starts to make sense: If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. The call to love one another is Jesus’ way of finding out who really wants to be his disciple. Examine your heart for God and ask yourself, “Will you really lay down your life for me?” There are three very specific questions to consider in order to answer the question Jesus poses to each of us- are we willing to-?…
1. Love as I have loved you John 13:34 The heart and commitment to lay down your life for other men is the epitome of discipleship. John 15:9-17 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other. Our relationships in the body of Christ serve to decipher where we really stand with God. If a man or woman is struggling with loving another disciple (for whatever reason) they are truly struggling with whether or not they want to be a disciple of Jesus. A sold-out heart does not give in to fear in relationships because once one has given up everything there is nothing to lose. (1 John 4:18) A disciple who pulls back from others has given in to fear of hurt, disappointment or just plain selfishness. Remember that the “cowardly-their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur”. Why so harsh a sentence? Because Jesus set the perfect example and laid down his life for us and says, “Follow me”. There is no alternative and no other way. Disciples are to be like Jesus or cannot claim his name. Therefore we must love as Jesus did.
How do we love one another as Jesus commands? First and foremost we must obey the one-another and each-other directives and commands. Love one another, be devoted to one another, greet one another, instruct one another, and honor one another and so on- with adherence to these verses our relationships radically change. Once a week I get a special time with each of the people with whom I am in a discipling relationship. We talk openly, challenge each other and pray for each other. We are willing to listen to another man “teach, correct, train and rebuke” us. This is God’s plan of discipleship and must be obeyed. When one is not discipled one becomes lukewarm and sin creeps in undetected. The unsuspecting disciple is blind-sided by Satan as temptation to love the world in its various forms silently overtakes them. False doctrine is more likely to be toyed with and lukewarmness becomes a comforting state of mind. Once another disciple gets in there with the Word- the drifting disciple is seemingly shocked out of complacency and radically repents. Like ice cold water thrown on a bather, God’s word chillingly cuts through sin and then serves to rescue us. This is God’s plan to keep us close to him and keep us saved. Are you being discipled? That is how Jesus loved.
Another key is raising others up the way Jesus did with his disciples. Why do we get and then give true biblical discipling? Specifically, because it is commanded and it is the only way the world will be evangelized. Jesus’ plan to reach the multitudes was men and men alone. There was no secondary plan. He determined the best and only way to reach millions was to have the disciples “make disciples- and teach them to obey”. Since he just commanded them to make disciples- each and every disciple is called to evangelize the world. One of my fondest memories of Portland was watching young and “old” men come to life and get radical in their Christianity! I can never forget Joey Andersen on the brink of falling away due to persecution and then radically changing to become one of the most fruitful men in the church! Lance Underhill (an old guy) came to life in such a powerful way due to his love for God being fanned into flame through discipling. Are those you are discipling changing? Are they becoming fruitful? Are they learning to become Bible Talk leaders and House church leaders? If not, you must ask yourself- “am I loving as Jesus did”?
2. Surrender Luke 14:31-33 Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. Quite often we are taught it is detrimental to give up or to surrender. But when one goes to battle with the LORD OF LORDS and THE KING OF KINGS surrender is the only option. Yet we fight and we fight HARD! Sadly, so many disciples lose this battle and gain the world. Wealth, homes, cars and success replace the Lord as kingdom dreams are not realized or seem dashed. Recently I have had the opportunity to study the Bible with three different men who each realized this truth. One is still shaking his fist in the face of God, the second is wrestling with what to do and another is literally “selling everything he has”. (Mark 10:21) All three are “counting the cost” but only one is now sold-out. Only the sold-out man will surrender fully and do anything the Lord asks of him. No price is too great, for he truly understands that his life was “bought at a price”. (1 Corinthians 6:20) Have you truly surrendered to Jesus as Lord? Seven years ago I was told that my liver was damaged and that there were three options: liver cancer, AIDS or Hepatitis C. As the tests were being run to determine my fate, my prayers were filled with anger and sadness. Each day as I walked and prayed my heart softened. Finally, after a week I realized God wanted everything. The day before I got the results I had begun to understand Luke 14. Anything I was not willing to give up (even my physical life) would keep me from truly knowing the Lord. My prayer that day was different than the first few as I prayed, “God, if this is the end for me- I totally trust you, no matter what that means”. I surrendered and was finally free. The next six months I got better physically and our Bible Talk of nine (9) members baptized nine (9) people as I got better spiritually! Will you truly surrender?
3. Trust John 14:1-6 Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Right after the heart piercing challenge to Peter in John chapter 13, we find the other disciples troubled. Peter is about to disown, Thomas doubts and Philip doesn’t know the real Jesus! What is going on? Aren’t these men of the twelve apostles specifically chosen by Jesus? How is it that they are crumbling? It is a lack of trust. In Genesis 12:1-5 Abram is called: The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram left, as the LORD had told him-In absolute trust Abram leaves everything because he refused to disown, doubt or not know the LORD. Disciples crumble when these sins overtake them. With total confidence we can follow Jesus and go anywhere, do anything and give up everything for him because he loves us so much and has already laid down his life for us. When we love others as Jesus did, surrender and trust we can walk faithfully and powerfully with our God.
So we are questioned, in the words of Jesus, “Will you really lay down your life for me”?
Truly a man in love with God will say, “Anything I have is yours, even up to and including my life”! Let us faithfully answer the question and really lay down our lives for Him.
He stoops down to make us great,
Matt Sullivan
