This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Considering the Church” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 24, 1993.

This morning we are reading from John’s Gospel, Chapter 13, and we are beginning at verse 31. This is John 13, verse 31. Therefore, when Judas had gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself and shall straightway glorify him.

Little children, yet a little while I am with you. As I said unto the Jews, Whither I go ye cannot come, so now I say to you, A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice.”

Then turning over to chapter 15, beginning at verse 1, I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. and every branch that beareth fruit and purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. he that abideth in me, and I in him, and the same bringeth forth much fruit, but without me he can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If he abide in me and my words abide in you, he shall ask what he will, and it shall be done unto you.”

Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. So shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you.

You are the Lord of all the earth. Your plan and purpose are perfect. We rejoice, our God, that we see the evidences concerning the outworking of your plan, your intention, your word going forth and gathering those whom you will, you having mercy upon those upon whom you will have mercy. We thank you, Lord, that you have graciously granted life to many. and that even now you gather them into assemblies throughout the world. May it please you, Lord, to bless those we know who labor in foreign places, bringing your word to the peoples of the earth. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. Apart from the church, there is no possibility for our obedience to the command of Jesus our Lord.

Now I plead with you if you are put off by that statement that you not turn to me out before hearing me out. I have not succumbed to what some derisively call churchianity by making such a statement. I remember one woman making that charge to me and against me while I was still a college student. She told me that I would never hear the truth. I would never be open to the truth of the Bible until I was delivered from the church.

In that sentiment she was echoing the thoughts of many of the cults that arose in the last century, and particularly the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Church of Mormon. But she had her own cultic attitudes and ideas. She went further and told me that nursery rhymes were a modern-day revelation from God. She also informed me that she was God’s special agent, whose purpose it was to herald the sure and certain presidency of Barry Goldwater. This woman was not a prophet. But as much as this woman and those cults from the last century belong in many respects to the lunatic fringe, she with them have become the spokespersons for much of American Protestantism.

How often in our day and age do people in their minds and by their actions place Christ’s commands on one side and the Church on the other? As if they could be separated. The will of God, so we are told, even finding the will of God for our lives. is something that involves the Church only tangentially, only if we are of that special temperament that needs such things. And if that is the case with respect to us, the Church becomes attached to us and to the will of God because of our special case. We dare not draw up any equations in which our own particular need becomes the mandate for all. As a matter of fact, the gospel, according to the general spirit of American Protestantism, carries us in precisely the opposite direction.

Church membership is now widely viewed as optional. of only relative importance. And churches taking themselves quite seriously, taking church attendance quite seriously, taking vows made in the church quite seriously, are viewed as doctrinaire, legalistic, and even oppressive. the enemy of true Christian freedom. But these attitudes may now be judged in terms of their consequences. The word is out.

Fewer and fewer Protestants are following through with their membership to the extent that fewer and fewer attend church, less and less. Recent polls have shocked many church observers. These recent polls have proved George Gallup’s claim nearly fifty percent of all American Protestants attend their weekly services is highly inflated. The actual truth is about half of that figure attend church weekly. While a larger and larger portion of the Protestant population marginalizes the church I, in this ministry here at Grace Church, have pressed the matter of the Church more and more.

I have pressed you with respect to the Church’s centrality and indispensability. And I have done so not because I am interested in making a name for myself. not because I’m interested in wielding a club by which I might constrain people to come into this congregation and swell the numbers and thus make an impressive statement before this community and before the world. Nor have I pressed this matter because I’m intent upon feeding an inner sinful desire of mine to control your lives. you in here so I can tell you how to live. I have pressed more and more consistently with you the centrality and indispensability of the Church, because I am convinced that the Bible demands nothing less. Therefore, by setting before you this message, my contention is when I am setting before you God’s will.

You understand, maybe a little better now, why I cannot apologize to you for making my strong and repeated appeal. Nor do I apologize for the statement with which I began this message this morning. Apart from the Church, there is no possibility for our obedience to the commands of Jesus our Lord. I admit that this is a very, very strong statement and liable to be misunderstood, but I am claiming for it biblical grounding.

To be more specific, I am playing biblical ground in the text that we have read this morning from John 13 and John 16. And most specifically, the sentiment that is repeated in both of those texts, namely the new command given by Jesus that his disciples are to love one another. Now I could appeal to any number of texts to prove my point. Old Testament and New Testament, but these texts are especially helpful. They are helpful because many who believe in less church claim that they believe in more love and see themselves the champions of more love over against less church. They have even gone so far in some instances to say that the church, the organized church, is the obstacle to love, a hindrance to it.

But if I am reading these texts correctly in John 13 and John 15, Jesus’ contention is just the opposite. The Church is made to be the environment in which love, the love Jesus commands and the love that he graciously gives, must be expressed. Jesus does not envision a situation. where one must ignore or leave the Church in order to express his love for Christ or for God. One may have to leave a false Church, as Jesus’ disciples in these texts are about to do. But such action does not leave us with no Church, rather it leaves us poised for a new and a true church. Looking at these texts then a little bit more specifically, and the line that comes to us from each of them with regard to Christ’s commandment, that we love one another.

I want you to mark three things. First of all, I want you to mark the corporate character of Christ’s command. Jesus has in view the group. He has in view the community of his followers. His language is plural, not singular. You, plural, love one another. The love that Jesus has in mind here demands the other. And the language that he uses excludes the sort of privatized version of Christianity some people have. as if the faith were a matter of their exclusively personal and individual relationship to Jesus. It’s you and me, Jesus. Period. But this language which Jesus uses here also focuses specifically what Jesus has in mind when he speaks in the plurality. that he does, that we might understand the nature of the community more perfectly.

The community that he has in mind cannot, and is not, the members of one’s own family. It cannot be so restricted as if merely loving the members of our family, we were fulfilling Jesus’ intention. Nor, as time tells us, works out according to God’s sovereign plan, can the community be one that is constituted out of one’s own tribe, race, or nationality. Much less can it be a community that is made up of one’s peers. Jesus is addressing his disciples as the church in its infancy. and he has in mind the diverse community of his church that transcends all these natural and earthly distinctions.

There can be no doubt about this, and if you do doubt it, I encourage you to look at another text from John’s hand, namely Revelation 5.9, where you hear about the new song that is to be sung in glory by all of God’s people So it is not just then a new commandment that is given to the people of God, to the community of Christ, but a new song sung by those gathered from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. The transcending corporate nature of Jesus’ command makes it quite plain. intention is that we the church, the community of Christ, ought to love one another. Specifically, that is the focus. We are to love one another.

Something, I add, we make ourselves quite incapable of. Something we do, in fact, violate, and that’s flagrantly and simply, when we ignore and abandon the fellowship of the Church. You cannot love one another if you don’t see one another. You cannot love one another if you are not with one another. It is impossible And if that is true, there is no sense in which you can fulfill this command which Jesus has uttered. No sense whatsoever.

You understand then why I become so impatient with people who construct their ideas about the will of God apart from any consideration of the Church whatsoever. It is ludicrous and utterly contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Indeed, as I have been insisting apart from the Church, There is no possibility for our obedience to the commandment of Jesus, our Lord.

But secondly, there is an exclusiveness to this commandment. When Jesus utters these words in John 13 and 15, He makes it sound as if there is no other commandment. He has no other commandment to give you. This is it. And if you’re following my train of thought, it is as if Jesus were saying, miss this commandment and you miss all my commandments. Miss this one, you don’t have any of them. Miss this focus and understanding of my will for you, and you miss my will for you entirely.

And that Jesus places the community that belongs to him in the center of his command, love one another. Those who refuse to acquiesce to him in this regard, regardless of their claims, are living in sin of the most severe sort. They are living in rebellion against the most central command that Christ honors. So as Jesus speaks, the command is corporate, plural.

It is also exclusive focusing for us our understanding of His will, but finally, it is new. It is new. Now the thing that we must understand in relationship to the newness of the command is that we are here dealing with the new day of God. that has commenced with the coming of Jesus Christ. And even one’s understanding of command and commandment is now reassessed in light of the glory of that day. You cannot see things the same way anymore, not even command and commandment. The commandment is new, and the newness of the commandment has most to do with the fact that a new day has come.

Jesus has come. But included in this new day is the gracious workings of God by which he regenerates. He regenerates those who belong to the company of that community organized under Christ and in him. And it is specifically this regeneration, this birth from above, this rebirth, that enables us to see Jesus’ point at this specific juncture. and to acknowledge that the fulfillment of the command that he uttered is found, despite our sin and failure, in him and in him specifically.

But I ask, can I truly claim him? Can I claim to be a part of his new administration? Can I claim the new life which he has offered, the eternal life that is extended, if I do not discern his work in me to be such as to convince me of this singular point?

Namely, apart from the Church, there is no possibility for my obedience to the commands of Jesus my Lord.” And I hope that you understand that I am not the spokesman for formalism. As if some sort of ritual like going to church week by week was guaranteed assurance for your place in glory. I do not mean that at all. I have a great deal for the assembling of the saints, our gatherings week by week, and they, yes, I believe, are indispensable to our lives.

But I also have the wide angle at work with respect to this commandment of Christ and our responsibility. is to love one another presently in the assembly but also continually at all times in the rich fellowship that is found nowhere else by him Jesus Christ and that because of his great and glorious saving work on behalf of us all. Let us pray. deal with us if, Father, we struggle with the whole question of our love for one another. And deal with us also, Lord, if our attendance to the matters of the Church is purely a formalism and a ritual. no heart in it at all. Graciously deal with us that we might reflect the character of the community of Christ growing more and more in his likeness. We thank you for your mercy to us as a congregation and as individuals. that may we not be confused in this present age, may we not separate our Savior from his church, much less separate Israel from that body which bears his name. This we ask

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