The Love of Jesus Christ
Notes
Transcript
Name that Tune:
Unchained Melody (to the sea, to the sea / to the open arms of the sea) - Righteous Brothers
All You Need is Love (There's nothing you can do that can't be done
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung) - The Beatles
I Will Always Love You (That is all I'm taking with me,
So, goodbye) - Whitney Houston
Everything I Do (I Do It For You): (And when you find me there
You'll search no more) - Bryan Adams
A Thousand Years (heart beats fast, colors and promises) - Christina Perri
Theme?
Love is a crazy thing!
It’s something we all LONG to have...
We long to GIVE IT...
And we long to RECEIVE IT...
When we DO receive it…and we look out at someone who does NOT receive it - we long for them TO receive it
When we DON’T receive it…and we look out and see someone who DOES - we LONG EVEN MORE for it...
LOVE is a COVETED THING in this world...
BUT we need to understand this -
SLIDE:
Not all LOVE is equal
And we’ll hopefully understand this as we walk through our passage today...
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God,
4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.
5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”
10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”
11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
So this is a FAMILIAR story in the Bible...
the time that Jesus washed the Disciples feet...
But what we’re going to focus in on to start today - is the first verse of this section…of this chapter...
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
We’re going to linger over this verse for quite some time today before moving on…
Because it’s going to anchor the rest of this passage in something that’s unbreakable…
· If there was ONE MAIN theme that SATURATES the entire Bible…
It would be this… the LOVE of Jesus Christ
· NOW – Love is an interesting thing – BECAUSE it’s something that can be:
Subjective
Objective
Subjective from the standpoint of …
· What it looks like for ME to FEEL LOVED – might be DIFFERENT than what it looks like for YOU to feel LOVED
· I might SHOW love differently than you SHOW love…
· And so – in that sense – It’s SUBJECTIVE…
· BUT
· It can also be OBJECTIVE…
Here’s what I mean…
**Think about TALENT
- Let’s say 100 people walk into this room right now – and ALL of them play the piano
- We would listen to each one…
- And we would SUBJECTIVELY decide who has more talent…
- Let’s say they all have 20 years of training…EVEN THEN – the ACTUAL talent would be so nuanced that deciding who was better would be – SUBJECTIVE…
- BUT WHAT IF – Jesus walked in – sat down and played the piano…?
- Would His piano skill be – lacking?
- NO – He has PERFECT piano ability…
And when you have PERFECT piano ability – you are THE STANDARD!
It CAN’T get any better!
It’s not – SUBJECTIVE – not UP FOR DEBATE
It’s OBJECTIVE!
BECAUSE – we’re talking about PERFECTION
· So think about – the LOVE of JESUS
· He has a PERFECT LOVE
· It’s not SUBJECTIVE….He IS – the standard!
And so when our VERSE says - “having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end”
· This is a – PERFECT LOVE
· We can’t FULLY comprehend this…but we can catch glimpses…
· And the Apostle Paul helps us with this…THE FRINGES - of what it means to be LOVED by Jesus…
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
· Think of what Paul says here…
· He says – Jesus LOVED him…
· And what did that love LOOK LIKE?
· To be loved by Jesus – is to be CRUCIFIED with Him…
· MEANING – to DIE to self…(no longer trust in yourself and your works and your good deeds, and your own strength)
· To be LOVED by Jesus – is to now LIVE in a different way…
· To live BY FAITH in Jesus!
· TO be LOVED by Jesus – is to now LIVE by FAITH IN JESUS!!
· Christ LIVING in me…
SLIDE: so...
The [love] of Jesus is a faith creating…faith anchoring love
Not only that – but the Apostle Paul says this about the love of Jesus
14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;
· So the LOVE of Jesus is a FAITH sustaining, CONSTRAINING love…
· When Paul started down a bad path…a bad way
· It was the LOVE of Jesus that held him back…
· Constrained him…
· Put him back on the right path..
· DREW him back to the truth!!
· SO with that being TRUTH – think about the apostle Paul’s life… (does it start to make sense?)
· CONSTANT suffering! Do you REMEMBER the list?
Imprisonments, countless beatings, often near death.
Forty lashes, less one…five times.
Three times beaten with rods. Stoned. Shipwrecked three times; a night and a day adrift at sea.
In danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
During his 3rd missionary journey, Paul was preaching the gospel in the temple, in Jerusalem, and was illegally arrested.
What followed was a 2 year prison stay.
He then had to deal with a plot to take his life, a shipwreck,
a snake bite, a 3 month stay on an island,
and Roman imprisonment.
MAYBE you’re walking through UNBELIEVABLE suffering...
· What SUSTAINED Paul?
· The LOVE of Jesus!
Through ALL of Paul’s suffering - his FAITH in Christ - SUSTAINED…why? The love of Jesus
34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So think thru it...
When the apostle Paul, who wrote these words....
When ALL the suffering came - FOR DOING what Christ wanted Him to do - Paul never USED that suffering as an argument THAT JESUS didn’t LOVE HIM...
Instead - Paul took the LOVE of Christ - For PAUL - and threw that love BACK in the face of ALL that HEARTACHE...
ALL that suffering
ALL that pain...
And declared TO THAT PAIN… “you can never separate me from the Love of Christ…and because of THAT LOVE - I will - MORE than CONQUER this suffering!
THIS - love - the LOVE of Jesus Christ - FOR HIS OWN - is a mysterious thing
and INDESCRIBABLE…thing
Paul experienced this love and he SOOOOOO wanted us (you) to experience it too...
Listen to how Paul prays for us in Ephesians...
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Paul equates here - the LOVE of Christ - with the FULLNESS of God...
SLIDE: To be loved by Christ is to be full of God
To be [loved] by Christ is to be full of God
NOW - remember - Our passage today is about Jesus WASHING the disciples feet
But what we’re doing NOW is - we’re laying the GROUNDWORK which is going to help MAKE SENSE of what that WASHING represented...
NOW - quickly - we have to notice in this first verse - that This LOVE of Jesus - is a UNIQUE LOVE - for a certain group...
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
“having loved HIS OWN…He LOVED THEM to the end”
Who is THIS LOVE directed at?
HIS OWN!
We need to know that the Bible EXPLAINS the love of Christ - by pointing to the LOVE between a Husband and his wife!
See the LOVE that Jesus has for HIS OWN - is not like the love He has for the world!
I, as a married man, can look out at all women....all men....all people....and say - Yes, I love them...
But THAT LOVE isn’t the same as the ...
COVENANTAL LOVE that I have with Rachel...
The love I have for Rachel is a love CALLED TO -
forsake all others and cleave to her alone and to love her and cherish her for richer for poorer, for better for worse, in sickness and in health, til death do us part
It’s a UNIQUE LOVE...
And it’s THAT UNIQUE love that the Bible points to - to explain the kind of LOVE that Jesus has for HIS BRIDE....which is the church....for BELIEVERS!
NOW - with THIS understanding of the INDESCRIBABLE - UNSHAKABLE - INDESTRUCTIBLE love of Jesus...
let’s look at the end of verse 1 from our text - which will catapult us to the close...
“Having loved His own, He - loved them TO THE END”
This verse - has in it’s meaning - the DEATH / EXECUTION of Christ… (His hour had come to depart)
As John Piper has said -
He loved us in life and he loved us in death. Having loved us in the easiest times he loved us in the hardest times. Having loved us with words and bread and touch he loved us with blood and pain and death. Having loved us extensively over years he loved us intensively to the depths.
We will typically CONFIRM that someone LOVES us - when 2 things happen...
when they stick with us OVER TIME...
when they stick with us even when it is costly
Jesus LOVED us - UNTO DEATH
And isn’t THIS what we LONG FOR?
To be LOVED by a love that LASTS!
Who wants to be LOVED with a cheap - FLASH in the pan LOVE?
NO - we LONG to be LOVED by a LOVE that SUSTAINS us through the VALLEYS of life…and BEYOND...
We would find that to be - AMAZING...
But HOW ABOUT THIS?
How about a LOVE that - SUSTAINS us - not just THRU the valleys of life...
BUT THRU the GRAVE....thru DEATH itself?
What kind of LOVE can do THIS?
NOW - this is where we head into the rest of our text...
1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God,
4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.
5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”
10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”
What we want to focus on here is the actual washing of the disciples’ feet...
And so if we go to v6...
6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”
Why was Peter surprised?
He was surprised because in his mind - the roles SHOULD have been reversed!
Peter thought - NO, I should be washing YOUR feet....and you're washing MY feet?!!!
But Jesus - had a PURPOSE in this..
He was providing His disciples 2 lessons....Let's look at both
One of the lessons - was more of a PRACTICAL lesson (with the disciples themselves as the OBJECT of the lesson)
the OTHER was SPIRITUAL in nature with Christ as the OBJECT of the lesson
FIRST UP - the Spiritual Lesson
So Jesus comes to Peter and Peter is perplexed... Then Jesus says this...
7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
Odd thing for Jesus to say no?
I mean - Jesus is washing this man's feet - doesn't seem TOO complicated!
UNLESS the MEANING of what Jesus was doing was DEEPER than just - pouring water on a man's feet!
And that's precisely what's going on here....there's a DEEPER meaning at work...
And Jesus is pointing that out - Telling Peter - You DO NOT UNDERSTAND what I'm about to do - but you will at a later time
And we can hear the LACK of KNOWLEDGE on Peter's part - in this conversation!
read v7
8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”
You can hear by Peter's response that he was focused on the - PHYSICAL nature of the washing...
When Jesus says - IF I DON"T WASH YOU - you have no SHARE with Me"....
Jesus is NOT - elevating the importance of PHYSICAL WASHING...
He's not declaring - YOU MUST be PHYSICALLY washed by Me if you want to HANG out with Me...
But that's EXACTLY how Peter UNDERSTOOD it...
What does he say...?
"Oh, you mean I'll have no share with you if you DON'T wash me....WELL THEN don't just wash my feet, WASH EVERYTHING...my hands and my head too!"
SO we know that Peter's response here - LACKED UNDERSTANDING based on what Jesus had said - That Peter will not understand what Jesus is REALLY doing in this...
So WHAT WAS Jesus really trying to teach the disciples...and thus - us?
We need to know that there IS A KIND of WASHING that MUST take place in order for us to have a SHARE WITH JESUS!
And it's THIS washing that deals with - SALVATION..Only those that are SAVED - have a SHARE with Christ...
Let's look at this washing in scripture...
John the Baptist - the one who came water baptizing - preparing the way for Jesus...He spoke of this ALL-IMPORTANT washing....
11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
So John the Baptist says that there is a BAPTISM that is coming, not regarding WATER - that is the Baptism that Jesus performs...
And in Titus 3 we see this baptism...this WASHING (explain v4 - how LOVE of Christ operated...)
4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
See - the LOVE of Jesus OPERATES in the WASHING of regeneration.... the Baptism of the Holy Spirit...
THIS is the WASHING that Jesus is teaching about in John 13...
when he physically washes the feet of the disciples...
It's THIS WASHING that Jesus refers to when He says..."If I don't WASH YOU - you will have no SHARE with Me"...
For to be PHYSICALLY WASHED - but not SPIRITUALLY WASHED = is to be VOID of Jesus Christ...
And THIS is why Peter did not understand what Jesus was doing.
Peter was thinking - PHYSICAL washing...Jesus was FORESHADOWING - Spiritual washing...
But remember what Jesus said -
7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
You WILL understand afterward...I think we actually see in Scripture when Peter - FINALLY understood what Jesus meant regarding this washing of the feet...
If we go to Acts 10, we read of Peter proclaiming the gospel to both Jews and Greeks...
42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.
43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word.
45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.
So Peter is proclaiming the gospel to these men - and WHILE Peter is preaching truth...the Holy Spirit falls on the Gentiles...
And the Jews, including Peter, were astonished...
THEY had assumed that the Holy Spirit was reserved for the Jewish people...
And then in the next chapter of Acts (11) - we read of Peter explaining this very situation to the church in Jerusalem (Jews upset about Gentiles)...and explaining his mindset as it played out...
15 As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning.
16 And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”
18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
Peter is explaining that WHEN the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles...
it CAUSED him to REMEMBER what Jesus had said...
That John the baptist baptized with WATER - but that Jesus baptized with the Holy Spirit
And so it seems that THIS MOMENT...of REVELATION for Peter was the playing out of our verse today...
7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
In that moment that the Holy Spirit fell on those Gentiles...Peter's UNDERSTANDING of "TRUE WASHING" came into focus...
It seems he then REALIZED the connection between the NECESSARY WASHING of Jesus....
and the WASHING / RENEWAL of the Holy Spirit...
And so that's the Spiritual teaching of Jesus here in our passage...
Next week - we'll walk through the Practical Teaching of Jesus in the washing of the feet.
So how does this today impact us as we leave...
Remember - the LOVE of Jesus Christ!
In verse 1 today when it said:
"having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end."
It was the LOVE of Christ that lead Jesus down the road of SUFFERING.......TO THE CROSS......and to the SAVING WORK His death and resurrection accomplished - FOR YOU
And the washing of the feet of the disciples reflected the HUMILITY of Christ...
...the servanthood of Jesus
Jesus came as - the SUFFERING SERVANT...
The humility expressed by His act with towel and basin foreshadowed His ultimate act of humility and love on the cross.
And so as we leave today - contemplate the Love of Christ...Is that love DRAWING you back to Him?
It's IN HIS LOVE that we are SUSTAINED through the DARKEST of times...
And so as we leave today - Here's the CHALLENGE...
Can you walk through this day...this week - Contemplating all the ways He loves you...
Do you consider yourself BLESSED?
All things are FROM - Him
EVEN the struggles...
And in contemplating His love for us...let's walk out today holding this truth...
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
SUMMARY:
The Love of Christ...
Anchors Faith In Him
Brings the Fullness of God
He is a MIGHTY - LOVING God we serve...May we FEEL that love - today and EVER INCREASINGLY - forevermore...
AND may we help each other embrace the Love of Christ by FAITH ALONE in HIM ALONE...
Let's pray