Falling in Love with Jesus
Falling in Love • Sermon • Submitted
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Intro:
30 Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. 31 And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. 32 So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. 33 But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on foot from all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to Him.
For the month of February, we will focus on the subject of [Falling in Love]. Last Sunday we discussed the opportunity to fall in love with the Father. Today, the title of my message is, [Falling in Love with Jesus].
In 1995, after years of research and marital counseling, Dr. Gary Chapman wrote the book entitled, The Five Love Languages. The idea of the book is loving someone includes showing said love. He created a quiz that helps people learn how they give and receive love.
Words of Affirmation- include compliments and hearing why people love you. Why do you love me?
Acts of Service- show the other person we love them. The author wrote, let me do that for you, is what people with acts of service love to hear. Show me you love me.
Quality time- giving undivided attention to those close to us. If you love me, spend time with me.
Receiving gifts- receiving thoughtful gifts from our significant other. Also means thoughtless or last minute gifts do not work. Your gifts are a tangible expression of your love.
Physical touch- which includes a hug, pat on the back, or simply being present. Being near you makes me feel you love me.
In essence, love is revealed in the way we show our love. There is not a right or a wrong way. Every person has their way of giving and receiving love.
Jesus exemplifies this principle. Part of His purpose in coming to earth was to SHOW the love of the Father. When Jesus walked with humanity, He made God personal.
No longer was God a distant being way up in heaven. He now walked, talked, and dwelt among us. Remember, the Father was actively involved in restoring the broken relationship between God and His creation.
To address the issue of sin, He sent His Son, to display His love. Therefore, everything Jesus did was in love, for God is love. However, Jesus did more than tell us about God’s love, He showed God’s love to us.
He expressed words of affirmation to His disciples. Or what about the time He defended the woman caught in adultery? He accepted her and told her to go and sin no more.
He showed acts of services by washing His disciples feet and eventually laying down His life for us.
He spent quality time with His disciples, teaching and training them for their future tasks.
He gave gifts to His followers, including salvation, the Holy Spirit, and healing.
He willingly touched and healed those who were a social pariah, like the lepers or the blind.
Everything He did SHOWED the love He has for us, for love is a verb. Love is not an abstract idea. It is revealed through actions that display the love we feel.
As I looked for an example to show us the love of Jesus, for some reason I was drawn to the time Jesus fed the 5,000. We will notice that the word love is absent from the story.
But remember, talk is cheap. Jesus did not say He loved us, He made His love known by His interactions with people. Let’s look at the backdrop to this famous story.
By this point in His ministry, Jesus had twelve disciples. After working with them for some time, He sent them out in groups of two. They were to heal the sick, cast out devils, and preach the gospel of the Kingdom.
Upon their return, they were thrilled to share their results with Jesus. While their work was exhilarating, it was also exhausting. Therefore, Jesus retreated with them to the wilderness so they could eat and rest.
But when they arrived, 5,000 men awaited them. What would they do? In their state of extreme tiredness, would they send the people away or show them love?
Jesus chose to feed them. Through this action of love, we will see how Jesus takes care of our physical and spiritual needs. I pray by the end of this message, we will why we need to fall more in love with Jesus.
Let’s look at this story and divide into three parts, [Jesus’ Loving Compassion], [Jesus’ Loving Command], and [Jesus’ Loving Comparison].
Let’s begin
1. Jesus’ Loving Compassion
1. Jesus’ Loving Compassion
34 And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things. 35 When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, “This is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. 36 Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat.”
Verse thirty-three told us that the crowd arrived before Jesus and His disciples got to the wilderness. Think about this for a moment. There is a word I learned within the last few years, it is called HANGRY.
It describes the point of being so hungry we get angry, irritable, or moody. It is also a word Bekah and I use. If one of us gets on edge, we will ask, wait, are you hangry? Then with just a few bites of food, God supernaturally rearranges our attitude.
It is possible that the disciples, upon seeing the crowd, were a little hangry. They were tired, ready to rest, relax and eat. But it gives us an opportunity to see two methods, Jesus’ capacity to love and the disciples inability to love.
Jesus looked at the spiritual implications. Upon seeing the crowd, He was moved with compassion. He felt sorry for these people, for they were like sheep without a shepherd.
It is likely that Jesus too was tired and weak. Remember, thought He was fully God, He was also fully man. He could have looked at the crowd and thought, not now, I need a rest.
Instead, His love went into action. He realized this was an opportunity to show God’s concern for His people. The disciples? They were a little less spiritual.
Instead, they were carnal. They listened to Jesus teaching them, and then they tried to start the goodbye process. You know the one where we look at our watch, and say, well we better get going.
They told Jesus, this a deserted place and these people are hungry, we had better let them get on home for the night. Sure they probably felt sorry for them, but they did not show the deep compassion Jesus did.
Their ingenious idea included sending them home so the disciples could get their much needed rest. Their lack of compassion clearly contrasts with Jesus great love.
His compassion was a driving force behind many of His miracles, and feeding these people was no exception. Jesus’ loving compassion was followed by...
2. Jesus’ Loving Command
2. Jesus’ Loving Command
37 But He answered and said to them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?” 38 But He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.”
37 But He answered and said to them, “You give them something to eat.” And they said to Him, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?” 38 But He said to them, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.” And when they found out they said, “Five, and two fish.”
After hearing their logical reasoning to send them home, Jesus issued a command, they are hungry, give them something to eat. He did not ask them, He commanded them to give them.
Pastor Davis once taught me the difference between demands and commands. Some people are demanding, do this for me or do that for me. Demands flow from self-interest.
However, when love is involved, commands are not abrupt or offensive. They come from a position of selflessness.
Jesus was not DEMANDING, GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO EAT. He commanded them, we are supposed to love God and our neighbors. Let’s put this in practice.
They are hungry, let’s satisfy their hunger. The book of John tells us Philip asked Jesus, how can we feed these people? There are 5,000 men, not including their wives and children.
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He estimated, not even 200 denarii could feed them. A denarius was a day’s wage, equivalent of $8. Therefore, 200 denarii would be $1600.
Judas might have spoken up and protested, we do not have that much money in the treasury, it would bleed us dry. While this went on, Andrew walked through the crowd looking for an answer to their problem.
Finally, they found five loaves and two fish. These were not large loaves, more likely five small pieces of bread/crackers and two sardines for flavor.
It was almost proof that it was impossible. But the small amount was enough for Him. Jesus issued a second command.
39 Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in ranks, in hundreds and in fifties. 41 And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all. 42 So they all ate and were filled. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish. 44 Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand men.
39 Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass. 40 So they sat down in ranks, in hundreds and in fifties. 41 And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all. 42 So they all ate and were filled. 43 And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish. 44 Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand men.
Before telling them His plan, He commanded them get the crowds in groups of hundreds and fifties, well over 125 groups when we include women and children.
As they shuffled everyone around. Jesus took the small amount of food, lifted His eyes toward heaven and blessed the food. Supernaturally, Jesus provided for the crowd.
Because they were in small groups, everyone got to eat at about the same time. When I go a banquets or weddings and they dismiss by table, I ALWAYS pick the table that goes last.
Not so with Jesus. He supplied their needs, making a tangible expression of God’s love. Everyone ate to their full, even having enough for twelve baskets left over.
Jesus’ love is always available in abundance. The disciples responded to Jesus’ command because they felt the love emanating from His compassion…
3. Jesus’ Loving Comparison
3. Jesus’ Loving Comparison
25 And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You come here?” 26 Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
After He fed the 5,000 and the crowd began to disperse, Jesus sent His disciples across the Sea of Galilee.
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While they were in the ship, a storm came and Jesus walked on the water and calmed the storm. Once again showing His love through compassion and commanding the sea to calm.
Back where Jesus fed the 5,000 a crowd waited for Jesus because they saw that He did not go with the disciples. When He did not show, they boarded their boats and went to Capernaum looking for Him.
It is almost as if they stalked Him. They found Him with the disciples and asked, when did you get here? Jesus knew they sought Him, but it was for the wrong reasons.
They came because Jesus fed them with the loaves and fish. They had seen miracles and healing, but the results of His compassion was new, they wanted to know more about Him.
30 Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
Bluntly they asked for a sign. They reminded Jesus that Moses gave their ancestors manna in the wilderness. Now Jesus gave them bread in the desert, was this significant?
The problem was their focus was like the disciples. They looked to the nature and not the spiritual. Jesus reminded them, it was not Moses who gave you manna, but my Father send the bread from heaven.
And if you think the bread you ate was something, I want to explain, yesterday’s meal has come and gone. But God has bread from heaven, one that will satisfy your spiritual hunger.
They all agreed, Lord, give us this bread. What was Jesus’ response?
35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
What was Jesus’ point?
Yesterday I fed you with loaves of bread and fish because you physically weak, tired and hungry. But what I am about to do will pale in comparison with what I did for you then.
See, I am not only concerned about your physical need. Humanity has a problem with sin. Because of sin, there is an insatiable desire to seek fulfillment, love, and help in all the wrong places.
So the Father has a plan. He will send down the bread from heaven. When you eat of the bread from heaven, you will trade in the hunger and thirst for sin with a hunger and thirst for righteousness.
For I am the bread that came down from heaven!
Yesterday I fed you with physical bread. But very soon, my body and blood will the the spiritual bread you need to satisfy every longing, to fill every void, and to remove every obstacle to getting in right relationship with the Father!
They looked for a sign, but God wanted to give them the Son! If they would believe in Him, He would be the sustaining presence and power they needed.
Close:
We often hear of God’s love. But how is His love manifested?
He makes His love to us by sending down everything we need. God the Father saw the perpetual problems humanity faced. Therefore, He made provision to fulfill our inherent needs and desires.
No longer do we need to look for fulfillment and satisfaction in what they world has to offer.
We do not have to seek for a sign to determine whether or not God loves us.
Why?
Because He sent His only Son to stand in our place. We owed a debt to God, and the debt is not satisfied. How?
13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
Jesus displayed His love for us by providing a means of fulfilling our every need! When we come to Him and accept Him as our Savior, we partake in the bread from heaven!
Now, we do not have to hunger or thirst anymore. He is our sustenance!
We can drink freely from the water of life.
We can receiving the healing we need for our bodies.
We can have the hope our soul so desires.
We can have confidence that we can do all things through Christ.
Why? Because God has sent Jesus, who is the bread from heaven! And His call to us is fall deeper in love with me! See what amazing things I can do for My people.
He loves us so much, He will provide for us physically, emotionally, and most important, spiritually.
We know how HE showed His love. How can we return our love back to Him?
Let’s give Him words of affirmation. Let’s praise Him. Let’s call on His name. Let’s tell Him how much He means to us.
Let’s perform acts of service. The realization of what it cost Him to come down to us should cause us to want to work for Him.
Let’s spend quality time with Him. He wants us more than an hour or two on Sunday morning. He wants to be the centerpiece of our lives!
Let’s give gifts to Him. What gifts can we give? We can give ourselves wholly to Him, releasing our time, talents, and treasures.
And let’s reach our hands toward Him, crying out, if I can but touch you everything will work out for the better.
Jesus shows His love to us over and over. He calls out to us, desiring a relationship that does not focus on what’s in it for me. Rather, He wants us to determine, what can I do for Him.
Falling in love with Jesus is the best thing we can ever do!
1 “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance. 3 Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you— The sure mercies of David.
1 “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance.
NLT, “Is anyone thirsty?
Come and drink—
even if you have no money!
Come, take your choice of wine or milk—
it’s all free!
2 Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength?
Why pay for food that does you no good?
Listen to me, and you will eat what is good.
You will enjoy the finest food.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”