Greater Love
Gospel of John • Sermon • Submitted
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· 4 viewsJesus instructs the disciples that what is coming glorifies the Son and that the Father will be glorified in the Son.
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Greater Love
Greater Love
The Medal of Honor – reading the citations of people who have received the MOH all end in similar fashions. The individuals show conspicuous gallantry, intrepidity, humanitarian regard for fellow soldiers, heroism, extraordinary valor, inspirational supreme self-sacrifice, gallantly giving his life, etc.
I. Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings glory to God.
Such actions, often without thought, sometimes with great thought, always have a similar foundational motive, the willingness to sacrifice self for comrades. In just a few chapters, Jesus will clarify what He will do and want He wants them to do - (ESV) Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. Or, as (ESV) says, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
I. Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings glory to God.
A. Through the Son’s glory. 31
B. Through the Son’s obedience. 32
What are we willing to do for love? Are we willing to sacrifice that which we love for God. Look at Abraham, he was willing to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, at God’s command. When God saw that he was willing to do that, He blessed Abraham and multiplied his offspring as the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore; all because he was willing to obey God. ASK – what are we willing to do? Look what Jesus was willing to do; in this passage today we see that because He was willing to be obedient to God, God would be glorified.
A. Through the Son’s glory. 31
II. Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings a new commandment to His followers. 33
By this point in the evening of our scripture, the disciples had been through quite a bit. Their teacher had taken on the position of a servant, a house-hold slave, in order to demonstrate humility and self-service. All this is leading up to the point, that evening, of the greatest act of love one can demonstrate, laying down your life for a friend. This act of love, self-sacrifice, accomplishes three acts that Christians, followers of Christ can follow.
B. Through the Son’s obedience. 32
A. To love as Jesus’ loved. 34
Christians who incorporate these acts into their lives will honor Christ and His sacrifice as well as well as bring glory to God as did Jesus’ self-sacrifice on the cross. That is the first act that the great love of Christ accomplished,
II. Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings a new commandment to His followers. 33
B. Love is the mark of a disciple. 35
A. To love as Jesus’ loved. 34
I. Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings glory to God. And in the end, it is about God’s glory.
I. Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings glory to God. And in the end, it is about God’s glory.
B. Love is the mark of a disciple. 35
C. Love is the greatest commandment.
· (ESV) 1 says, Shout for joy to God, all the earth; 2 sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise!
III. Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings an opportunity to His followers.
C. Love is the greatest commandment.
· (ESV) says, “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into His courts.”
A. To follow Jesus. 36
III. Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings an opportunity to His followers.
· (ESV) Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
· Jesus tells us in to “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
A. To follow Jesus. 36
B. By following sacrificially. 37-38
B. By following sacrificially. 37-38
CONCLUSION
· Paul, in (ESV), tells us, For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings glory to God through the Son’s glory and through the Son’s obedience.
It is all about God’s glory and Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings glory to God through,
CONCLUSION
Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings glory to God through the Son’s glory and through the Son’s obedience.
A. Through the Son’s glory. V 31. Jesus just informed them that there was a betrayer in their midst and identified him by giving him a morsel of bread and told him to do what he was going to do quickly. The others didn’t recognize what this meant, but now that the traitor is gone, Jesus sets the stage, ultimately for a series of teachings beginning with telling them that God would be glorified through the Son. Glorifying the Son of Man involves suffering and death as well as sovereign power—Jesus enters his glory via the cross.[1]
Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings a new commandment to His followers; to love as Jesus’ loved. Love is the mark of a disciple and is the greatest commandment.
Jesus just informed them that there was a betrayer in their midst and identified him by giving him a morsel of bread and told him to do what he was going to do quickly. The others didn’t recognize what this meant, but now that the traitor is gone, Jesus sets the stage, ultimately for a series of teachings beginning with telling them that God would be glorified through the Son. Glorifying the Son of Man involves suffering and death as well as sovereign power—Jesus enters his glory via the cross.[1]
Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings an opportunity to His follower to follow Jesus sacrificially.
Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings a new commandment to His followers; to love as Jesus’ loved. Love is the mark of a disciple and is the greatest commandment.
Listen to Colin Kruse words here: However, the death of Jesus was not just his passage to glory. In death itself Jesus was glorified. In giving his life for sinful humans the glory of his gracious character was most clearly seen. And it did not stop there, for Jesus said that when the Son of Man was glorified, God also would be glorified in him. In Jesus’ self-sacrificing love for human beings the glory of God was revealed, for the Father loves the world, and this led him to give his one and only Son so that those who believe might have eternal life (3:16). In the giving of his Son, the glory of God’s own self-giving love was revealed,[2] and it was revealed,
B. Through the Son’s obedience. READ 32. Because Jesus glorified his Father through his death, there would be no delay in the glorification. You know, mankind feels that the most important items in life is self-glory or promoting the glory of others. This is called self-justification, self-righteousness, making man an idol.
Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings an opportunity to His follower to follow Jesus sacrificially.
We see this around us constantly as people are elevated to the level of idols where anything they say or do is important. Mankind has even glorified himself so much that people use their own category as to who goes to heaven and “get their wings.” (By the way, we don’t become angels, we are only like angels in that there is no marriage in heaven). But how can self-righteous, self-glorifying, or other people glorifying lives glorify God? They can’t.
When a celebrity dies, no matter how decadent or depraved a life they’ve led, you will invariable hear people talking about that person being in heaven, how God must have needed their talent/skill up there. Folks, there is only one way to heaven, only one way to God and that is through the Son. speak of how God, rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up and seated us with Him in the heavenly places. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. This is why Christ humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of that, (ESV) says that9 . . . God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. NOW, Jesus brings this home to His disciples in the form of a new commandment.
II. Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings a new commandment to His followers.
II. Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings a new commandment to His followers.
READ 33. Jesus now shows His affection to the disciples by using the term, “little children,” the term the gospel write will later use in his first epistle, 1 John. He used it there, seven times. One commentator writes that this was a “tender greeting to family members.” Little children is a phrase you would generally reserve for your children. According to I. Howard Marshall, Professor Emeritus of New Testament Exegesis at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, that phrase was a term of affection like one you would use for close family members. This is how Jesus viewed this mean, as beloved friends and family members.
Here Jesus is letting them know that what is getting ready to happen is something only He can do; they cannot go to the cross with Him. Just like He told the Jews in & 8:21&22 that where He was going, what He was going to do was something they couldn’t do, nor could they go there, meaning, they could not do what He would do; only Jesus could do that. So He gives them a new command,
A. To love as Jesus loved. READ 34. Please NOTE, this command was NOT to just love one another. Remember, this command, as 1 John 2:78 tells us, was both an old command and a new command. What is the greatest commandment? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, AND a second like it, love your neighbor as yourself, . Those are NOT new commandments, they’ve been around – even the love your neighbor is back there in . Here is the new part, LOOK at verse 34 again, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Ahh, that’s the difference. The newness of this command is in the quality of love with which believers are to "love one another.”[3] What kind of love is that? Self-sacrificial; love permeated by grace. This is the love that enables someone to love their enemy.
B. Love is the mark of a disciple. READ 35. But especially their love for one another. says “We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.” In this case, the main way to identify family relationship is not by similar looks, but by love. Do you love God? (ESV) If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is what makes this commandment new, it is the quality of love. NOTE - This was not the reason they should love one another, but was rather the outcome of their love. People would be able to recognize them as Jesus’ disciples by their mutual love. Knowing the truth about Jesus is vital, but so also is believers’ love for one another. This love is not sentimental, but real self-sacrificing love by which they place other believers’ needs above their own.[4] This is why,
C. Love is the greatest commandment. This is the full outgrowth of the Shema in the Old Testament, it was God’s intention that His people love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, and might (), and their love for their neighbor (). ASK – who is your neighbor? Be like the good Samaritan. What this means is that,
III. Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings an opportunity to His followers.
III. Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings an opportunity to His followers.
Are you a Christian? Then you have an opportunity,
A. To follow Jesus. READ 36. Don’t you think Peter should have known where Jesus is going by now? I think we get caught up in our own little worlds that we become blind to the greater truth. Earlier Jesus told them that they could not go where He was going. LOOK at v36 and see how He modified this for Peter. “Where I am going you cannot follow me NOW, but you will follow afterward.” Basically, all believers can follow Jesus where He was going, NOT to die to pay for the sin of the world, but laying down our lives for Him. Jesus is very clear here, as we now can see 20/20, that Peter would follow Jesus to death. As with Peter, our opportunity to follow Jesus comes,
B. By following sacrificially. READ 37-38. Some people, like Peter, are ready to take up arms, they are ready to lay down their lives fighting for Jesus, but are they ready to lay down their lives for Jesus LIKE Jesus. Remember (ESV) - He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. And He did not try to argue, fight or defend Himself. Jesus was like a lamb led to the slaughter. Could you or I do that?
That’s why Jesus asked that question in v38 – “Will you lay down your life for me?” Are you really willing to die for me? No, in fact, Jesus says, you will deny me three times before the rooster crows. When this actually happened, I would imagine this was more painful that Jesus’ rebuke of him to “get thee behind me Satan.”
Imagine – to deny one you are so close to, then hear the rooster crow, look across the courtyard to see Jesus looking you in the eye, and then you remembering these very words. No wonder Peter went out and wept bitterly as tells us. Peter had the opportunity to follow Jesus sacrificially and he dropped the ball. BUT, all is not lost. The Lord forgave him, restored him, and he had the opportunity to follow Jesus sacrificially and he did very well.
CONCLUSION
Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings glory to God through the Son’s glory and through the Son’s obedience.
Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings a new commandment to His followers; to love as Jesus’ loved. Love is the mark of a disciple and is the greatest commandment.
Jesus’ self-sacrifice brings an opportunity to His follower to follow Jesus sacrificially.
We have opportunities like these to bring glory to God as well. We can love as Jesus loved, self-sacrificially and bring glory to God. With that will come the opportunity to follow Jesus sacrificially as well.
Right now, people around the world are following Jesus sacrificially, giving their lives for Him; can you? One never knows until the moment comes, but to get ready, start loving Him sacrificially right where you are, taking every opportunity in the little acts of life which get you ready for the big opportunities. Perhaps you will even hear those blessed words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
INVITATION
Have you repented of sin and asked God to forgive your sin through Christ’s death on the cross so that you may follow the Son? Do you want to? It is not difficult, yet it may be the hardest act you’ve ever taken, that of swallowing your pride and going to God in repentance asking for forgiveness because of Jesus’ sacrifice on your behalf, but it is eternally worth it.
Take this opportunity to believe in Jesus and follow Him and be saved today.
If you want to know more about salvation or even about joining with this church and serving God here, come down and let me know while we sing this last song.
[1] Colin G. Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 4, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 287.
[2] Colin G. Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 4, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 287–288.
[3] Thoralf Gilbrant, ed., John, (Springfield, IL: World Library Press, Inc., 1988), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, 389.
[4] Colin G. Kruse, John: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 4, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 289.