The Cross – God’s Love

Prayer

30As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.

31When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. 32If God is glorified in him,[c] God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

33“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

34“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Jesus said “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” That’s it! One command!

And then He repeated it once more in verse 35.

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

A little girl writes in her letter at Sunday School, “Dear God, I bet it’s very hard for you to love all of everybody in the whole wide world. There are only four people in our family and none of us can do it.”

Well maybe it isn’t that simple, but it certainly is important.

Today I want to examine the topic of Love and ask three questions about this one word—Why, Who, and How!

Why? Because Jesus said so!

As kids get older, we get tired of answering all the why questions. So, when they ask why we simply say, “Because I said so!” It seems to work better than all the reasons we give.

Yet Jesus does give us a reason. He says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciple—that’s Why!” Our love reflects Christ in the world better than any explanation or reason we could possibly give that He is the risen Lord!

If we love as Jesus loved, we could just throw away all of the other things we are supposed to do. That’s right! Just get rid of all the laws and the 10 commandments—we don’t need them. If we truly love, we won’t steal, kill, commit adultery, lie, cheat, covet. Love fulfills the Law—that’s Why!

Notice who Jesus is addressing when he gives the command. He is addressing his disciples, people who were already part of his family, people who had experienced his grace, people who were in a relationship with him. This new command does not tell us, “Do this if you want to be saved,” but rather, “Do this if you want to glorify God—Do this if you want to praise God—Do this if you want to serve God.”

It is not a command to qualify you for the kingdom. It is a command to you as a member of God’s family.

Here is the only place in the Bible where Jesus addresses his disciples as “little children”.

He speaks to us as part of the family, and how we are to act as family members.

As a grandparent, I give instructions to the children. If they don’t listen to me, which is quite often, I am sad, hurt, and even angry, but I don’t throw them out of the family. Their obedience doesn’t make them members of the family, their birth does. Likewise, we are members of God’s family not by what we have done but by birth.

Our obedience is how we glorify God. Jesus tells us we give Glory to the “Father of everyone”, His family, by loving one another.

If it is your intention to glorify God, to praise God, who has made you a member of his household. If you want to respond to God’s grace in your life, if you want to respond to God’s love in your life, if you want to be a responsible family member, here is how you do that—Love one another—that’s Why!

The question of who or whom to love is simple. Those who are part of God’s family—All people!

God’s people were greatly divided when Jesus gives this command.

Even within the Jewish family there where the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Herodians and Zealots who were constantly fighting over all kinds of matters, they were not loving the aliens or strangers in their land, they hated the Romans, they despised their neighbors to the north—the Samaritans. And this is who Jesus commanded they love.

I saw a letter written by a woman to her ex-fiancé that read, “Dearest Jimmy, no words could ever express the great sorrow I’ve felt since you breaking our engagement. Please say you’ll take me back. No one could ever take your place in my heart. Please forgive me. I love you. I love you. I love you. Yours forever, Marie.

PS—Congratulations on winning the state lottery.”

We love all people, even those who dump us and those who can do nothing for us! That is who we are too love!

So how do we keep this simple, yet seemingly impossible command of Jesus?

First, we must see what love looks like. Once we come to see what true love is then we know we can’t do it! At least not on our own!

The best definition I see is “Working toward the benefit of another!” We don’t have to like a person to show love. Love is action.

Two stories—You tell me what love looks like.

A young man calls his girlfriend one evening and woos her with his words. “My love for you is higher than any mountain top. It is deeper than any valley. I would travel to the stars and swim across any ocean to show you how much I truly love you.” With tears in her voice the young woman says, “That is the most moving thing anyone has ever said to me. I must see you right away.

Can you come over now?” To this the young Casanova replied, “I’d love to, but it’s raining!”

Too much of our so-called love is just that, words.

A Celtic legend tells of an eagle swooping down and carrying off a little baby to its nest high upon the cliff of a mountain. The men of the village tried one after another to scale the high and rugged cliff, but one after one failed. Finally, a small, frail woman did what no man could do, and she scaled the mountain and returned the baby to safety. She was the baby’s mother.

That’s what love looks like.

So how? How can we glorify God through our active love for others?

Only through the Cross and the Empty Tomb!

Through the cross we can take a good look at ourselves and hopefully begin understanding the love God must have for us despite ourselves. We deserve death and damnation. But the love of Christ offers forgiveness and eternal life.

It is the death and resurrection of ourselves. A miracle repeated through forgiveness. And when we find ourselves doing the good works that the law demands, we can rest assured it is not us that do them, but God who is working through us—God working through us! That is how we love!

My prayer is that this week you will survey the wondrous cross on which the prince of glory died for you. See from his head, his hands, his feet, the sorrow and love mingled together. A love so amazing, so divine, that it demands you soul, your life, your all. By this everyone will know that you are a disciple, if you have love for one another. He is Risen!

I would like to direct your attention behind me to this cross. The greatest symbol of love is not the heart, but the cross. Because the cross represents the ultimate act of love. Jesus Christ giving His life for humanity. While the heart symbolizes feelings, the cross shows sacrifice.

On the cross, Jesus suffered and died, not for His own sins, but for ours. That kind of love goes beyond emotion; it’s unconditional, selfless, and eternal.

“Greater love has no man than this; to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” – John 15:13

The cross is the greatest symbol of love because it shows Jesus’ sacrificial love that saved us all.

Love according to God.

In scripture there are 4 different types of love:

EROS – Erotic, sensual, sexual, passionate love. (Spousal)

STORGE – Family love. (Family)

PHILIA – Deep Friendship, brotherly/partnership love. (Community)

AGAPE’ – unconditional, unchanging love.

Song of Solomon 8:6, 7

Love is as strong as death. It cannot be killed by time or disaster; it cannot be bought for any price, because it is freely given. Love is priceless and even the richest King cannot buy it. Love must be accepted as a gift from God then shared.

God’s kind of love is directed outward toward others, not inward toward ourselves. The type of love we’re talking about here is unnatural. It is possible only if God supernaturally helps us set aside our own desires so we can give love while expecting nothing in return.

Therefore, the closer we come to Christ the more love we will show to others.

The commandment to love is both old and new. We find it in Leviticus 19:18 but its new because Jesus interpreted it in a new “radical” way. (John 13:34,35) “A new command I give you – love one another just as I have loved you. This will prove to the world that you are my disciples.

Love should be the unifying force and the identifying mark of the Christian community. It’s the key to walking in the Light because we cannot grow spiritually while we hate others.

Real Love is an action not a feeling. It produces selfless, sacrificial giving. The greatest act of love anyone can do is to give himself for others. Most moms and dads probably wouldn’t think twice if it came down to giving their life for their child.

So how can we lay down our lives for others? Daily cross-bearing, putting Christ first, then others, and then ourselves.

James tells us to be a doer of the Word, not just a hearer.

We are to be “Doers of Love” James and John both punch hard at this point in their letters.

VS 7 – Notice in this verse we are not commanded to Love. Why? …Because John is writing to Christians. We are to be “OF” God. If you are “OF” God, you will love back!

VS 8 – If everyone that loves is born of God, does that mean that every display of love is from God or from Christians? All people have the capacity to love. It is the world that changes love. It is Satan that changes love. It is the desires of the flesh that changes love from what God originally intended.

VS 9-11 – Propitiation is the sacrifice that turns away “wrath.” God hates sin, and His wrath is upon us. God is offended by our sin and the shed blood of Jesus, the Son, covers our sin and turns away the Fathers wrath. And this is John’s point – If we do not love one another, how can we say that we have received the love of God and are born of Him?

VS 12 – Many Christians are taught that proof of God in their life is Power. Seldom did Jesus show His power. But He always showed love.

VS 13-16 – What would it take to make you believe that God stopped loving you?

The Apostle Paul knew that nothing could separate him from the love of God. Romans 8: 35-39 says, “Who shall separate us from the love of God? Nay, in all things are we more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

One of the most beautiful scenes in the Bible may have been in John21 where Jesus and Peter were sitting by the fire after the crucifixion; after Peter’s denial of knowing Christ, and Jesus asks Peter 3 times if he loved him. Jesus didn’t ask, do you believe in me, or will you obey me, not are you sorry for denying me. Jesus asked, “Do You Love Me” I believe he gave Peter the opportunity to clear his mind, to renew his conscience, to start fresh. There is nothing better than to know that someone you love loves you.

In England at The House of Commons, Princes Alice had a young daughter and her daughter had Diphtheria. Doctors told Princess Alice to stay away from her face so as to not breathe her daughter’s breath, because she then would contract the terminal disease and die.

One day as the daughter lay dying, she began to choke. As Princess Alice lifted her up to help from the choking and held her in her arms, the little girl looked up, opened her eyes, and said, “mommy kiss me.” Knowing she would die but loving her daughter more than her fear of death, she kissed her as her daughter exhaled her final breathe.

Two months later, Princess Alice also died. …Diphtheria.

Love forgets self. Jesus kissed you and me. He died because He loves us. Our Father in Heaven sent Him because He loves us. We know Love because we know Him.

God’s Love and Ours

7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

13This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

19We love because he first loved us. 20Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.