Love Like Jesus Pt. 2 Series

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Sermon: Love Like Jesus pt. 2

Thesis: To be able to “Love Well” means I embrace the 4 letter word, “Love” with its original definition and application given it by God. The sad reality is the word, “Love” has been twisted and distorted by this secular world and God is reclaiming its original definition. This broken world needs to experience God’s love through Jesus and through His followers.

Jesus was God’s Love personified in the flesh for all to see, hear, touch, smell and taste! John 3:16 makes this point clear: 16“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Personification of love defined:

To “personify” is to represent a quality or concept by a human form. In a story, it is to have a character which embodies a character trait like “Love” or some other thing that must be communicated to the audience with clarity about what “love” looks like – acts like – or even is. That person in the story speaks and acts out what “Love” is, revealing the nature of that quality to the observers or readers. The gospels are a historical account of a man/God who embodied far more than good qualities. Jesus Christ personified the essence that sustains the universe (Hebrews 1:3) which is God who is love. The life of Christ personified Divine Love in the flesh, thus Jesus personified God Himself (John 14:9) who is “The Love.” The life of Jesus Christ provides that context for Divine Love, that it can be fully disclosed to men – you can experience it in the 5 senses. Jesus said, “No man can come to the Father, except through me.” (John 14:6) The bible says “God is Love” (1 John 4). Without meeting the Christ of the gospels, mankind has little clue as to what that means. The Love that Christ embodied described for mankind a supernatural quality, the Divine essence of God Himself. It was Christ’s life that fully revealed God, the incarnation of His Love.

This is why John says in 1 John 4: 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

The above was taken and adapted from https://brotherreuben.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/life-of-christ-love-personified/

Scripture Texts:

Matthew 19:19: Jesus said to the rich man, “… and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.”

Matthew 22:36-40: Jesus responded to the religious leaders of the day, “36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

John 13:34-35: Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Introduction:

LOVE’s original definition is spelled out in Scripture – it is not complicated - “God is love” says 1 John 4:8 or to reverse this thought and make a point “Love is God!” God created and defined what Love is and what it should look like, and act like in this fallen world. John 1:1 tells us Jesus and God are one which also implies that Jesus is God’s love manifested in the flesh – in other words a recognizable expression of love in the flesh that all can see and model of God is found in Jesus.

Rick Warren in his book The Purpose Driven Life says, “Life is all about love!” “Because God is love, the most important lesson he wants you to learn on earth is how to love. It is in loving that we are most like him, so love is the foundation of every command he has given us; ‘the whole Law can be summed up in this one command; ‘Love others as you love yourself” (123)… “Love should be your top priority, primary objective, and greatest ambition” (124). Why Warren says, “Life without love is worthless” (124).

Point: Jesus is the personification of God’s love in the flesh for us to see, hear, taste, smell and even touch.

This means when we carry out an act of love it demonstrates the qualities and attributes of God modeled by Jesus who dwells in us through the Holy Spirit – Note: When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit moves into our temple – our body – which encompasses heart, mind, soul and spirit.