Loving As Christ Loved

LOVING AS CHRIST LOVED

A. What are you willing to do for someone you love?

ILLUSTRATION:

Some of my fondest memories as a kid was playing with my brothers and friends at an old abandoned TWO-STORY HOUSE located about a quarter of a mile in a PASTURE across from where we lived in Oklahoma. We would spend hours playing in that old house.

One day a couple of friends from church, my little brother Johnny, and I were playing on the first story roof of that house when we discovered a Yellow-Jackets’ nest hanging from a window-sill. Jeff and Mark, our friends from church who happened to be the preacher’s and song leader’s sons, took off their SHIRTS and started popping the NEST. Angry Yellow-Jackets swarmed everywhere.

Jeff and Mark JUMPED off the roof while I darted back through the upstairs window and ran down stairs and out the front door. We were standing in the front yard trying to catch our BREATH when we looked up and saw Johnnie still on top of the roof JUMPING up and down, waiving his arms frantically. We yelled, “Get down! Get down!” He just stayed up their doing a JIG!

So I ran back up STAIRS onto the ROOF, grabbed Johnny, and ran back down carrying him over my shoulder. By the time we got him home, he had about a dozen WHELPS on his body where he was STUNG—and I didn’t get STUNG once.

COMMENT:

Why did I do it? Because I LOVE Johnny. That was my little brother up there getting STUNG, and my LOVE for him COMPELLED me to go up there and get him down even if I got STUNG!

You have done similar things for people you LOVE too, haven’t you? But what about those who HATE you and HURT you? Would you LOVE them SACRIFICIALLY, too?

B. Loving those who HATE and HURT you is LOVING as Jesus LOVED!

1. John 13:34- Jesus tells His disciples that they are to “LOVE each other as He LOVED them.”

a. That was a tough one for the disciples because they were COMPETITORS.

b. I don’t think they HATED each other, but their COMPETITION kept them from LOVING each other as Christ LOVED them.

2. What Jesus does in John 13 is a result of an ARGUMENT that the disciples had immediately following Jesus' introduction of the Lord’s Supper.

a. They were arguing over who’s the greatest among them- Luke 22:24-27 (READ & COMMENT)

ILLUSTRATION:

While the disciples are still eating, Jesus gets up from His RECLINING position. He lays aside his outer clothing, takes a towel and wraps it around himself. He then pours water into a BASIN and begins to WASH His disciples feet one by one. While the disciples are ARGUING over whose the GREATEST among them, the One who is the GREATEST becomes their SERVANT.

b. It’s this kind of LOVE that Jesus wants us to EMULATE. (MOVIE CLIP from Gospel of John)

C. NOTICE THE NATURE OF THE LOVE DEMONSTRATED BY JESUS from John 13:1-5

MESSAGE:

I. LOVE THAT COULD NOT BE QUENCHED BY EVIL- v. 2

A. From this night to the CRUCIFIXION, Jesus was confronted with many of Satan’s PLOYS, using His very own disciples.

1. Judas’ BETRAYAL

a. “The devil had already prompted Judas to betray Jesus.”- v. 2

ILLUSTRATION:

Judas had been with Jesus for three years. Time and again he watched as Jesus compassionately helped people with their NEEDS. He saw how He LOVED and ACCEPTED people who had been SHUNNED by SOCIETY because of their RACE or SOCIAL STANDING. He watched as the Lord extended FORGIVENESS to the UNWORTHY.

Never had Judas saw LOVE demonstrated the way Jesus LIVED it, and now he was ready to

END it all for a measly 30 pieces of silver (“the price of a slave gored by an ox”- Exo. 21:32).

b. The beauty of this story is the fact that Jesus knew Judas was going to “BETRAY Him”- v. 11.

ILLUSTRATION:

Knowing that he was going to be SOLD into the RUTHLESS hands of His enemies, Jesus knelt down in front of his BETRAYER, placed his dirty feet into His hands and WASHED them.

Can you picture Jesus doing that? Here He is holding the FEET of the man who is going to have Him KILLED. His LOVE just pours out for Judas. Tears probably welled up in His eyes as He takes the feet of His BETRAYER and ever so gently WASHES and MESSAGES them.

Is Judas squirming? Is he having second thoughts? Does a tear appear in the corner of his eye? Jesus loved Judas UNCONDITIONALLY.

2. Peter’s DENIAL

a. Despite the LOVE that Peter claimed to have for Jesus and his willingness to DIE for Him,

Jesus told Peter that he would “DENY Him three times before the night is over” - vv.36-38.