Title: Love Completely
Text: Mark 12:28-33
Date: 6/21/09
Location: Sulphur Spring
Introduction: Last Sunday we talked about the fact that Jesus lived His life with Passion and that as His Disciples we need to be passionate about the same things He was passionate about. This morning I want us to discuss the fact that Jesus loved completely, and if we are truly His Disciples we will strive to do the same. Throughout His ministry Jesus had a lot to say about Loving God and loving each other.
Turn with me to Mark 12:28-33. (Read From Bible)
So Loving Completing includes…..Loving God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind and with all of our strength.
We must love God with our whole being. Not just our hearts or minds, but with every ounce, and every fiber of our being.
Jesus knew this and I believe this is why He answered the lawyers question the way He did. He knew that before a person could really love another person, that they had to love God completely.
One of the mistakes many people today make is by thinking that our relationship with God is totally separate from our relationships with one another. But in reality that simply isn’t true.
The Apostle John knew this and wrote about it in 1 John 2:9-11, which says, “Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
Rick Warren the author of the Purpose Driven life says, “We were made to love and be loved.”
In His book, One month to Live Kerry Shook says it like this: “When all is said and done, relationships are all that really matter….”
Our relationship with God and our relationships with one another are so important that Jesus said that there were no greater commandments than loving God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and loving our neighbors as we do ourselves.
As Disciples of Jesus Christ He is our example. Therefore we should love as He loved. Let’s take a look at a few of the passages of Scripture in which Jesus was teaching about Love, and see what it really takes to love completely.
Jesus’ love is on another level than ours, but that doesn’t mean that we should not do everything we can to grow in our love.
Turn with me to Matthew 5:43-44, 46-47
1. JESUS’ LOVE IS …EXCEPTIONAL ….
His love is radically different from what the world teaches. The world teaches to love those who love you and, despise those who hate you. But in this passage of Scripture Jesus makes it clear that that is not acceptable behavior for a Christian. We are to love everyone, even our enemies, and in this passage of Scripture Jesus commands us to not only love them but pray for them.
Illustration: A young man was convicted of killing another person in cold blooded murder in New York. The murderer, who had a long record, was no stranger to the legal system. As the jury returned the guilty verdict he just looked at them with an angry stare on his face.
The victim’s family had attended every day of the 2-week trial. On the day the sentence was read the victim’s mother and grandmother were given the opportunity to address the court. When they spoke, neither addressed the jury. Both spoke directly to the man who had killed their son and grandson, and to the surprise of everyone in the courtroom both women said that they had forgiven him.
The victims’ Grandmother looked at this convicted killer and said, "You broke the two most important commandments—loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and loving your neighbor as yourself.
But the Bible teaches me that I am your neighbor and that I should forgive you. I sat in this trial for two weeks, and for the last sixteen months I tried my best to hate you. But you know what? I couldn’t do it. I feel sorry for you because you made a bad decision and I’m going to give you my address, and I promise that if you write me, I’ll write you back.
The Judge in the case later said, "After the grandmother finished, I looked at the defendant. His head was hanging low. There was no more swagger, no more stare. The destructive and evil forces within him collapsed helplessly before this remarkable display of humaneness."
I would have said it differently if I had I been the judge, I would have described the mother and grandmother’s response as the perfect illustration of Christian love and forgiveness that Jesus expects from his disciples.
So in order to love completely your love must be exceptional.
2. JESUS’ LOVE IS UNCONDITIONAL………
Read Luke 15:11-32
Illustration: There is story about a Chinese artist, a new Christian who wanted to paint the parable of the prodigal son. In his first attempt, he painted the father standing at the gate with his arms folded looking sternly down the road at a son coming. Another Christian explained to him that was not the picture of our heavenly Father. “But most fathers are that way”, said the artist. He was told that Jesus was trying to show what god was like with an unconditional love to those who come to Him. He repainted the picture and this time the father was running toward the son with his robes flapping in the wind and a look of joy on his face. There was one thing the other did not understand this time for the father did not have on matching shoes. So he asked why? The artist simple replied that the father was so excited about reaching his son he grabbed the shoes nearest to him and ran for he did not care if the shoes matched or not. All that mattered was that his son was now found. Jesus showed us that love as He took on the form of a man.
As His Disciples if we are going to love completely just as He did, then our love, like His must be unconditional. We must be willing to do what this father did. We must be willing to forgive, and keep on loving people, despite what they may have said or done to us.
3. GOD’S LOVE IS SACRIFICIAL AND SO IS CHRIST’S……….
Read 1 John 4:9-12
In His book One Month to Live, Kerry Shook tells the story of a man who operated a drawbridge over a bay in a small ocean town.
Every day he would walk up to the office next to the drawbridge, where he could control the lever. He would pull up the lever, the drawbridge with the train track on it would rise, and enormous ships would pass by. Then he would push the lever down and the drawbridge would lower so the train could cross safely.
Almost every day the man’s little boy would go to work with him. The little boy was fascinated by the drawbridge and loved to watch his father raise and lower it. One day when they were there together, the dad received a call saying that an unscheduled train was on its way and he needed to lower the drawbridge. He glanced out the window just before pushing the lever down, and noticed that his son was playing in the huge gears of the drawbridge next to the water. He yelled for him but the boy couldn’t hear him because of the sound of the waves.
The man raced out of the office and started running toward his son in an attempt to grab him and pull him to safety, but then the horrible truth of the situation struck him. If he didn’t push down that lever right away, the train would plunge into the sea and hundreds of passengers would die. But if he lowered the bridge, his son would most certainly be killed. At the last possible second he made a decision. He ran back to his office pulled down the lever, and fell to his knees in agony as he watched that drawbridge crush his little boy. With tears streaming down his cheeks, he looked out and saw the train racing safely over the bridge. He could see in the window of one of the dining cars that the people were eating, drinking, and laughing, totally oblivious to the great sacrifice he had just made for them.
That’s a great illustration of God’s love for us. Most people today are totally oblivious to the Sacrifice He made for them by sending His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross for their sins.
Jesus not only understood this kind of love, He practiced it himself. In John 15:13, Jesus said, Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
In the 10th chapter of John Jesus said, “No one can take my life from me. I lay down my life voluntarily. For I have the right to lay it down when I want to and also the power to take it again..."
Jesus loved us enough that He was willing to sacrifice his own life so that we could live. But that’s not all, He also expects us to love sacrificially.
In the 13th chapter of John it says that Jesus showed His disciples the full extent of His love by taking upon himself the role of a servant and washing their feet before they celebrated the Passover together. Later in this same chapter Jesus looks at his disciples and says…
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:34-35
The truth behind this passage of Scripture is illustrated by a true story that took place in the state of Maryland. There are many rivers that flow into the Atlantic. Many geese and swans make their homes in and around the lakes and rivers of Maryland. Most of the time the geese and swans that live in close proximity to one another don’t bother or pay much attention to one another.
Once or twice a year it snows, and in certain parts of the state the rivers even freeze over. One morning, a woman named Theresa was having breakfast in her sunroom which had a perfect view of the river. When she looked out of the window she saw a large Canadian goose that had somehow gotten its feet stuck in the ice.
Then to her amazement she looked up into the sky and saw a line of beautiful swans flying overhead. The leader of the swans made a right turn and started flying in a circle. Then all at once, the entire circle of swans descended and landed on the ice where the goose was and started pecking at the ice with their beaks.
The ice was not real thick, and with the hard pecking of the swans a circle of ice eventually broke around the Canadian Goose’s feet. The swans ascended and flew in circles above the goose, as if they were waiting to see the goose take flight. The goose managed to stand up but couldn’t move it frozen wings. Again the swans descended and landed around the goose. With their powerful beaks, they began to scrape the goose’s wings from top to bottom. They lifted the goose’s wings and its body to scrape and scratch the ice that was frozen to its feathers. Finally the goose extended its wings and flapped them several times. The four swans flew back to the join the rest of the swans that were still circling above.
Theresa was overcome with emotion when the goose finally managed to fly up and join the group of swans that had come to his rescue.
Jesus said, "A new commandment I give you; love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:34-35
Invitation: In order to love completely we must practice the Kind of Love that Jesus showed to us. But let’s face it the only way we can do that is with God’s help. There are too many people in our lives who irritate us or are hard to get along with for us to be able to love them in our own strength. But nothing is impossible with God, and if we are willing to love as He loved, He will give us the power and ability to do so.
