The Love of Christ John 15:9-17
Christ commanded us to love one another even as He loves us. For us to know how to love each other we must understand the character of the rich deep love that Jesus Christ that Paul describes in Ephesians 3 as surpassing knowledge.
I. His love is unmerited
A. 1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
B. Ephesians 2:4-7 “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
C. What escapes definition is that even when we reject Him, we disobey Him, we sin against Him, God still loves us. We call it ‘grace’, unmerited love from God to His rebellious creation. - copied
D. God’s unmerited love is given to us, people who don’t deserve His love to transform and change us into new creations.
E. We are such undeserving beneficiaries of God’s rich mercy. He reached down to us in our absolute total depravity and lifted us to Himself pouring out His grace to us.
F. Psalm 40:2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.
II. His love is unlimited
A. He, who loved us forgave us, doing so without limit.
1. Revelation 1:5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
2. Luke 23:34 Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." And they divided His garments and cast lots.
B. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son…
C. Every week among the people who worship will be some who are hurting, some who have fallen once again into the old sins, some who are doubting God’s love and others who are craving it. “God so loved the world” is not an impersonal truth, but a comforting one because it impresses on us the unlimited love of God for us. He so loved us – any of us in the world, no matter what we’ve done – that He gave His only begotten Son. Even His gift to us shows His unlimited love. He did not withhold His dearest and His best. – James M. Behringer
D. Jonah 4:2 So he prayed to the LORD, and said, "Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness...
E. Nansen, the Norwegian explorer, tried to measure an extremely deep part of the Arctic Ocean. The first day, he used his longest measuring line but couldn't reach bottom. He wrote in his log book, "The ocean is deeper than that!" The next day, he added more line but still could not measure the depth, and so again in his record book he wrote, "Deeper than that!" After several days of adding more and more pieces of rope and cord to his line, he had to leave that part of the ocean without learning its actual depth. All he knew was that it was beyond his ability to measure. So too, we cannot plumb the unlimited depths of God's love, because our human measuring line is too short.
III. His love is unselfish
A. Christ was selfless –
1. 1 Corinthians 13:5-6 Love “Does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil; Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.”
2. Jesus is the perfect example of selflessness. Matthew 20:28 says, "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many."
B. He seeks the best for us.
• 2 Corinthians 8:9 “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”
• John 10:10 "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it] more abundantly.
C. He sacrificed His all for us.
1. John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.
2. 1 John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
D. When we pray, remember:
1. The love of God that wants the best for us.
2. The wisdom of God that knows what is best for us.
3. The power of God that can accomplish it. – William Barclay, Prodigals and Those Who Love.
IV. His love is un-reviling
A. “Love suffers long and is kind”
B. 1 Peter 2:23 “Who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;”
C. NLT - He did not retaliate when he was insulted. When he suffered, he did not threaten to get even. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.
D. Returning good for good is commendable and even natural. Returning good for evil is Christ like and supernatural. Christ is our Example. - copied
V. His love is unending
A. “Love never fails”
B. Christ’s love is ETERNAL, nothing I do can cause Him to give up on me EVER.
C. Romans 8:28-29 “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
D. A minister was retiring, and had delivered his last sermon from the pulpit where he had preached many years. One of the faithful members stopped as she went out the door and asked, "Do you know what the most important thing was you said in all these years?" "What was that?" the minister inquired, so he might learn of one way he might have helped someone. "You told us we cannot do anything to get God to stop loving us!" was the quiet reply. The most important thing that you can learn in life is that God never stops loving you! Peter lied about being one of the disciples, but Christ loved him. Thomas doubted but Christ loved him. A woman at well refused to give Jesus a drink of water from the well, but Christ still loved her. - adapted
E. No matter what your life has been like, He still loves you! How much do you love God?
F. Jeremiah 31:3 The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn you.”
