“Pure love”
John 13:34-35
Ronnie Millsap recorded a song back in the 70’s
Called “pure love”
I used to listen to that song for hours
I loved it, my Dad on the other hand got sick of hearing it
Pure love
Baby its pure love
99 and 44 one hundredths percent pure love
In preparing for today’s message
I read John 13 over and over again
Studying
Praying
Preparing
I read about Jesus washing the feet of his disciples
On the night before his final persecution began
And
I tried to see how I could use passage of scripture in my life
How I could show you how to use it in your life
And
How this passage of scripture could make me better
And
Show me the holes in my own character
I now understand
You see
Jesus went beyond 99 and 44/100th
He was all in
100% pure love
A true servant
Does not look for the glory for himself
They instead look at how they can serve others
In our study today we find Jesus teaching his disciples
His public ministry has come to an end
Due to the increased persecution
And
He is now giving hands on
Instruction to his boys
Preparing them
For the change that is coming
Please open your bibles to John 13
Let me read for you verses 34 and 35
Throw your bulletin in there as we will go back there a couple of times this morning
John 13:34-35
“34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
Jesus in a single act of love
Shows us what pure love is
Love each other
As I have loved you is what he tells us
This is where I want to camp out this morning
How do we do that?
How do we love as Jesus loved?
Can we do it?
Is it possible?
This was new teaching at the time Jesus said this
It was actually very revolutionary
But this new teaching did not negate the old
The book of Leviticus 19:18 tells us a bit about love
“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
This ties in so tight with the golden rule from Matthew 7
To Paraphrase
“Do to others what you want them to do to you”
All the way back in the Old Testament we see we are supposed to love others
But Jesus raises the bar
Jesus is good at raising the bar
He sets a higher standard
Because there is no other standard that we should measure our life by
Remember the OT law says
Do not murder
But Jesus says being mad at someone and having hate in your heart is the same thing
He raises the bar
The 10 commandments say do not commit adultery
Don’t cheat on your wife or your husband
But Jesus says if you even look at someone with lust
It is the same as cheating
Jesus raises the bar
He sets the standard higher
Why does he do this?
He does this to show us our need for him
He does this to show us our need for grace
He does this to show us our need for mercy
He does this to show us that we are unable to NOT break the law
We are all sinners
And in showing us that we are all sinners
And in showing us that we deserve judgment
Jesus in his love
Shows us the way to forgiveness and redemption
He shows us how to not have to face the punishment for our sins
So in verse 34 and 35
He does not tell us to love others like we love ourselves
We know that when we love others as ourselves, we usually are successful at showing love
But
Jesus also knows that often times we don’t love ourselves
Shame
Anger
Disappointment can cause us not to love ourselves sometimes
Cause us not to love ourselves sometimes
So if we are capable of not loving ourselves
We are capable of not loving others or showing love to others
He does not tell us to love our neighbors as the Old Testament does
Because Jesus knows
That we sometimes have trouble loving our neighbors
At 10:00 at night
When I am trying to go to sleep and my neighbors start up again with the boomty boomty music
My love level for the neighbors is a little low
I would feel pretty safe in saying many of you may have similar feelings
You see Jesus knows that as humans we often have trouble with love
Even love for ourselves
So
He tells us to love like HE loves
He tells us to copy pure love
I have preached the following verses a couple of times in the last 2 years
But let me show one of many pictures of Jesus as pure love
John 13:1-5
Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end.[a] 2 It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas,[b] son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. 4 So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, 5 and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.
Jesus Christ
Our Lord and Savior
The King of the universe
Got down on his knees
And washed the dirty, stinky feet of his disciples
He humbled himself
Why did he do this?
He did it
To show his pure love- and give us a clear picture of that love
And in the process
He taught them and us
What pure love is?
He shows us in this act
How to love as he loved
An unconditional
Sacrificial love
That is like no other love
Ya’ll all know the following verses
If you have attended a Christian wedding service
You may have heard this
You may not know the chapter and verse
But you know the scripture
In trying to see what Loving like Jesus is like?
I can many picture of his love
But this verse- gives us a map or a plan to live and practice that type of love
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it;[a] but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Skipping down to verse 13
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
So
I believe that we can in this verse that the Apostles Paul wrote so long ago
See what the pure love of Jesus looks like
And as we do
We can begin to learn to love as HE loved
Jesus himself is love
Pure love
And without love, as Paul says
I would be nothing
Without Jesus
I could gain the world and all this world has to offer
And
I would have gained nothing.
Let’s break down verses 4-7
To see what the pure love of Jesus looks like
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Love is Patient and kind
Wow!
Already I have a problem
Patience is not always my best attribute
If you are honest with yourself it might not be yours either
We tend to make excuses about why we lack patience
“Old so and so just pushes my buttons”
But Love
Pure love
True love
The love that is Jesus
Is patient and kind
And Jesus says to love as he loves
So we must learn patience
I know the world is full of people and thing that try our patience
Do you really think Jesus did not experience that?
He was betrayed
Neglected
Rejected
People bad mouthed him lied about him
See
He had showed the world who he was
And
Why he came
And still they refused to believe
Even his own disciples tried his patience
Always doubting
Trying to do it their way
Not listening
Not paying attention
In the end one betrayed him
One denied him- not once but 3 times
The rest ran off
And even knowing this would happen
Still be had patience and showed kindness
He humbled himself and washed their feet
He patiently explained himself and his purpose
He even prayed for those who were in the process of killing his human body while he suffered on the cross
That is patience
That is love
That is Jesus
If we want to love as he loved we must strive to find patience and kindness
Jesus is love
Pure love
And
Verse 5 continues to
Give us another view of this pure love
Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way.
The bible says in Exodus 20:5 “I God am a jealous God”
We know that Jesus is Love
And love is not jealous
And Jesus is God
So
Is this a contradiction?
No
Why
This is not jealousy in a human way
His ways are higher and different than ours and this is often hard to understand
The Jealousy in Exodus is nothing like the jealousy in 1 Corinthians or in Galatians
Because the Jealousy in Exodus is divine Jealousy
A desire to have us only worship him
Our creator
We are unable to be jealous like God
Because we are not divine
But God is unable to be jealous in a human way
You see
Jealousy in human terms
This type of jealousy is often associated with suspicion, envy, and (riv-al-ry),
And human jealousy is always sinful.
Divine jealousy is not sinful because God cannot sin
See
Paul says in Philippians 4:11-12
That we are called to be content in all circumstances.
We cannot be content and still have human jealousy
“Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. 12 I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little.”
From our last series from Genesis we saw that Joseph's brothers were sinfully jealous of Joseph
Cain was sinfully jealous of Able
The Snake was sinfully jealous of God’s relationship with Adam and Eve
Sinful jealousy
Yes, God is a jealous God.
Because He will not share His praise with another: Isaiah 42:8
“I am the LORD; that is my name!
I will not give my glory to anyone else,
nor share my praise with carved idols.
God carefully maintains and protects what is rightly His.
But he is never jealous as we are jealous
Love is not boastful
Jesus was never boastful
He always gave glory to the Father
He humbled himself on many occasions
God himself was born in a barn
In a feed trough
The King came to earth in the least boastful most humble way
He did not demand position
He did not demand respect
He did not brag about all he had done for----- us- the church
He quietly loved us – taught us
Healed us, protected us
He let his work show that he was
If we are to love like Jesus we must not allow ourselves to be boastful
Boastfulness is caused by pride
Pride did not wash the feet of the disciples
Love did
Humility did
Love is not rude
Jesus was never ever rude
We sometimes are
And when we are
We often make excuses for our rudeness like we often make excuses for our lack of patience
“I had a lot on my plate”
“It was a bad time”
“They rubbed me wrong”
Do you think Jesus had a lot on his plate?
Do you think the timing of his persecution was always convenient?
Lots of people tried to rub Jesus the wrong way
Listen
Jesus was usually brutally honest
He was often very direct
He did not bandy words or beat around the bush
But
He was never rude
Because
Love is not rude
Rudeness did not wash the feet of the disciples
Love did
Love does not demand its own way.
Jesus often met people where they were
He did not demand they come to him
He went to them
On the streets
At the well
On the mountain
In a grave yard
Walking across the water
Jesus did not demand that they listen’
He did not demand that they worship him
He went to them
In their lives
In their circumstances
In their storms
In their wreck
Even the ones they caused themselves
And he showed them love
When we sit here in our church – in our own lives---expecting people to come to us
We are not showing the love of Jesus
We must put ourselves aside and go out and reach people where they are
Having his own way did not wash the feet of the disciples
Love did
Love is not irritable
I wish I could say the same about myself
I wish I could say the same about some of you
Many times I feel like I should live in a trash can on Sesame Street
But
Pure Love is not grouchy
Jesus was not grouchy
If ever anyone had a right or reason to be
It was him
Irritability and grouchiness did not wash their feet
Love did
Love keeps no record of being wronged.
Jesus washed the feet of Judas
He did not hold a grudge
He did not throw it in his face
He was hurt
But instead of holding on to the hurt
He loved Judas
He served Judas
He forgave him
And washed his feet
Nuff said
Love does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
Jesus never said
“Well they got what they deserved”
I wish I could say the same about myself
Jesus never was happy when someone received judgment
You see
Jesus came to save the whole world
ALL means ALL
Jesus actually hurts when people reject him
It pains his heart for anyone to not receive him’
Not to accept him
He did not come into the world to condemn but to save
And he and the angles in heaven rejoice when the truth that is the love of Christ wins out’ and someone
Sees
And
Hears
And understands
And believes
This is the love that got down on his kness
7 Love never gives up, never loses faith
Is always hopeful,
And endures through every circumstance.
If we are to follow Jesus’ command to love as he loves we would do well to strive to live by this picture of love
Be patient and kind
Are we always going to get that done?
No
But that is the standard we should be striving for
Be humble
Put others needs above our own
Don’t brag about our own victories accomplishments and ablities
But instead give glory to God in all we do
Be content
God provides our needs
Not always our wants
But when our wants line up with his wants for us
He provides our wants as well
Try hard not to be rude or grouchy
Nobody likes a grouch- nobody likes rude behavior
And a rude grouch is pretty ineffective at showing the love of Jesus or sharing the love of Jesus
Keep no record of wrongs
This is simple
Forgive and forget
It is amazing how when we forgive
I mean truly forgive
We soon forget as well
To show the love of Jesus
We should hurt when folks are lost
We should be desperately trying to help them get found
And
When they do
We should Jump for joy and celebrate
Love never quits
Even when it is nailed to a wooden cross
Jesus prayed for us as he was being killed
And even more
He prayed for the ones who were killing him
Love never
Loses faith
Jesus knew that he was dying
He always knew that was his purpose
But
He remained faithful to the end
“Not my will but yours”
Love never loses hope
Because pure love is hope
And love endures in every circumstance
Jesus said if you want to know the most important commandment
It is this
Love like I love
And
When we love like he loved
We will live--- like he lived
And in the process of living and loving like him
We become a beacon of love
A beacon of light
To show the way to the source of pure light
And pure love
It is only when we know this pure love
That we can know love
And it is only when we know love that we can live
Believe in Jesus and live !!!
Close from the heart
Pray
