The disciples had the question of who was the greatest among them on their minds, but Jesus had something entirely different on His mind.
He was thinking of the one that would BETRAY HIM!
One of the most painful experiences in life is to be betrayed by someone we love.
• We all know the anguish of being betrayed by a friend
• Many know the devastation of being crushed by a mate in the betrayal of their marriage vows
• We, as citizens, know the disappointment of being betrayed by politicians, who will sell us out behind closed doors to special interest groups
• Many know the anger they feel when they know that their lawyer has sold them out for money underneath the table
• Every pastor knows the sleepless nights caused by someone in his “flock” who betrayed him and his church
Betrayal is as much a part of our lives as breathing and eating. We all have experienced it in many different ways.
It must have been a tremendous shock to the disciples, when the Lord told them that one of them was going to BETRAY HIM! He knew which one was going to do that evil deed, but they did not!
They did not doubt His words, but they could not help asking themselves, and the Lord, “Lord, who is it?” All of a sudden that was something they desperately wanted to know.
That seems like such a ridiculous question, why bother pondering about it? But listen! According to the Word of God, very few people really love the Lord.
Illus: Many have set the standard of the evidence of love, to be just SIMPLY SAYING THAT YOU LOVE HIM -- THAT IS ALL THE PROOF YOU NEED. NOT SO!
God’s standard is different than man’s standard. Many SAY they LOVE the LORD.
The words CHRIST and LOVE go together like two matching pieces of a puzzle. When many people hear the word LOVE, they immediately associate it with CHRIST.
However, many words that seem to IMPLY CERTAIN THINGS, DO NOT MEAN WHAT YOU THINK THEY DO.
For example, every year we speak of catching a COLD when winter comes. The word “cold” seems to imply that when the weather turns cold, it causes people to catch colds. How many of us have been told that we should put a coat on so we would not catch cold?
Listen, many people wear coats all winter, but still get sick with colds. Some people use the word “cold” to imply it has something to do with catching a virus.
If we had been paying attention, we would have known that people do not catch colds from cold weather. Doctors have been convinced of this for a long time.
Illus: During World War II, some extensive research was conducted concerning soldiers getting sick in the winter season. This was done to help keep our men in the best condition possible to fight that cruel war. Some soldiers were kept inside a warm building. Others were kept outside, in freezing cold, with very little clothes on. After a designated time, guess which group had the sicknesses. The soldiers who had been kept inside the warm building had the highest incidence of sickness. Why? Because cold weather does not cause “colds.” They concluded that we humans carry all kinds of germs, and that more people get sick in cold weather because the cold weather forces people to be in closer contact with each other. In summer, the sickness declines as people are able to be outside and be separated more.
We use the word “cold” to imply something, but what we are implying is completely incorrect. WE CAN CATCH A VIRUS, BUT WE CANNOT CATCH A COLD!
The word “love,” is a word that we use to imply something, but many times those who use it are implying something that is completely untrue.
Many use the word “LOVE” the same way a grammar-school child uses it.
Illus: One week a child might write, “I love Jenny.” The next week that same child might write, “I love Sally.” Children do not know what “love” means. Probably the reason the children do not know what it means, is because most adults do not know what it means.
However, it is critical that Christians learn what “love” means
Obviously the Lord is not here physically, as He was with the disciples. We cannot do what John did.
• You can not lay your head on Jesus’ breast
• You can not kiss Him on the cheek
• You can not embrace Him
Yet the Bible tells us there are some ways we can EXPRESS OUR LOVE TO HIM. We are showing Jesus we love Him...
I. WHEN WE OBEY HIS WORD
Jesus saw people who claimed with their mouths that they loved Him, but He knew they did not really love Him. He made a clear statement of how real love for Him could be seen. He said, John 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
Many say they love the Lord, yet they knowingly refuse to keep His commandments.
Illus: Two Christian men had their car break down. As they stood on the roadside, some folks in the neighborhood saw them. They came out to see if they could assist them. The two men thanked them for their gestures of kindness, but told them they had some help coming. In the meantime, some of the neighbors began to use some foul language in the conversation. One of the Christian men saw that the conversation could deteriorate further, so he began to witness to the neighbors. Immediately their demeanor changed, and so did their vocabulary. Later, the Christian man could not help thinking about the incident. If a person would have walked up as the conversation was getting started, he might have thought those two neighbors were foul mouthed sinners. However, if a person had come up later, he would have thought those neighbors were saints, because they were telling how much they loved the Lord.
Many claim to love the Lord, but it is obvious that they do not know that God says, “IF YE LOVE ME, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS.”
LOVE IS NOT SHOWN BY WORDS ALONE. LOVE IS EVIDENCED BY DEEDS! If we are going to show the Lord we love Him in we must OBEY HIS COMMANDMENTS.
We also will show we love Him in¬¬¬¬…
II. WHEN WE LOVE OTHERS
I know this is not popular. We live in a society where good preaching is defined, NOT BY WHAT YOU SAY, but BY WHAT YOU DO NOT SAY.
I am going to assume that everyone here came to hear from God’s Word today, and that you want to know WHAT GOD’S WORD SAYS ABOUT HOW YOU CAN SHOW THAT YOU TRULY LOVE HIM IN.
I must warn you though, some of the standards God’s Word lays out will shock you, probably as much as what the Lord said shocked the disciples when He informed them, “...one of you shall betray me.”
Look at Matthew 25:40b. We read, “...Verily I say unto you, In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Also, look at John 13:35. We read, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” We can measure our love for God by the extent of our love for others. We do for Christ to the extent that we do, “...unto one of the least of these my brethren...”
We live in a generation in which our lives are chopped up into small slivers. Once we cut our lives up into these small pieces:
• We distribute HATE to some
• We distribute LOVE to others
We have been taught that there are certain people WE ARE TO LOVE, and OTHERS WE ARE TO HATE.
Even though the Bible does not teach this, we feel justified in hating certain people.
A. WE CANNOT LOVE JESUS AND HATE PEOPLE OF OTHER NATIONALITIES
America is made up of people from all of the nations of the world. Often people of one nationality will group together and have hard feelings toward people of another nationality.
We have Christians in churches across this great land of ours, who CLAIM to love the Lord, yet they feel justified in actually HATING certain groups of a different nationality. We cannot allow ourselves to be caught up in this.
Remember, Jesus said, in Matthew 25:40, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Remember, we can’t walk up to the Lord and embrace him and show our love to Him, but:
• Jesus said that if we hate people that some would call “the least,” then we have hated Him
• On the other hand, when we show love to them, we are showing love to Him
In spite of all of this, there are still some who profess to love the Lord, whose hearts are full of HATE FOR PEOPLE OF SOME OTHER RACE OR RACES.
This is more obvious in churches than any other place. It should be the one place you would not find it, but yet it is the dominate place where you can find it.
In fact, there are some who hate other races of people so much, that they will leave their churches if people from those races begin attending.
Illus: Sad to say, in Columbia, S.C., there was one church that actually had parking lot attendants who, among other things, stood guard. If members of a particular minority drove up, they asked them to leave. In one instance, one man went on into the worship service. While he was in the worship service, his car "mysteriously" caught on fire.
That is hate of the worst kind, yet some so-called Christians practice it. Some feel it is all right to HATE a person of a different race or nationality. Yet those same people claim to be Christians.
You might expect that kind of behavior from sinners, but not from Christians.
It is said that the most segregated time of the week is Sunday morning at eleven o’clock. Why? It seems that Jews, Hispanics, African-Americans, Japanese, etc., can not sit together in worship services and worship God together.
Never mind that they can work together on a job, eat together, play ball together, ride the bus together and go to school together.
Illus: Listen, Christians of all nationalities are going to have a hard time convincing the lost world they love the Lord, when their hearts are filled with hate for each other.
We see people of all races who are guilty of having hate for other races. There are some who overcome these prejudices, but most will say, “WE HAVE OUR CHURCHES, and THEY HAVE THEIR CHURCHES.”
Listen, when the Lord said He would build His church, He did not make that plural in the sense that people could not attend a church because of their nationality or race.
God’s church is God’s Church, period. We should LOVE PEOPLE, NO MATTER WHAT THEIR NATIONALITY or RACE is. Then we see...
B. WE CAN NOT LOVE JESUS AND HATE PEOPLE WHO BELONG TO DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS
Some believe that it is all right to HATE PEOPLE OF OTHER RACES, and they also believe IT IS PERMISSIBLE TO HATE PEOPLE WHO DO NOT BELONG TO THEIR RELIGIOUS DENOMINATION.
Many folks are going to be surprised when they get to heaven. That is, they are going to find people there who were not members of their denomination.
Many feel that theirs is the only denomination God recognizes, and all others are inferior, and are enemies. Denominational hatred is practiced all the time. Many times it is practiced between big churches and small churches.
Illus: Many “mega-churches” are doing what “mega-stores” are doing to small businesses. They move into a community, and their goal is to completely wipe out all Mom and Pop stores, so they will have a monopoly on the market. They do not care if Mom and Pop lose everything they have worked for all their lives. All they care about is themselves.
The same thing is being done by some “mega-churches”. They compromise the Word of God, and give people anything that appeals to them to draw them in.
They do not care if they wipe out every small Bible-preaching church within a twenty mile radius. All they care about is themselves.
Illus: Let me give you an example. Some churches have attendance drives, but instead of seeking out un-churched people, they go to the members of some little church that is struggling, and try to draw them in to increase their attendance for that big Sunday. They do not care if the pastor of that smaller church has spent all week long praying and studying to feed his flock. They go behind his back, and steal the members God has given him to feed. The reason they do that is because they consider that smaller church to be inferior.
They do not care how much it hurts that little church. In their opinion, the small church does not count because it is not the same DENOMINATION.
Illus: Churches like this remind us of the story of David, when Nathan, the prophet, told the story to reveal his sin. Nathan told about a rich man who had many sheep, and a poor man who had only one. The rich man, who had many, stole the only sheep the poor man had. When David heard the story, he became furious and said, “Who is the man who hath done this evil?” Nathan pointed at David and said, “Thou art the man.” When David saw himself in the light that God saw him, he did not like what he saw.
When God sees us as church members who would deliberately hurt other churches, He does not like what He sees!
This is something Christians had better understand; if we want God to bless our church, we must be careful not to be trying to destroy other Bible-believing churches. We might not consider them to be as great as we are, but God loves them as much as He loves us.
Jesus said, in Matt. 25:40b, “...Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
C. WE CANNOT LOVE JESUS AND HATE PEOPLE ON DIFFERENT SOCIAL LEVELS THAN OURS
Some believe that in America especially, we see more prejudice and hate than any other country.
• There are shopping malls that are built only for affluent people. They do not want middle class or poor people to even park in their parking lots.
• There are churches today who “cater” only to the wealthy. If you are not a DOCTOR, LAWYER, BANKER, OR CPA, you are not encouraged to attend. In fact, you are not wanted there!
• There are schools and universities that are built only for the higher echelon of our society.
This country of ours is divided into many different social levels. If you do not belong to a certain social level, many feel justified in shunning you for that reason alone.
We who call ourselves Christians, must never feel justified in disliking any social class of people. The book of James has much to say to Christians, who favor those who are rich by giving them the best seats in the church, and telling the poor to sit over on the floor.
Jesus said, “...Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
There is another kind of hate that we Christians have legalized.
D. WE CAN NOT LOVE JESUS AND HATE PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT IN OUR “CLIQUE”
If people do not think the way we think, or “go along” with us and our group, then we, as Christians, feel we have a right to HATE THEM!
Let me give you an example. This is going to make some of you angry, but it is scriptural and you need to hear it.
Illus: We all know people who belong to the Labor Unions, and many of those people profess to be Christians. These have sometimes found themselves in situations, because the group wants to “strike” for higher wages and/or more benefits.
When that decision is made, they feel that no one has a right to work. If anyone does, THEY WANT TO FIGHT THEM, AND CALL THEM ALL KINDS OF NAMES.
Often, what is done in those picket lines is not pleasing to the Lord, yet some of those same people who cursed, and fought, and demonstrated all kinds of hate, can be found in church on Sunday morning, professing to love the Lord.
Jesus said that if we love the Lord, our love will be shown to OTHERS.
Jesus said, Matt. 25:40b “...Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Conclusion:
We cannot show the Lord that we love Him by embracing Him, or kissing Him on the cheek, but we can show Him we love Him tBY LOVING OTHERS, EVEN IF THEY ARE OF A DIFFERENT NATIONALITY, DENOMINATION, SOCIAL LEVEL, OR ORGANIZATION.
I. WE SHOW JESUS WE LOVE HIM WHEN WE OBEY HIS WORD
II. WE SHOW JESUS WE LOVE HIM WHEN WE LOVE OTHERS
Note: You can hear Dr. Odell Belger on Youtube. Please type Youtube Lykesland
