Let us have another word of prayer, so we continue in His presence.
Lord, we do thank You every week for this precious opportunity to gather here, along with ones throughout this world who are putting You in reverence. We are thankful that it was You who first loved us, and You have drawn us unto Yourself.
We have been able to feast around Your table. And Lord, we are thankful, too, that You have left us Your Word and Your Holy Spirit, that we may continue to feast on this bread of life.
For we will break that bread of life this morning and feed upon You—feed upon Your Word, O Lord—that is our true source of nourishment. Without that, we are nothing.
So we do, Lord, offer ourselves to You. We open the ears of our hearts to what Your Spirit would have to say to us in this hour and these days. In Your wonderful name, we pray. Amen.
Amen.
We have been sharing together on this matter, one of the keys to recovery. We started off by sharing about how we are called to love one another. Then, last week, we saw loving one another as He has loved us.
This week, we want to look at this matter: loving one another as seen in the life of Jesus. We want to look through His life to see the great love that motivated Him in everything that He did.
The challenge today is our familiarity with the life of Jesus. We love the stories, but we want to get beyond the stories and see His heart, His motivation—the why of what He did.
As we look at the life of Jesus, we are looking at it because He is the Son of Man. When we look at our Lord and see how He is described in the fullness of His name as the Lord Jesus Christ, those are not just flippant names. Each one has a very specific purpose.
When we think about Lord, that speaks of His divine authority, His supreme authority and power, and His divine nature. When we think about Jesus, it speaks more of His humanity as the Son of Man. When we speak of Christ, He is that promised Messiah, the Anointed One to the Jewish people, and He brings salvation to the whole world.
Throughout Scripture, these names are used interchangeably and in combination: Lord Jesus Christ, Lord Jesus, Jesus Christ, even Christ Jesus. But we are particularly using the name Jesus so that we focus upon His humanity as the Son of Man, that we can be encouraged in our humanity to allow the life within us to lead us into that overcoming, successful life that He has given us.
As we have been sharing, we have been looking at the setting in John 13–17. It starts in John 13:1, and this verse really sets the scene for these chapters—the essence, heart, and burden that was upon our Lord when He was with His disciples.
Now before the feast of the passover, Jesus knowing that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own that were in the world, He loved them unto the end.
He knew His hour had come. He knew where He was going: He was returning to the Father. He knew He had been here with a purpose. He also knew that these ones He was leaving behind were utterly helpless in themselves.
In His great love—having loved them to the uttermost—He was preparing them. These chapters, John 13–17, prepare them for what lies ahead, that they might come into seeing and knowing the all-sufficiency of Christ, the relationship they had been brought into with the Father, and their precious fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
As they heard these words for the first time in John 13–17, they did not fully understand them. But as they began living them out through the book of Acts, we see the eyes of their hearts opening more and more to understand all that the Lord had done for them.
Now, as we are reviewing—Jim says a good teacher always reviews. So if that is the standard Jim says, I have to do that. The accountant in me would just push ahead, but we will review a little bit here.
In these days, the question is asked a lot: What is God doing? We are thankful that we know our God is a God of purpose, and He is a God of recovery.
He is not just doing a recovery work in these days. Ever since the fall of Adam, He has been doing a recovery work to bring the people of God, to bring His creation, back to what He originally intended for them.
Today, that is really focused on recovering the testimony of Jesus: the testimony of the life of His Son, the testimony of Jesus where His headship is expressed among His people and His life is manifested through His people—not only individually, but also corporately. There is that testimony: There He is. Praise God for that.
The key to this recovery always starts within the individual hearts of each brother and sister. As we are talking about following the Lord and allowing Him to do a work, it is a heart work that He does.
The deepest work He does is within our hearts, bringing our hearts into full alignment with His heart. Our Lord Jesus’ heart was devoted to His Father’s purpose. He wants our hearts awakened to know Him—not just knowing about Him, but knowing Him in reality and in life: His heart, His desire, and His purpose.
Thank the Lord that the Holy Spirit continues to cry out to us in this hour, in this day, and in this time.
There are two aspects of this recovery. First, there is that personal, intimate relationship with Him—that vertical relationship which is so vital and essential. It is the very foundation that we have with Him. This is typified in the book of Ezra, when they returned to establish their relationship with Him.
The second aspect is love for one another—the horizontal love, the love and care for one another in our relationships. This is what we see in the book of Nehemiah, where together they rebuilt the wall side by side, working together and assisting one another.
John 13–17 records the last time the Lord was with His disciples before the cross. He was getting ready to demonstrate this great love at Calvary, and He was sharing with them to prepare them for what lay ahead.
They did not know what lay ahead, but He wanted to share with them the blessing they had been brought into: the fellowship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Within that fellowship there is security, peace, encouragement, support, love, and unity, as we see exemplified in John 13–17. This is what He was preparing for. He was showing them the way and the full provision that has been made for each and every one of us. We are thankful for that.
Throughout John 13–17 there is this message of knowing. The knowing here is reality. It is not merely mental apprehension; it is knowing something in your heart, knowing the reality of this fellowship into which we have been brought, not just talking about it.
It is knowing and being driven by the absolute love that we need for one another. The Lord is crying out to us—every time we take this table—that we would know how much the Father loves us.
Just as the Father loved Him, He loves each one of us. We think a lot about Jesus’ love for us, but the Father’s love is so strong also. We need to know the Person and work of the Holy Spirit.
Our God is a God of purpose, and He is doing this great work of recovery with the end in view. In Christ, He has made every provision for us during this process.
The great comfort we have is that He will return. Just as William shared at the table, He will return. That is part of the beautiful aspect of this table: we take it until He returns.
What a joy we have to remember His death and the wonderful testimony of the resurrection—that death could not hold Him—until He returns. It puts a hope within our hearts.
We have been using as our theme verses John 13:33–35. We touched last time on John 13:33 and the little phrase, “little children.” It is such an intimate phrase, showing the personal way the Lord looks upon and considers us.
This was the only time the Lord used this phrase, and it speaks of its significance—the intimacy and the love that He has for each of us.
We spoke last time about the new commandment and the very nature of it:
A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
We looked at that phrase in the broad sense of “even as I have loved you.” This time, we want to look more closely at how this love for one another is displayed and seen through His life.
This love is displayed and seen through His life with a purpose. That purpose is in John 13:35:
By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.
What a testimony that is—not some, but all men will know. When they see the life of Christ in you, when they see this love manifested in you, they will know that you are His disciples. You have that love for one another, something beyond yourself. This is what He is jealous for. This is what He is working for.
When we talk about the love of Jesus, we usually get two responses. One is, “Oh, I have heard about this my whole life.” We can make it common and devalue it in such a way. May that never be the case. May we repent of that attitude.
It is so precious. It is so fresh. The love of Jesus is not something kindergarten in nature. It is something that we never fully apprehend upon this earth.
Some of us touch it and say, “Oh yeah, I know about the love of Jesus,” and we are satisfied with so little. We stop. At other times we think, “Wow, speaking about the love of Jesus, it is just too high. I can never understand this.”
Well, actually, that is pretty good. That is a starting point. You cannot understand it, so quit trying to understand it in your natural mind, because He wants it to be learned through your heart, through life in Him.
Man has tried to write about this love and understand it. Even in our worship this morning, there were so many different ways in which ones were trying to describe the love of God: immeasurable, and so on. Whatever way we use comes up short.
It is all true; it is all an aspect of it, and we praise God for it. But it does not capture the full essence of it. One day, though, thank the Lord, when we are with Him in eternity, we will begin to grasp the full essence of it. I am not sure even in eternity if we will fully grasp it, but I think we will grasp a lot more than we are grasping now.
Paul writes about this in 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter. One of the key phrases is that we know in part and see dimly. What a comfort that is, because much of what we see of the Lord, we really only see and know in part.
But as we go on, we experience and learn a bit more and more in a fuller way. The part we see is real. It is absolutely real—true and solid—but it is not the fullness that is there.
Think about your salvation, justification, or baptism. When you were first saved, you thought, “Wow, salvation is wonderful. Justification is wonderful. Baptism is wonderful.” But as you went on, you saw that what you saw back then was only a small part, and it kept growing and growing and growing.
That is the love of God. I was sitting over here this morning, and when you sit over here, you get to look out at these beautiful dogwood trees.
If you have never been in this area or never seen azaleas and dogwoods, you can look out at this time of year as they start coming out and say, “Wow, they are beautiful. Look at that beautiful dogwood out there.”
Then you come back the next week, and it has come out a little more. “Wow, it is more beautiful.” Somebody from around here may say, “Oh yeah, those are just ordinary. They are not so beautiful.” Wait just a minute.
You see in part at first, and then that dogwood keeps coming out, blossoming more and more. It comes into that fullness, and then you say, “Wow.” Once you see that fullness, none of the other things satisfy. You are always waiting for a greater manifestation.
This is what we are talking about as we consider the love of the Lord. We see it in part: “Oh, this is great. He touched me. He saved me. He healed me. He restored me. He encouraged me.”
We can be satisfied, but no—He wants that to become a hunger to know Him more, so that we will see that fullness. Then, where we thought we knew Him as a place of security, we go through a trial and are really shaken up.
But through that shaking, what do we learn? More and more of the security of the love of Christ. Through those trials and tribulations, we come to really know Him more and more. We are thankful for that.
Paul speaks of coming into knowing the fullness of Him. In Ephesians 3:19, he has a play on words:
To know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God.
How do you know something that surpasses knowledge? But that is the prayer: to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, to be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Paul is saying that he is praying we would know the reality of the love of Christ in our hearts. In ourselves, we cannot comprehend it because it surpasses human knowledge. But in spiritual reality, we can come into knowing this great love. Praise God for that.
So we do not just stop with knowing part of it, but we keep pressing on for the fullness of His love.
The fullness of His love is shared in Scripture. The verse was read during our worship today. Praise God:
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Brothers and sisters, without the reality of this verse, we would not be here today. This verse has settled it for us throughout all eternity.
May we never think it elementary or simple, or look down upon it. It is one of the most profound statements in Scripture, one of the most powerful statements in Scripture, and one of the most all-encompassing statements in Scripture.
This is why we are here: all because of His great love, that He sent His Son to die for us, that we, whoever believe in Him, should not perish but have eternal life. Praise God.
Yet we can look at this verse in our own way and think all the love of God is focused on me. The love of God becomes me-centered. Well, He does love us that way, so do not downplay that. But He has an even greater expression of His love that He wants us to see.
He wants Christ to dwell in our hearts, not only for ourselves and our individual salvation. He wants Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith—not mental apprehension, but something beyond what we might understand about faith.
That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.
Notice here: it is not so much about me anymore; it is about all the saints. It is spreading out. To comprehend with all the saints the breadth, length, height, and depth—to know that love of Christ we read about a minute ago.
This brings us into the fuller purpose of what He is after: experiencing the fullness of His love. He wants our lives, as He poured out His life for each one of us, to be poured out for one another.
That is the greater expression of His life among His people. In Ephesians, this is expressed in His great love for His people. We call it the church; it can be called the body of Christ or the family of God.
Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself up for it; that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that He might present the church to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Yes, it starts with our personal salvation, but His goal is that we would be built together as His church. Love builds up. Love is in the building process, doing this building work and building us together.
Colossians uses the phrase “knit together.” I love that phrase: knit together for Him. Because that church is His bride. The Father loves the Son so much that He wants His Son to have that eternal companion, that bride.
It is sad in the days we are living in how much the word church has lost its power. The church is those called-out ones gathered together unto Him.
When we say He wants the church, our minds can start looking at the condition of things. But this is speaking of His church—the pure, spotless, precious church of all His saints gathered together, cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, that final product that He is after.
Some say it is a spiritual church in heaven. But praise God, brothers and sisters, this is what He is after for all of us—far beyond us merely as individuals.
One of the precious things we have shared about in John 17 is how our Lord is praying for His dear ones. Look at this particular aspect of the prayers He prayed in John 17. We can go through these verses so carelessly; you could have a conference on one of these verses.
The glory which Thou hast given Me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as We are one.
He has given us that glory with a purpose: that we may be one just as He and the Father are one. Do we fully comprehend all that He is calling us into? He wants us to experience that same oneness in Him together.
I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one.
It does not merely say that we will be in unity, but there is a perfecting process that God goes through to bring us into the unity that we have in Him.
Paul writes in Ephesians that we have the unity of the Spirit when we are born again. Every believer who is born again has the unity of the Spirit. There is one body.
Experientially on this earth, it may not look like that. But every saint has that oneness of spirit. Yet that chapter continues and says, “until we all attain unto the unity of the faith.”
Often, we allow the unity of the faith to divide us. We will not go there right now, but it shows us that experiential unity does not just pop out. There is a process.
That process is the love of Christ working in us—a love that lays its life down for one another, a love that works through. Again, it is with a purpose: so that the world may know.
That the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and lovedst them, even as Thou lovedst Me.
The Father loves us just as much as He loves the Son. That is a tremendous statement. It is a place of great security. As we enter into knowing the love of Christ, He wants us to know that within it is the love of the Father—the same love, the love in the Godhead.
When we consider the love of Jesus, may we see the richness of His love for each and every one of us. There is a richness in His love that He wants us to explore, and it goes way beyond just me.
Praise God, He loves me. Praise God, He died for me. But there is an old song—I’ll date myself now—that says, “We’ve only just begun.” I cannot sing it, but when He saves us, He has only just begun.
Some of us think it is over then, but no, He is just beginning to do a great work in us. As we see His love for the church, His bride, that will be a motivating factor within us. Praise God for that.
Let us look more specifically at the way our Lord Jesus loved us in His life.
Love one another, even as I have loved you.
We ended last week on this. Jesus does not say “love one another” in a naive way. He knows that we cannot do it in ourselves.
Sometimes we have to come into the reality of that, because we think we can love certain people in a sympathetic way, in an emotionally based way. But no, this is far beyond that. This is a true heart love from on high.
He knows we cannot keep His commandment, but He gives us the provision—Himself. This commandment does not impel us to do something from the outside; it is something that comes from within. It is the fruit of His life, the fruit of the Spirit.
The first fruit of the Spirit is love. Some interpret it that the fruit of the Spirit is love in a singular way, and each of the other qualities in that verse describes that love in a very specific way.
Joy is love’s strength. There was a joy set before Him, and He endured the cross. That joy provided strength for Him to keep pressing on.
Peace is love’s security. He said:
Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you.
He is actually giving us that peace. He had peace from the Father, and He says that He leaves peace with us—His personal peace. What security we have in knowing that place of peace. Being at peace with God is a great place of security.
Patience is love’s longsuffering. I cannot think of a better example of His patience than His disciples. He was so patient with them. He would say and do things, and they would not get it.
He would say, “Do you understand that?” They would say, “Yeah, we got it. We got it.” And He knew good and well they did not have it. But He was so patient with them—patient with us. Praise God for that. That is a manifestation of love.
Kindness is love’s conduct. Think of how kind He was to that dear Samaritan woman at the well. He came right alongside of her in love, kindness, and gentleness, and wooed her unto Himself.
He did not correct her theology. He just showed her Himself: “This is who I am.” That opened the eyes of her heart. Praise God for that.
Goodness is love’s character. Acts speaks of how the Lord went about doing good and healing people. Look at all the good things—the healing, the manifestation of the goodness of His love, as it manifested His very character.
Faithfulness is love’s confidence. He was faithful. There was confidence in that love He had.
Think of moments of crisis, such as the Mount of Transfiguration. He had to be faithful all the way through and not return. He could have returned to heaven as that one perfect Man in heaven, but no—He knew of a purpose. He was purpose-driven to go through.
There was faithfulness in going through Gethsemane and faithfulness in going through Calvary.
Gentleness is love’s humility. Think of the gentleness He showed to the woman caught in adultery. Again, He did not condemn her, but He was so gentle with her, to restore her and bring her through.
These are just a couple of examples. It is broad. As you start looking at them, you can probably think of various ones yourselves.
Self-control is love’s victory. Think about how He, as that Lamb being led to the slaughter, did not open His mouth. He freely went the way of the cross.
He knew what was set before Him, and He allowed Himself to be led as a Lamb to the slaughter. He showed that great victory of love.
No matter what circumstances He faced or what He was going through, He always had time to pour out His love for others. Ones were pressing Him to go this way, and there was somebody in need over there. “Lord, come here.” Yet He had time to show His love for others.
His love was always with a purpose and an end in view. He wanted the reality of the love of the Godhead to be in us.
John 15:12 repeats the theme verse:
This is My commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you.
And then:
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
He was not naive. He knew He was going to Calvary. He knew what lay ahead of Him. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He came to earth as a freewill offering.
But He also knew that there was a special treasure He was coming for. He wanted each one of us, and the testimony of Himself, that we would come into being part of that special treasure.
He denied Himself every day. Sometimes we think only about Him going to Calvary and the cross. But as you look through His life, every day He was denying Himself, daily taking up His cross and obeying the Father.
We start with His incarnation. At first, when I prepared the slide, I had “His Birth.” But then, as I was reading Brother Keng’s book But We See Jesus, he said that technically He was born of Mary, but He existed long before He came to this earth.
He was the Word that became flesh.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. We beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
What a wonderful incarnation He had. Consider how He left the splendor of heaven. He had perfect fellowship from all eternity past with the Father and the Holy Spirit, yet they desired in Their hearts for something else. They wanted to have His purpose completed.
In order for that to occur, the Son offered Himself willingly and said, “I will go and be that Lamb of God, to take away the sins of the world and redeem mankind back to the Father, so that we can have that companion for the Son to live with Us throughout all eternity.” Praise God for that.
He was born of Mary. Consider who He was: the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Creator of all. God did not pick somebody prestigious upon this earth.
There was this little servant girl in her home, unknown to man but known to God. He noticed her. The love of Christ notices each and every one of us.
We may not all be known by man in our greatness and all of that, but each one of us is known by God. He loves each and every one of us. He said, “Oh, that is My Mary.”
He was born in humility, in that dirty old feed trough. There was no room for Him. It gets glamorized in movies and everything, but there was no special treatment.
Sometimes we think, “Oh, I deserve special treatment.” No. The love of Christ came in. It was the love of Christ that reached underneath a Jacob and raised him to be an Israel.
It was not Jacob. It was the love of Christ that went to the depths of Jacob’s despair, his twistedness—all the ways you can describe Jacob. Because of His great love, He lifted him up and transformed him into Israel. Praise God.
He is doing that and desiring to do that in each and every one of us. Do not listen to the enemy that says, “God does not love you. God does not care. He cannot do something in your life.” No, He can. He is more than able, abundantly.
As a helpless baby, He had to flee for His life. It was not as though He received special treatment, with guardian angels standing around Him so that nothing would happen. No, He went through these things to demonstrate that love.
Because He was born of a virgin, people talked and gossiped. They noticed Mary was pregnant and not married. They said, “This child is born in fornication.” He had to live with that throughout His life and was accused of that publicly, to His face.
But He did not allow the accusations of man to hinder His love for mankind. The very ones who accused Him of being born in fornication, He laid down His life for them—to save and redeem them. Praise God for that.
Somebody insults us, and we are done with them. “Forget that.” No. The love of Christ loves the unlovely.
During His childhood—the hidden years, those thirty years in which He was hidden—consider how hard that is for the flesh. The flesh always wants to boast of itself and be seen.
He knew He had a calling on His life. He knew why He was here. He knew the purpose. Yet, because of His love for the Father, He waited for the fullness of time. He waited for the Father’s perfect timing for Him to come into His ministry.
During those hidden years, He served and loved faithfully right where He was until God’s time for Him came.
Brothers and sisters, I love how He demonstrated that love in a hidden way. Nobody was really seeing it: loving His brothers, even though they did not really care about Him.
His parents did not fully understand Him. When He was left in the temple, He said, “Did ye not know that I must be in My Father’s house?” or, “about My Father’s business?”
Mary and Joseph had some understanding of who He was, but they did not fully understand the fullness and completeness of it until later. Yet He took on the life of a bondservant—the hidden life, serving when no one else was noticing.
I praise the Lord when we hear in the body of Christ how, often at a funeral, things come out. Somebody says, “Oh, this brother did so-and-so for me. This sister did so-and-so.” And you are sitting at the funeral saying, “Wow, they did that? They did that?”
Sometimes we do something and say, “Hey, I took them a meal. I did this.” But sometimes it is just that hidden life of the Lord—that love not drawing attention to itself, not wanting anything, but simply serving the Father and serving one another. What a love that is.
When He came into His public ministry, He did not get a very good reception. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. He was rejected.
But praise God, the rejection of man—the rejection of the very ones He came to—did not impact His love for them at all.
That is a challenge in life. When ones reject you, do you still have love for them? All of a sudden they unfriend us. All of a sudden they do not respond to our text. All of a sudden we are not hearing from them.
Do we just stop? Do we give up and say, “Well, moving on to something else”? No. He loved them to the uttermost. He loved all the way through. Oh, what a lesson there.
Consider the temptation. He endured the agony of forty days of fasting. One day of fasting is agony—for me, at least. But we see Him forty days fasting, and then the temptation came.
It is good to keep this in perspective. Sometimes we think the temptation was during the forty days, but no, the enemy waited until He was in His weakest condition. Then he came with the temptation.
But love held Him through that because He had a purpose. He knew He had to keep going for the Father’s purpose.
During His ministry, people made all these accusations. He was not only rejected, but some said He had a demon. How many of you have been accused of having demons inside? What did you think of the person who accused you of that?
It did not affect His love for them. It is a love that goes behind and sees beyond. His disciples did not understand Him many times, but He kept going on.
He also went back to Nazareth. He had been raised there, and He went into the synagogue. This was where He had been raised. It says it was His custom to go there.
He picked up the book of Isaiah and started reading. All these people knew Him. They were glad to see Him back: “Hey, there is little Jesus coming back now. Look, He is picking up Isaiah. He is going to read.”
He read from Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He hath sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
What a glorious message. Then He closed the book, sat down, and said, “Today hath this Scripture been fulfilled in your ears.”
Their whole attitude changed. All of a sudden, they were in a rage. They were trying to kill Him.
You see the fickleness of man. One minute they love Him; one minute they are trying to kill Him. One minute they want to make Him king; the next minute they want to stone Him.
But praise God, His love for mankind—His love for us—is not fickle at all. It never changes. It does not waver. Regardless, He kept pressing on through them.
At the Transfiguration, He could have gone back as that perfect Man, but He knew He had a calling and a purpose of God in His life. He had to stay and go back down.
After He went back down, He set His face toward Jerusalem. That was not like setting your face to go to Washington, D.C., to be a tourist. When He set His face to go to Jerusalem, He knew good and well that He was going there to be crucified.
He was going to die, and He was going to be raised again on the third day. There was nothing naive about Him. He fully knew what was going to happen, but He set His face. It was that purpose. He was going there.
Why was that? Because He lived in a kingdom not of this world. It is described as an upside-down kingdom.
In the normal triangle—the kingdoms of this life—man rises to the top and controls everything. But in His kingdom, we have the servant King taking the lowest place and serving everybody else.
That is a beautiful example. The black triangle is dark and evil; blue is heavenly, light, and beautiful. Those are the tones there, if you did not get it. That is my artistic ability. I am sorry I did not have an artist around to draw something more beautiful.
But He lived His life as though He was not of this world. He was part of another kingdom. Sometimes, as we are in this world, we get a little too attached to it.
Where is our citizenship—our true citizenship? In our true citizenship, we do not even need an ID card, because He knows each one of us by name. He calls us by name and says, “Oh, this is My child.” What a kingdom we have been brought into.
Then we come to the upper room. We touched on this considerably last week, so I will not go through it again. But He knew His hour was coming.
He washed their feet, including Judas. Think of loving them to the uttermost. He told them that one would betray Him. They started arguing over who was the greatest. He told them He was going away and they could not come with Him.
What great love He had—preparing them and letting them know. This is the love we see at the table: the assurance we have of His continued love and that He is going to return for us.
We come to Gethsemane. When we come to Gethsemane and Calvary, these are really tough chapters even to touch. There is a reverence associated with them and a whole otherness.
May the Lord speak to our hearts when He said, “Not My will, but Thine, be done.” His will was perfect; ours is not. We have sinful desires.
But praise God, He knew why He had come, and He had to go through this. He wrestled. I appreciate the wrestling He had to go through. There is an intensity here.
Yet in spite of these events, He loved to the uttermost. There was the agony, the sweat, and even the ones closest to Him could not pray with Him for an hour. They were overwhelmed by the spirit of the time.
Then there was the actual experience of the kiss of Judas. Even at that point, He was still trying to recover Judas. He reached out to him.
He was abandoned by all His remaining disciples. He was abandoned by man. It would appear that He was lonely there by Himself, but He was not. His Father was with Him. His Father never abandoned Him.
It reminds me of how Paul, at the end of his life in 2 Timothy, said, “Everybody has deserted me.” But he did not stop there. What did he say?
But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me.
That is the love that holds us. Everybody might abandon us. We do not know what is going to happen ahead. We do not know.
These horrific circumstances did not impact His love for us. He grieved, yes, but He still loved and kept going on through.
Then He went on to Calvary. This is sacred and reverential; you just shy from even touching it. But He had to endure the arrest, being stripped of His clothing, mocked, having that crown of thorns pushed upon His head, being spat upon, and being beaten.
This is the King of kings. This is the One who loved us and died for us.
Yet in His great love, in all of His suffering, He was able to say:
Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
I cannot fathom that. I just cannot fathom it. It is the love of another kingdom, not this world.
Even in the midst of the cross, He was not thinking of Himself. He was caring about His mother: “John, take care of her.” He looked over at John: “Take care of her.”
The two thieves were beside Him. He still desired that they be saved, reaching out to them. He loved each one to the uttermost, all the way through. Praise God.
As we look and consider this matter of the love seen in the life of Jesus, we see overall that Christ had a purpose, and it governed His life.
Do we have that purpose? Have we received what the Lord is desiring and what He is after? As we see God’s heart of love, if we see the love of Christ, we will see beyond just ourselves.
We will see what is upon God’s heart and His purpose, and that will enable us to go through also: the love of His Father, the love for mankind, and the love of the church.
He desires that our love for one another be manifested in our lives together for that same purpose. That is where we come to John 13:35.
By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.
His purpose and His heart are to have a living, visible, corporate expression of His life and love on this earth—to serve His people, to serve His purpose, and to be that testimony.
It is that visible testimony to the world and to the unseen powers: His life expressed, that testimony of Jesus.
It goes beyond us individually. There is a barrier we must break through in ourselves to see that the work God is doing is beyond me. I am included in it, and that is wonderful—all the blessings I get—but the ultimate purpose and desire are beyond me.
It is His heart to have that bride for His Son, that corporate expression of His people. As ones see His testimony, may they see ones loving one another as He loved them.
May they see that lived out in a special way: ones laying down their lives for others whom they would not naturally be drawn to serve.
It is one thing to serve somebody you like and respect, but it is beyond that. May they see ones serving, caring, and loving others with no personal gain or recognition—just hidden service unto Him.
When they look at His people, may they say, “Surely the Lord is among them.” Like Jacob said when he woke from the dream, “Surely the Lord is in this place.”
May ones have that assurance when they look upon His people and see that life of Christ expressed through them: “Surely the Lord is in their midst.”
This is the wonderful testimony that occurred not only during the New Testament but even during the first and second centuries. They were still under Roman governmental control, and persecution was beginning.
There are numerous recorded testimonies from Roman soldiers. These soldiers would write complaints, but some of the things they said about Christians were marvelous because they could not understand them. It was so different from the mind of the soldier.
They said that Christians dwelt in their countries but were simply as sojourners. They were not making their roots here; they were passing through. There was something else before them.
They married as others and had children, but they did not destroy their offspring. Abortion and the killing of unwanted babies were practiced often back then, but not among Christians.
It was noticed so much that it drew a distinction: “Wow, these people do not kill their babies. They love having children.”
One writer said, “They have a common table, but not a common bed.” There was much immorality and many common beds in society, but Christians had that common table. They shared with one another.
They passed their days on earth, but they were citizens of heaven. They loved all people, whether they were believers or not. They loved all the people, and they were persecuted by them too. But they still loved them. How can you figure that out?
What a testimony this is. The testimony of these believers actually led to the salvation of some Roman soldiers and others throughout the world at that time.
They were reviled, yet they rejoiced and blessed. When they did good, they were punished as evildoers. Some of these things sound familiar today, do they not? If you do good, you are counted as evil.
But if you look back at this, this was the life that Jesus lived. It was His life expressed through these ones, through His body. That is the issue: where is this testimony today?
We are going to stop here today. At some point, I do not know when, we will continue and look at the “one anothers”—the practical outworking of His love for one another in our lives.
As I mentioned, “one another” is used over fifty times in Scripture: accepting one another, humbling yourselves before one another, being at peace with one another, having compassion for one another, and loving one another. It manifests in very practical ways in our lives.
Most of them are positive. Some are negative: “Do not grumble against one another.” I do not know why it would say that. I have never heard a believer grumble against another believer.
“Do not gossip about each other.” Well, that does not apply, so we will not worry about that one.
But let us conclude and wrap it up for today.
The Lord is interested in His testimony today. Today is the day of salvation. This is what He is looking for: His life to be manifested.
As we look around today, we see that, in general, we have drifted away from Him. We are not where we should be as the people of God.
That is why these days are referred to as the Laodicean era. That church in Laodicea said, “We are rich, and have need of nothing.” And He said, “Repent. Buy from Me what you need for that recovery.”
We have drifted away from His heart and purpose. When you drift away from Him, you are going to drift away from His heart and His purpose. It has weakened His testimony on earth.
Sadly, one of the things most severely impacted by this is the desire for His gospel. The gospel itself has not been weakened. I do not want to give anybody that impression. His gospel is true, steadfast, certain, and a fact.
But the desire for His gospel—the openness to receiving His gospel—has been shut down in these days because ones look upon Christians and say, “I do not want to be like that. They are fighting among themselves, dividing, and taking each other to court.”
There has been an impact upon the desire for the gospel as it goes out. Praise God, it is still powerful. Do not misunderstand that.
But He is still loving all of us to the uttermost. He is with us. May we respond to His love, because His love touches us.
We want to pray that the Lord will reveal afresh His love to us in a way that goes far beyond what we have experienced. Thank the Lord for the part we have seen and where we see dimly. We are thankful for that, but we want to see so much more.
I want to see His love in a way that we can be controlled by it. Paul said the love of Christ controlled him—it constrained him.
It is a love in which we surrender to Him, no longer living for ourselves but for Him who first loved us and died for us. There must be the practical impact of the love of Christ in the daily life we live.
Through the working of His love, may we recover that visible reality, that same testimony of the love and unity that we have in Him. Praise God, brothers and sisters, it is still called today. It is not too late.
God is crying with a cry of love for each and every one of us to see afresh His great love. None of us has seen the fullness of it. We all want to see more of it.
May we have hearts open to Him, hearts desiring Him, hearts driven by His purpose. As we see His heart, may our hearts be driven by His purpose.
“Lord, You have an end in view, and I want to be part of that. I do not want to be a hindrance to it. I do not want to slow You down. I want to hasten Your return. I want Your bride to be made ready.”
“Lord, I surrender to You. Show me how to love the brethren. Show me how to love these unlovely ones.” It is another kingdom.
But praise God, there is a life within us that has overcome. That life within us—that all-victorious life—is desiring simply to break forth and manifest itself to us and to this world, that His kingdom would come and His will would be done upon this earth as it is in heaven.
May we cry out with great sincerity, “Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus.”
Some of us cry out, “Come, Lord Jesus,” out of selfish motives: “Lord, come and get me out of this mess.” It is all about us. It is not about Him.
We want to pray, “Lord, come, Lord Jesus, so that Your heart can be satisfied because Your bride has been made ready. That great wedding feast can occur. That is why we want You to come: for Your satisfaction.”
You have laid down Your life for all these years for us. You have loved us so much. We want to stand on Your side—for Your heart, Your purpose, and Your desire—that You would receive everything You should receive and are rightly entitled to.
May the Lord reveal in our hearts, in a fuller and greater way, His great love for us, to us, and through us. Let us pray.
Lord, again we find ourselves touching the edges of Your ways as we touch on this love of Christ.
But Lord, one thing we know and have settled within our hearts is that You have loved us to the uttermost, and You have made every provision for life and godliness in Christ Jesus.
Lord, we have Your love within us, and we want to be those who respond to that love.
Lord, You are jealous to reveal Your Son in our lives. You are jealous to reveal Your heart and Your purpose to us. May we not resist that revealing. May we not say, “Oh, it is too high. I cannot understand it.”
No. We want to allow You to do the work that You desire to do in each of our lives individually, and even more so in our lives together.
Lord, we pray this for ourselves. We pray this for all Your people, for Your saints. Lord, pour out Your love. Pour out Your life.
Bring us to fall on our knees in repentance before You, that we could be raised up in the victory, knowing a greater victory that we have in You, Lord. In Your precious name, amen.