Passion: Perfect Love
Passion • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 20 viewsChrist's Love is a humble, perfect love that lifts us up out of our brokenness... our guilt... our shame... out of the hurt and pain... the fear and depression... and demands to be shared!
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In Mt 5: 43-45, Jesus tells us to “Love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us”
Mt 22:37-39, tells us to “Love the Lord our God with ALL our heart, soul, and mind.”
Jn 13:34-35, tells us to “Love one another as Jesus loves us.”
1 Cor 13:1-13, tells us that “Without Love, we have NOTHING!”
But… What is Love? (seriously…)
— Is it just an emotion?
— Is it just a “feeling”?
— Is it purely physical attraction?
— Is it simply acceptance?
— Is it affirming, even the sin in someone’s life just so they’ll “feel good” (as some believe)?
Seriously… How can we understand God’s Love, if we don’t understand what Love is?!?
1 Jn 4:8 tells us that “God is Love,” and that “whoever does not Love does not know God.”
1 John 4:8 (NIV)
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
So… If we want to know what Love is, then we have to know God… Because “God is Love.” And if God is Love, than we need to look no farther than the Cross!
On the Cross, Jesus displays a radical… unconditional… unforgettable… controversial… Love!!!
There’s no doubt… The Cross is extreme… It’s controversial…
It’s violent… It’s ugly…
The Cross is so radically different than the world we live in that people flee from it…
BUT… [It’s also absolutely beautiful!] The Cross is so unconditionally pure… and unapologetically true… that it’s Love is UNDENIABLE!!!
It was that Love that held Christ on the Cross!
In Jn 15:13, tells us “Greater Love has no man than this…”
13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Paul tells us in Rom 5:8, “God demonstrates His love for us in this...”
Romans 5:8 (NIV)
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we [ARE] still sinners, Christ died for us. (emphasis mine)
Jesus’s Love was a Humble, Perfect Love!
Let me ask you: When you think about “perfect love,” What do you think about?
— — — — —
I want you to SEE Christ’s Love…
13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
35 Jesus wept.
41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it
Christ’s love IS a Perfect… Pure Love for each and every one of us… (He cries when we cry… He weeps when we weep… He celebrates when we celebrate… His compassion flows when we don’t know we need it… )
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
(LISTEN!) CHRIST’S LOVE NEVER FAILS!
Last week, Pastor Keven talked about “humble love” and how Christ’s “humble love” was illustrated perfectly in His washing of the disciples’ feet…
But … His Love is also illustrated in the “life verse” that Brother Keven shared…
Do you remember it?
John 14:31 (NRSV)
31 ... I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.
I want you to see this in context:
30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me;
31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.
Christ’s Love was/IS perfect, not only because of His Love for us that held Him on that Cross, but also because of His Desire to see God’s Love revealed to the world!!!!
Is THAT our desire?!?
Is that what our Love looks like?
Is that what motivates what we do?!
“I do what the Father commands, so that the WORLD will know that I love my Father.” (emphasis mine)
Look back at 1 Jn 4, John says:
7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Then in verse 16:
16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.
Let that sink in for a minute… “There is no fear in Love…”
Christ’s Perfect Love brings True Freedom!
Think about that!
Because of what Christ did… because of His sacrifice on the Cross… because He carried ALL of our sin and shame into the grave… We are no longer subject the consequences of sin … of shame… of guilt…
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But Christ has set us free!!! (Can you get excited!)
36 So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.
When we rest in Christ’s Love, we are truly set free… We have nothing to fear! We are not subject to the guilt… to the shame… to the punishment… that we once were!
We are truly free!
This world… people… can treat us poorly… they can try to pour guilt and shame on us… they can even pour out sever punishments and even kill this physical body, BUT…
They can’t take our freedom… They can’t take our life!
We have been forgiven… We have been set free… Christ has received us as His own… Our life is GUARANTEED in Him!
Look at the crook on the Cross:
40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?
41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
43 Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
“Perfect Love casts out Fear.”
I can think of no better example of someone experiencing Christ’s Perfect Love, and the freedom it brings, than the story of the “bleeding woman”…
43 And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her.
44 She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.
45 “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”
46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.”
47 Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed.
48 Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”
“The Chosen” portrays this woman in such a powerful way… bringing to life the severity of the suffering… the pain… the shame… the guilt… the loneliness she experienced… (spoiler alert)
(tell the story)
At this point… she has heard about Jesus… that He is there… and she knows…
She doesn’t understand how… but she knows in her heart that He can help…
If she can just touch His clothes… not Him, that would make Him dirty… but His clothes… just the hem… just a touch… He won’t even notice…
— — Now, let me remind you of what Jesus is going to tell Nicodemus later… Jn 3:14 “14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,” — —
Sound familiar? This woman knew… she understood… she believed… who Jesus just might be… and that little spark of faith was enough…
Luke 17:6, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to that tree go and plant yourself in the sea, and it will do it!”
Her teeny tiny bit of Faith paid off!
But… Look at Luke 8:46
46 But Jesus said, “Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.”
It hadn’t gone unnoticed! She was caught! All at once the guilt… the shame… the fear came flooding back in…
47 When the woman realized that she could not stay hidden, she began to tremble and fell to her knees in front of him. The whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched him and that she had been immediately healed.
Can you imagine her fear? Her shame? What might they do to her? How would they punish her? After all, this was possibly the greatest Rabbi in the land… He could even be… dare she think it… the Messiah, the Son of God!
In the midst of all that fear… of all that shame… of all that guilt… look what Jesus says:
48 “Daughter,” he said to her, “your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”
“Daughter… your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”
No condemnation… No shame… No hate and anger… just Pure Love…
“Daughter…”
That word is a term of endearment… In it holds nothing but love and acceptance....
That is the Perfect Love that Christ has for us.
Close your eyes…
I want you to consider this woman… consider her pain… her struggle… 12 years fighting a physical illness… 12 years enduring shame… guilt… mistreatment… anger… hate… all at the hands of her own people…
She’s discouraged… disheartened… full of fear… she’s lost all hope… she can’t be found out… she must hide… people can’t touch her… they can’t know… they can’t even get into the same water as her…
She is depressed… lonely… hopeless… All she knows is shame… guilt… fear… Is she even worth anything to anyone?
When was a time you felt that way?
What did God do for you in that time? How did He deliver you from it?
(keep your eyes closed)
Now… What is there in your life now? What are you struggling with? What is that thing that you are so ashamed of… that you feel so much guilt for… that if anyone found out, they’d “crucify”you over it?
What do you need freedom from? Guilt? Shame? Depression? Fear?
God is here… He WILL heal you in the same way He healed her… All you have to do is ask!
Just reach out and touch the hem of His robe…
He is waiting… saying “Daughter… Son… have faith! I have forgiven and freed you!”