THE GREATEST LOVE

1. ASK: When I say love: what is the first thing that comes to mind?

2. ASK: How do you show love to those who you love?

So a couple of weeks ago, it was Valentines Day. What is Valentines Day about?

What is this love?

Talk about Chrystal and when you knew you loved her. I think that we can all agree that love is something that is confusing. I mean, it can make you say and do some pretty crazy things.

Sometimes we say we love in a wide variety of ways (have fun with this). It gets thrown around a lot, but what do we really know about love?

A lot of times when we think of love, it’s romantic love. Like when you find that special someone, and you really like them. (Has some fun with this!) Sometimes we might think it’s how we feel about our best friends. Sometimes when we think of love, it is about how we feel for our family.

But there is a love that is deeper than all of that. It’s a love that is deeper than family love. It is stronger than Romantic love, and it is more powerful than the deepest friendship love. Today I want to talk about the specific love we have for each other. If you were to look at love in the Bible, you’d see that there are different types of love that we experience. There’s family love. There’s a love known as phileo love, which is brotherly love, and then there’s the type of love that we are going to talk today: Agape love.

One thing that is true about love is that there are different types of love. There’s love that we have for things and stuff. There’s love that we have for our family, there’s love that we have for that special someone, there’s love that we have for each other in Christ, and there’s the type of love that God has for us. Regardless, I think it is safe to say that we can all agree that love is very powerful.

In John chapter 3, we meet Nicodemus. He was a religious ruler around the time of Jesus. In fact he knew a lot about Jesus, had heard a lot about Jesus, and a bunch of his people were talking about Jesus. And so one night, Nicodemus meets up with Jesus and starts talking to him about how they know that he is from God. And then Jesus starts talking to him about what does it mean to be a child of God. And so Nicodemus doesn’t so he asked Jesus more questions about what does it mean to be a child of God how can he be born again in all of this sort of stuff. So Jesus talks to him. If you have your Bibles, maybe you brought it with you or you have it on your phone Open up the John chapter 3. Jesus talks to him about love. Love. God loves us. Is it romantic love? No. Is it friend love? No. It is family love? No.

Let’s look at it deeper. We will be looking at John 3:16-17. As you turn there, and you may not – this passage is very well memorized, let me set up what is going on. Here, John who is writing about Jesus life, John reveals that Jesus if from God. Not only that, but we also find the reason why God sent Christ.  Like I said earlier, Nicodemus actually initiates the conversation with Christ. Nicodemus tells Jesus that we know who Jesus is. They fully understood that Jesus was not just a guy. He wasn’t He wasn’t some crazy dude on a street corner yelling at people. That heard about his healings, his miracles, and they were aware of the things that he said. They also knew that he was getting quite a following and a reputation as being from God. And so they were curious, especially Nicodemus. So, when he says “we,” he’s talking about the leaders of the Jewish people. He’s not talking about the Romans, but the Pharisees and Sadducees. The rulers of the law. They knew that Jesus was not like other false people who claimed to be anointed by God. They knew that Jesus was legit.

Jesus responds by telling Nicodemus that the only way to God is to be “born again.” Nicodemus clearly doesn’t understand this. You ever felt like you just had no idea what somebody said? Like You are at school and your teacher just said something that blew your mind? Or you were daydreaming And the teacher asked you a question and you were like OH NO! I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS GOING ON!

I think Nicodemus is kind of a mixture of both reactions with him not understanding.

So Jesus goes and explains this. He then goes and retells the story of the people back in the OT times who were bitten by poinsonous snakes and the only way to be healed was to look up at this staff that had sculpted snakes on it. It is in this conversation that Jesus says that just like this rod, when lifted up would heal people so is the same with Jesus, the Son of Man. It is in this moment that Jesus says the following:

John 3:16–17 (CSB)

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

6. ASK: What word sticks out to you in this passage?

7. ASK: If you could describe God’s love, how would you describe it?

So here we have the word “love.” In the Greek, which half the Bible was written in, love takes on different meanings based on the word. Here, the word for love in the Greek is agape. Agape here is a deep love. Not a love based on connection or benefit, but a love that is willing to give up for the benefit of others. It is a love of choice, choosing to love to the point of willing to sacrifice.

Jesus says that God loves the world. God did not send Jesus as a way of further punishing the world. Instead, Jesus (who is God in the flesh) is sent to save the world. It is the same love that Jesus goes on later in John 15:13

John 15:13 (CSB)

13 No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.

Once again we see the word agape here. Jesus says that no one has the love that He has. A love that is willing to sacrifice, “lay down,” His life. That is what Agape love means. God loves you so much that He is willing to give up His life for us. Not because of a duty or because of a need. He doesn’t need to do any of that. He does it because of His love for us. We are His creation. And He desires for us to be restored back to Him. You see, we messed up. We disobeyed God and sin entered the picture. Now when people wrong us, our first response is not to give them a second chance, right? (Make It funny)

Yet with God, He is not like that. Instead, He desires to give us another chance. So much so that He is willing to sacrifice His life through Christ. So that whoever believes will have that life restored back to God. There’s nothing that we can do to earn that. We can’t be good enough. We have to give our lives to Him. When we do that, when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, we can experience hope. We can experience restoration, forgiveness, grace and mercy. God doesn’t force Himself on us. He doesn’t force us to follow Him. That isn’t love.

For those of us who have accepted Him as Lord and Savior, we are challenged to do something with what God has done for us – we are to reflect that agape love – a love that is selfless and sacrificial – to those we see everyday. While we may not be required to give our physical lives, we are required to get out of our comfort zones. We are to reflect that love to those who we love and those who we don’t.

The Big Takeaway for us tonight is that we are to reflect the deep, sacrificial love that God has given us to everyone we come into contact with. So share that love and see what God does with it. And for those of you who would like to talk more about what it means to follow Jesus, come talk with me or any other adult in here about it.