The Ultimate Sacrifice

Good evening, it is good to be back in the house of the Lord amen. We don’t take lightly the reality of those who have given their lives to give us the opportunity to gather for worship. We are so thankful for our men and women in the military, and those who have given their lives to purchase our freedom in this country, what a blessing it is to be able to come in here without the fear that somebody is going to break down the door and throw us in jail or worse.

I found myself thinking this afternoon, that most of us know what it means to go without something we want, but most of us do not know sacrifice. Not the type displayed by those who gave all in serving their country.

Wives lost husbands, husbands lost wives, mothers and fathers lost children in wars and never saw them again. Children lost parents, and all of it was so that we could be free and exercize our rights here in this nation.

Have you ever though about that?

That split second right before you know you are about to die, and have you ever asked yourself the question: would I be willing to lay my life down for the good of others?

I mean thats a big question, I know most of us think we would and many of us probably would but it takes a special kind of love and dedication, for someone to be willing to lay down their life.

This is eximplified in the life of our soldiers who have been willing throughout the years to lay their lives down, but that simply shows they were committed to a caise bigger than themselves.

They were following orders, obeying the commands of their superior officer and I am sorry but it takes a special kind of person and a special kind of cause to be willing and able to lay your life down at the command of someone else.

Think about those men and women who maybe didn’t die but they never came back home completely alive either, because they feel like a part of them was left on the battlefield.

What sacrifice and what a picture both of the gospel and the mindset we should have as believers.

Turn with me in your Bibles to in the gospel of John what you have happening here is this, Jesus the Son of the most high God is getting prepared to walk the hill up to the place of the skull named Golgotha.

He is teaching His disciples one last time, he has just finished washing their feet in humility. One of the things that always stood out to me was that Jesus knew who was going to betray Him and yet he stooped down and served Judas anyway.

That humility is beautiful, you see JEsus not only preaches them a sermon He seeks to live it out in front of them. What we learn from the simple act of ashing feet is this.

Jesus was showing them He came to serve and not to be served. Most men and women who join the military join in order to serve and not be served. If you wanna feel awkward, then just see a soldier in uniform at the grocery store and tell them thank you for your service and they will say thank you, but it will seem a little awkward.

I have spoken to many and their attitude is “I didn’t really do anything” and I don’t want a big fuss made about me. Over and over again I have had this experience with those who have served and it is because they feel as though whatever they did was their duty.

This mindset is amazing, that someone would love a cause, and a people so muhc that they would willingly lay down their life for that cause and those people even though they have no clue who those people really are.

wow

Now I don’t want to belabor the point here but here wee see the greatest love imaginable. It is here in this mindset, and in this act of laying down one life we see the love and devotion of Jesus.

In the Gospel of John Jesus has washed His disciples feet, He has told them one of the greatest truths ever spoken. When He tells them in

John 14:6 HCSB

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

John 14:

So He has told them the way to salvation, and that it only comes through His sacrificial death on the cross, and then He explains that there is coming a helper to be with us forever He is called the Holy Spirit. There would be no spiritual victory in life without the Holy Spirit living within us.

He is the One who guides and empowers us for daily living. Jesus in the midst of all this teaching stops and says these words in

John 15:13 HCSB

No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.

What Jesus is telling them is this, I came to serve you, I came that you would have life and have it more abudnantly, I have come that I can provide a way for you to enter into eternal life, I have come that you would know the closeness and intimacy with God that only comes from having my spirit live within you.

But In order for your joy to be full, in order for you to be able to have these things it comes with a price. Someone has to lay down His life.

Nothing good comes without a price, and Jesus loved us so much that He was willing and glad to lay his life down in order to call us friends.

Would you just sit there for a moment and let those words actually set into your mind for a minute?

The eternal God longed for us to know Him as friend so much that He was willing to die, in order to purchase that for us.

Why would He have done this?

What motivated Him?

FREEDOM

Galatians

Galatians 5:1 HCSB

Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Christ Died To purchase our Freedom

John 8:34 HCSB

Jesus responded, “I assure you: Everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.

Every person who has ever been born is born into a situation, where they are more inclined to sin than they are to walk in righteousness. Every person.

That is because of this truth that everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

Ever wonder why things you shouldn’t do always seem easier to do than the things you should do?

But Jesus out of His great love did not want you and I to be stuck in the same old pattern of discouragement and defeat. He wanted us to to be free, and to walk in that freedom.

, and to walk in that freedom.

Notice In what this Sacrifice of Jesus brings to us:

Jesus’ Sacrifice Gives a New Command

John 15:12 HCSB

This is My command: Love one another as I have loved you.

In this new command Jesus gives us a true challenge to love each other as He has loved us. If there was any verse that I would point to inside the church to teach what we should be doing above all else it should be loving one another.

Jesus said by this they will know you are my disciples if you have love for one another. Loving other people inside the body of Christ is a birthmark of true salvation, and should be the benchmark we strive for each and every year, to grow closer to one another relationally, and show love for each other.

In the church today there is so much backbiting and slander, disagreements which lead to feuds which ultimately wage war against the unity and health of the church of Jesus Christ.

Love is our aim, love is always our goal, to love the Lord, love members of the body of Christ and to not just say it show it.

So let me ask you a question how well are you doing loving people like Jesus loved you?

Sure you cannot and Jesus is not asking you to lay down your life for somebody else literally. But you may find the opportunity to do this in other ways.

PUt yourself last, your wants, desires and opinions need to become last on the priority list. Sacrifice yourself in order to do good to others even when it is hard.

Thats what Jesus did on the cross, it was agonizing to know what He was about to endure, so much so that He sweat drops of blood from His brow.

Yet He did so without saying a word. This is how we must serve our spouses, this is how we must seek to serve each other.

But secondly notice

Jesus’ Sacrifice Brings New Relationship

John 15:

John 15:15 HCSB

I do not call you slaves anymore, because a slave doesn’t know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have heard from My Father.

Slaves don’t get to be a part of the plan of the master, they simply serve quietly. Doing as they are told, but this is not the kind of relationship Jesus purchased with His death on the cross.

He has let us in on God’s eternal plan of redemption, and now calls us friends, He has made every word available to us, He has shown us God’s heart!

We are no longer in the dark on what God expects, what God desires, and what God wants.

God does not desire that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. So since we know He died for us and he has made known to us that He wants everyone to repent and turn to Him shouldn’t we give our all to ensure that we bring as many people to Heaven with us as we can?

We can only live life this way if we have the love of Jesus inside of us, if we have as our focus the way and the manner of how He loved us.

Jesus’ love took initiative

John 15:16 HCSB

You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.

If you and I are going to love each other like Jesus we cannot wait around for the other person to do the right thing, we must take a cue from our Lord and Savior and take the initiative.

You did not choose me but I chose you.

You did not choose Jesus HE chose you.

Why did He choose you?

That you bear much fruit, but not just any kind of fruit lasting fruit!

Fruit is essential to the Father granting your request!

So that whatever you ask in my name the Father should give it to you.