No Greater Love

Introduction

Only a few hours left. The years had slipped into months, the months had slipped into days, and the days into hours. He knew He only had a few more hours left with His friends, yet they had no idea how things were going to forever change in just a few short hours. The words that He said would ring in their ears for decades to come and shape the course of their lives and the lives of others. Yet, in only a few more short hours their world was going to be thrown into disarray. They had been told many times before, but it had mainly gone in one ear and out the other. Now the time was only moments away. How would they respond and how would they respond to the words that were being taught to them? This was the reality of the world that the disciples of Jesus Christ faced as they had finished the Passover dinner and had gone out into Jerusalem on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane. In only a few short hours Jesus would be betrayed by one of them who for three years had followed Him, heard His teaching, and experienced the miracles. In only a few short hours Jesus would be trial and the disciples would be run into hiding or denying they even knew Him. In only a few short hours Jesus would be beaten, forced to carry a cross, and crucified on that same hunk of wood. Yet, between the Passover dinner and the betray and arrest, Jesus taught His disciples. He taught them about true unconditional love. That there is no greater love! A love that He would show and that we as His followers are commanded to show others.

The New Commandment (John 13:31-35)

Earlier that evening twelve disciples and their Teacher, the Rabbi Yeshua bar Yosef had the Passover meal. They had experienced many meals together and at least one maybe two other Passovers together, but this one was different. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke we experience the meal in detail, but in John’s Gospel (the last one to be written) John looks at some other aspects of that meal including the washing of the disciples’ feet. Then in verses 18-30 Jesus speaks of His betrayal. Judas Iscariot leaves (verse 30) as the events have been set in motion. Then we read:

John 13:31–35 NKJV

So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come,’ so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Jesus had been for while telling them His purchase wasn’t to overthrow the Roman government. He had been telling them He would be killed and then rise again three days later. Here in these verses Jesus once again.

The Son of Man is Glorified

The title Son of Man is a title for Christ, but it goes way back to the book of Daniel. It is a passage that after 100 AD the Jewish Rabbi’s couldn’t teach on.

Daniel 7:13–14 NKJV

“I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.

God is glorified in Him

If God is glorified in Him…God will also glorify Him in Himself

Glorify Him immediately

These are all based on the word doxa (Praise, Glory, Honor, Exacted). Jesus is about to be exalted in His death and God is also going be glorified as a result. Jesus the Passover Lamb, the Lamb who is going to take away the sin of the world.

John 12–21: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Profound Expression of Christ’s Love

Not only was Jesus glorified through His death, God also was glorified in Him. Through the cross, God’s glorious nature was supremely put on display.

Jesus is telling His disciples good-bye. Yes, He will spend time with them (40 days before He goes back to Heaven), but these are the last moments before He is going to fulfill His mission on earth to be the sacrifice for their sins, your sins, and my sins. These chapters in John’s Gospel give a glimpse at some of the last things He taught only hours before He was arrested. Then He gives 34-35, “A new commandment I give to you (plura), that you (singular) love one another; as I have loved you (plural), that you (plural) also love one another. By this all will know that you (singular) are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

How will will the world know that we are Christ’s disciples? By our love (agape), unconditional love for one another. Christ has shown His unconditional love to us, and we in tern need to love one another.

Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. (1 John 2:3-6).

He was about to show No Greater Love to us in those few short hours and His message to His disciples and us is for us to love one another.

Father’s Love for Christ /Christ’s Love for Us (John 15:9-17)

Jesus’ message to His disciples continues on in the last verses of chapter 13 (Peter’s denial) and then chapter 14 (Christ preparing our heavenly home), and the Promise of the Holy Spirit, the Helper. Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, could only be at one place at one time. He was still 100% God and 100% man, but He had willing laid down some His glory. He couldn’t be in Israel and Rome, but His disciples could be and He would be in them.

John 14:15–18 NKJV

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

He continues to comfort and teach His disciples. Listen to the words of:

John 14:25–31 NKJV

“These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard Me say to you, ‘I am going away and coming back to you.’ If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, ‘I am going to the Father,’ for My Father is greater than I. “And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do. Arise, let us go from here.

Then at the beginning of chapter 15 He gives this example of Vine. That He is the Vine and His Father is the Vinedresser and we are the branches, but then we come to John 15:9-17 where Jesus once again talks about unconditional love. The love of the Father to Him and His love for us.

John 15:9–17 NKJV

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.

This is only a short time since the Passover meal (Last supper) where He had said something very similar. Do you think He is trying to emphasis something to us? It was something that continued to ring in John’s ears as he would use similar language in his first epistle.

God the Father has loved Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ has loved us.

Abide in His love (stay/remain in His love)

Keep His commandments and bear fruit (earlier in chapter 15)

The New King James Version Chapter 15

12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

Love One Another as Christ loved us.

How much did Christ love us? But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). He showed us His love by dying for us. Greatest love is shown/demonstrated in action. He laid down His life for His friends.

Even when we were not His friends and in those few short hours He would be arrested and His friends would flee from Him.

Jesus calls them friends. James 2:23 talks about Abraham and that Abraham was called the friend of God. Jesus is calling His disciples, His friends.

The New King James Version Chapter 15

These things I command you, that you love one another.

1 John 3:16–23 NKJV

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.

Conclusion

Do you know the true love of God, today? He demonstrated His love in action! He went to the cross to pay a bill that you could never pay. I could never pay. He paid for it in full on the cross.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. (John 3:14-21)

The full context of Romans 5 say:

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

If you have received the love of God found only in Jesus Christ, are you loving one another? In a world where there is so much hatred within the church, how will the world see the love shown to other believers? How is our love today and this week being shown? The world is watching us, what will they see. Take time today and this week to examine yourself and I will examine myself. How are we showing love to one another?