Jesus: The Pattern of Sacrificial Love
Notes
Transcript
It was a routine flight — or, at least it was supposed to be. On September 11, 2001, United Airlines employees boarded a Boeing 757 in Newark, NJ and prepared for the passengers who would soon arrive. United Airlines Flight 93 was a daily, regularly scheduled flight from Newark to San Francisco. There were no indications that anything would make this day different as they pushed back from the gate A17 at exactly 8:01 AM.
Everything else about that flight continued normally, too. Air traffic congestion is common at Newark, NJ, in fact at all the major airports in the northeast United States. So it was no surprise to the crew and the passengers that the aircraft taxied for right around 40 minutes, awaiting their turn.
When United 93 finally began its takeoff and began climbing out of Newark at 8:42am, terrorists on United Airlines Flight 175 had already breached the cockpit and taken control of the plane, and American Airlines Flight 121 was just four minutes out from lower Manhattan where it would slam into the north tower of the World Trade Center.
46 minutes into the flight, hijackers on United 93 executed their plan. Their plan involved moving all the passengers on the aircraft to the rear of the plane. The hijackers then breached the cockpit, likely killed the captain and co-pilot, and at least one flight attendant before they began diverting from their pre-planned path to San Francisco. Air traffic controllers watched their radar screens as United 93 turned around and began flying toward Washington, DC.
But if the hijackers had a plan to execute, it wasn’t long before the passengers had a plan of their own. Putting the passengers in the back of the plane proved to be a mistake for the hijackers, because there they could confer together quietly without being heard. The plan was somehow to try to breach the cockpit and try to take control of the plane from the hijackers. No one among the passengers could actually fly the plane, but at least the hijackers would no longer be flying the plane. Passenger Todd Beamer led the revolt. He led the passengers in reciting the Lord’s Prayer and Psalm 23. Once they were finished, at 9:57, Beamer said “Okay. Let’s roll.”
What happened in the next few minutes is hard to know for sure. There are differences of opinion as to whether Todd Beamer and the others managed to breach the cockpit. But even if they didn’t manage to breach the cockpit, their actions effectively paid off. Rather than flying into the White House or the US Capitol, Flight 93, in a 40-degree nose down sideways dive, slammed into the field at an estimated speed of 563mph. It goes without saying that all 44 people in the plane were killed.
What we celebrate on Memorial Day is this: that there are some people who seem destined to run towards the danger even as everyone else runs away from danger. There are some who are in the right place at the right time, and they are the right person for the job, because as everyone else around them cowers in fear or shrinks back from the risk, they find within themselves the strength and the courage to do what most people can’t. That is the kind of person, and that is the kind of action, that we celebrate on Memorial Day.
Jesus Christ, our Savior, did this in a way that no one else could have done, did He not? Jesus suffered on the cross unimaginably, bearing both the pain of crucifixion and the even greater anguish of separation from the Father and the weight of our sin. He did this willingly. He did this joyfully. And He did this without any expectation of anything given to Him in return. That is the very definition of a hero, the definition of sacrifice and the definition of love.
So what do we learn as we sit at the feet of Jesus this morning? What do we see in John 15:12-17 about what He has done for us, and what He calls us to do for others in response? What does Jesus’ sacrifice teach us about friendship and love and service and growing as a Christian?
#1: Sacrifice begins with loving others (v. 12)
#1: Sacrifice begins with loving others (v. 12)
12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.
Jesus begins on a note of authority. He says “This is my commandment...” Jesus is to be our Lord and our Savior. There has been some debate over the years as to whether a person can receive Christ as Savior and never submit to Him as Lord. I don’t believe that you can. To follow Jesus is to live in the position of a subordinate to a superior. Jesus is our friend, He is our Savior, He is our elder brother, He is our sympathetic high priest, and we praise Him for it. Jesus is all of those things, but the lordship of Jesus Christ permeates all that Jesus is and all that He does. We are called daily to re-commit ourselves to His lordship. This means, as Jesus puts it...
And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
And primarily, our discipleship to Christ involves our commitment to love others. “This is My commandment, that you love one another...” As Christians, we are enabled to love; we are inspired to love; we are motivated to love, but before any of these things, we are commanded to love others. Jesus does not ask our permission to command us to love. He does not ask for our input as to whether we ought to be required to love others. He does not leave it open for us to determine whom to love and whom not love. He simply commands us, “love one another.”
Let’s just go ahead and admit that some people are hard to love. We’re not saying it’s okay, we’re just being honest. And yet we’re commanded to love them. How do we do it? Well, it’s really only possible once you know that Jesus loves you.
I was curious this past week as I was studying this passage. I wondered how many times in the NT we are commanded to love one another. The answer is at least 13 times. It is extremely important to the apostle John, as you’ll see. The command “love one another” appears once in Romans 13:8, once in 1 Thess. 4:9, once in 1 Pet. 1:22, and then it occurs three times in John’s gospel, five times in John’s first letter and once in his second letter. So, it seems that this was especially important to John. Why might it be especially important to John?
I believe that anyone who had the privilege of interacting with Jesus during His earthly ministry were profoundly impressed with their love for them. All of us know people who are loving in general. But I believe that everyone Jesus saw, He genuinely loved, and I believe it was noticeable to them that He loved them for them, for the unique person that they were, and that He really took a genuine interest in them. Church, let me tell you something. Do you want to love people? It’s really simple. Just take an interest in them. Ask questions about their life, their work, their family, their hobbies, their hopes and dreams. Don’t just talk about yourself. Focus on them and get to know them as persons made in God’s image. People can sense when you take an interest in them and they can sense your love for them.
But I believe the apostle John knew something more of Jesus’ love for him than others did. Why do I say that? Four times in John’s gospel John refers to someone by an interesting description. Four times John mentions “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” Most scholars think this is John’s way of referring sort of obliquely to himself. The most intriguing example is John 21:20.
English Standard Version Chapter 21
20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?”
The disciple “who also had leaned back against him during the supper...” There’s nothing inappropriate there, right? This is just pure, healthy, godly, masculine friendship. There is such a thing as pure, masculine affection and I believe we see it right here. Jesus and John were close friends. There was real, genuine, holy affection between them. We know Jesus chose the 12 disciples. Jesus couldn’t invest his time in everyone. We also know that out of the 12, he had His inner circle, Peter, James and John. Of those three, it seems that maybe we could say that John was Jesus’ best friend. In other words, Jesus’ love for John made a lasting impression on John. That’s why John calls himself the disciple whom Jesus loved. And that’s why John repeats the command to “love one another” many times more than the other NT writers used it. John’s letters are full of affectionate language. “My little children”, “my beloved”. In other words, love permeates John’s letters because the love of Jesus penetrated His heart and because of that it flowed out into the loves of those he pastored.
I believe, though, that because the Holy Spirit indwells each and every person who has trusted in Christ, that same experience of Jesus’ love is available to each of us. And it is out of that experience of Jesus’ love that we will be enabled to love others. Which is good, because as we will see, we’re called to a kind of love that looks like his.
Jesus said “This is my commandment, that you love one another”, and then he adds, “just as I have loved you.” Those two little words are just one word in Greek. That one little word in Greek and those two little words in our translations establish a connection between Jesus’ love for us, and our love for others. Our love for others is to be patterned off of Jesus’ love for us. Now, you want to see something cool? …say yes. :) John 15:9 says this:
Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.
So what does Jesus’ love look like? The Father’s love. Jesus’ love perfectly mirrors the perfect love of our heavenly. Jesus is not more loving than the Father. The Father is not less loving than the Son. Sometimes people like to say that God is angry and wrathful, but Jesus is kind and loving. But the NT will not allow us to drive a wedge like that into the Trinity. The Son’s love is like the Father’s love. Period. The Son’s love is patterned on the Father’s perfect love. And our very imperfect love is to be patterned on the perfect love of the Son. The Father loves the Son. The Son loves us. We love others. What does that mean? That means that in the simple act of loving others, you and I are extending the life and love of the Trinity into the wrecked and painful lives of others. How cool is that?
Sacrifice begins with loving others.
#2: To love others, lay down your life (v. 13)
#2: To love others, lay down your life (v. 13)
Now we’re called to love others as Jesus has loved us. What kind of love is that? What does that love look like? Jesus says in verse 13...
13 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
I was doing some reading about Memorial Day. I thought I would pass on some of these interesting facts to you.
Memorial Day history:
25 places in the US claim to have originated it
From 1868-1970, celebrated on May 30
Since 1971, always last Monday of May
Originally called “Decoration Day”
It was originally called Decoration Day, of course, because it was the day when many people would place flowers on the graves of US servicemen. This was originally done mainly for Civil War veterans, but after the two world wars, it was cemented into a general day of remembrance for all servicemen.
Why do we place flowers on graves? Ever thought about that? I can think of two reasons. Flowers symbolize new life, and placing flowers on a grave are a reminder that death is not the end. Death and decay will one day give way to new life at the resurrection, when the bodies of everyone who has died in Christ are raised and reunited with their spirits.
The other reason seems obvious, too. We honor the deaths of human beings. We don’t just do this for veterans. We do this for all our loved ones. Why do we honor the deaths of of fellow human beings? Why do we treat their deaths as sacred? Very simple - because human life is sacred. We are made in the image of God. That gives each of us tremendous worth and dignity, but it does more than that. Not only does it give us worth and dignity, being made in the image of God; it also gives meaning to our deaths. No death is meaningless, because no human life is meaningless.
Now if celebrate each human life and honor each death in that way, how much more ought we to celebrate those who gave themselves up to death in order that we might live? Every soldier dying in service to this country has died in our place, when you think about it. They fought for those of us who couldn’t. Their sacrifice means, ultimately, that we get to continue living our lives to the fullest.
So when Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends”, he is saying something that all of us can understand. Jesus is saying that you can search the world over, and pour through its history books and hear its stories and listen to its songs and study it intently and you will never find in any of it a demonstration of love that tops what Jesus did. I’m not saying that you won’t find any stirrings examples of lives laid down for others. I’m saying you won’t find any that rise to this level. Why? Because while most of us might at least want to be willing to die for someone who will appreciate our death in their place, Jesus died for people who were His enemies.
Think about this: Jesus died for people who did not immediately see the good in what He did. Jesus died for people who hated Him. There were no headlines the next day praising His valor and courage and sacrifice. Three days would pass before He would be vindicated by His resurrection, and even then, even despite His rising from the dead in triumph, even then — even now — most do not appreciate what He did or believe He is who He says He is. There is no act of courageous sacrifice or sacrificial love that rises above what Jesus has done.
Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends
And Jesus makes this so clear when He says “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” And Jesus tells us this so clearly, I think, because the danger is that on days like Memorial Day, we might be tempted to look at Jesus as though He’s just one more example of someone who gave his life in sacrifice for others. He’s not. His death is the reason why stories of sacrifice move us so deeply. His death is the reason countless others have been inspired to give theirs.
Not that they’ve done it explicitly for him - I don’t mean that. But here’s what I do mean: God has created us and wired us in such a way as to be moved by examples of sacrifice and people laying their lives down for others, because ultimately such a substitutionary sacrifice like this is at the very heart of the universe.
Someone once said there was a cross in the heart of God from all eternity. Rev. 13:8 says that Jesus the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. 1Pet. 1:20 says that Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world. Eph. 1:3 says we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. God knew when He created Adam and Eve and placed them in this world that we would make a wreck of things by our sin, and moreover He planned it that way. I want to be careful here because I’m entering the realm of speculation. But I believe there are good biblical reasons to say that God chose to permit the entrance of sin into this world, so that He could display the magnificent riches of His grace.
How so? God permitted the sin which would require the penalty of death by His own law, just as you might create a rule that you know your children won’t be able to keep. God pronounced the verdict of guilty over us and sentenced us to death, so that He Himself could come and take that penalty upon Himself, and in so doing to give the world a demonstration of the love it is searching for. How many of our favorite stories and books and movies feature someone dying in the place of another? That’s because our hearts are calibrated to beat in time with the heart of God, and His heart beats the rhythm of love pouring itself out for others.
Yesterday afternoon I was here at the church working on a few things and Shannon came down and brought the kids to Hanna Park and I met them there. We hadn’t been there long before it came a huge downpour. There aren’t very many times where I get to say “I told you so”. Yesterday was one of those times. It was really cloudy and dark, and as you looked off into the distance you could see that the trees about 200 yards off looked misty, they were kind of grayed out because of a downpour. It was headed toward us. I said, Okay we should get to the car because it’s about to start raining and once it starts it’s going to be a sudden downpour. I was completely overruled.
Well, it happened just as I said it would happen. First it was just a couple of huge drops here and there, but within a matter of about five seconds it was pouring. So Shannon takes off running for the van and I’m waiting with Noah on Abigail who was in the restroom. Shannon had a long way to run to get to the car. I didn’t make her do that, she just kind of starting sprinting in that direction. Anyway, she pulls up by the gate to the playground and by that time it had stopped pouring and was just kind of a light rain. We got into the car mostly dry, but Shannon was soaked. And I said, “Honey, thank you for getting the car, and thank you for giving me a sermon illustration. I’m going to use this tomorrow morning. When you went running to the car, you sacrificed your dryness for us. You became soaking wet that we might remain dry!”
So I’m feeling pretty proud of my keen spiritual insight into what just happened, but I shouldn’t have been. We went to get some ice cream from DQ and then came back to the playground. The kids went off to play and we were about to sit down on a bench but it was soaking wet. Shannon looked at the bench, then at me, then at the bench, then back at me. And she said, “I bet those jeans you’re wearing would soak up that water really easily, wouldn’t it?” And I knew what I had to do. Just as she had sacrificed her dryness for us earlier, now I was about to sacrifice the dryness of my pants for her. So I sat down on the bench and immediately had soaking wet jeans. I got up and said, “Here’s your seat. It’s all dry for you.”
But I still wasn’t done paying for my crimes. Because the spot that I had dried with my rear was only big enough for one person, and she wanted me to sit beside her. So I sat down again, in the water, in the wetness, for her, because these are the things you do when you’re married. And yes, the back of my jeans did look just as you would imagine they looked.
In all seriousness, we make sacrifices for those we love. It’s easier if we make sacrifices for those people who love us back. Some of you know how hard it is to sacrifice for someone who does not love you back. Maybe for you it’s a spouse who doesn’t appreciate your love for them. It could be a child or a grandchild who seems to continually throw your love for them back into your face.
Jesus understands how you feel; He has experienced that. Because the fact is that not everyone looks at the cross and sees love. A man named John Shelby Spong was bishop of the Newark, NJ episcopal diocese from 1979-2000. He wrote a famous book called Why Christianity Must Change or Die. If you were to read that book, it becomes clear that he is not calling for a change in method. Spong is calling for a fundamental change in the message of Christianity. Nowhere is that clearer than when he writes this:
“[Christians must]…recognize the ogre into which they have made God. A human father who would nail his son to a cross for any purpose would be arrested for child abuse…I would choose to loathe rather than worship a deity who required the sacrifice of his son.”
Not only is this blasphemy; it’s also heart-wrenching, because this man is a man who has spent his ministerial career in the Christian church teaching people this blasphemous doctrine, and yet Jesus died for him. I pray that this man who is now nearly 90 years old would repent and believe the truth before it’s too late.
But not only is it blasphemous and heart-wrenching. It’s also wrong to say that the crucifixion is divine child abuse. It ignores Jesus’ own words. Here in verse 13, when He says, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends”, that word “lay down” is a word in the Greek that lays the stress on Jesus’ initiative. This is something He did of His own accord. He spells is out even more clearly in John 10:17-18.
For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 18 No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
No, the cross is not divine child abuse. Jesus went to the cross willingly, voluntarily, even joyfully, because of His love for the Father and His love for us. Sacrifice begins with loving others. To love others is to lay your life down for them. And lastly, to lay your life down for someone is true friendship.
#3: To lay down your life for someone is true friendship
#3: To lay down your life for someone is true friendship
14 You are My friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you
In the ancient world there were three different kinds of friendship.
Friendship in the 1st century:
Political friendship: friend of the king/Caesar
Benefactor-client friendship: wealthy person sponsors less wealthy person
Mutual friendship: friendship b/w equals (sharing possessions, confidentiality, & sacrifice)
Now this is more than a history lesson. The reason I bring up these ideas of friendship in the ancient world is that we would think Jesus would offer us political friendship or benefactor-client friendship. After all, He’s the superior, and we are the inferior. He’s the master, we’re the servants. But that’s not at all the kind of friendship He offers us. He offers us mutual friendship. Look with me at verse 15. “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
This is a mutual friendship. Jesus takes us into His confidence by sharing with us what His Father shared with Him. Jesus shares His possessions for us; He gives us His righteousness and His peace and His joy and more; and He lays down His life for us. And to lay down your life for someone is true friendship.
Now friends, don’t miss this. Don’t miss what Jesus is telling you. Jesus wants to be your friend. Jesus wants you to be His friend. Was this not what Jesus was saying to Zaccheus when he found him in the tree? “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house” (Luke 19:5 NASB). That’s a first century person’s way of saying, basically, “Let’s hang.” Jesus wanted to spend time with Zaccheus, despite the fact that Zaccheus had been a thief. Jesus wants to spend time with you, despite the fact that you’re a sinner. He wants to spend time with me, despite the fact that I’m a sinner. He knows everything about you, He knows and sees the darkest desires of your heart, He is aware of the unspeakable things you and I have done, and yet, and yet, He calls us friends.
Jesus says we are His friends if we do what He commands us. Well, what has He commanded us? What does it mean to obey Jesus’ commands? It might seem like a no-brainer. But it can’t mean that we have to obey all of Jesus’ commands perfectly in every area before we can be called His friend, because that’s impossible for us. And it can’t mean that we have to generally try to obey all His commands as best we can, because then how could we ever know when we had obeyed enough to be called His friends?
No, I think there are two things Jesus means by “obey my commands”. I think He means, first, to simply believe in Him.
Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
And the second thing it means to obey Jesus’ commands is found right here in the immediate context, right here in our passage. Jesus says you are my friends if you obey my commands, but right before that in verse 12 He explicitly says “This is My command, that you love one another, just as I have loved you”. So I think that to obey the commands of Christ means basically to believe in Him and love others. Aren’t those essentially the two greatest commandments? Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself? And as we do that, as we grow in believing in Jesus, trusting in Jesus, and as we grow in loving others, we will at the same time grow in our obedience to all His commands.
Sacrifice begins with loving others. To love others, lay down your life. Laying down your life is true friendship.
Conclusion and call for response
Conclusion and call for response
We’re grateful to our armed servicemen who gave their lives. It’s true, we can never repay them. And they wouldn’t want us too. Their lives were given as a gift. Likewise, we’re grateful even more so to Jesus for giving His life for us, being a faithful friend, for loving us to the point of death. on Memorial Day, we remember those And we cannot repay Him either, and we dare not try. The whole reason for the cross is that we are unable to do anything to merit or deserve what He has done. His death is a gift of grace.
[CUE MUSICIANS]
This morning as we observe the Lord’s Supper, this is what we remember. We remember our Savior Jesus, whose body was broken for us, His blood shed for us. Our Roman Catholic brothers snd sisters believe that the bread and the cup become the body and blood of Christ. Our Lutheran brothers and sisters believe that Jesus is physical present around and with the bread and the cup. We believe that the bread and the blood are symbols; they’re signposts pointing us to Him. When we take this bread and drink this cup, we are re-enacting the death of Jesus. Jesus is reminding you in a very tangible way that His death, as a sacrifice for you, in your place, on your behalf, is to be our spiritual nourishment.
As Shirley plays for us, I encourage you to spend some time talking with God. Confess your sins to Him. Receive His forgiveness. Then we’ll celebrate the Lord’s Supper with clean hands and a pure heart.