The Love of Jesus
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The
triumphal entry into Jerusalem was over, the crowds had thinned down and the mood among
the leaders of the church was grim. All of the miracles the Lord had performed were
now faint memories, if remembered at all, and a new chapter was about to begin.
On the surface, this new chapter would seem to be one that only concerned Jesus and the
momentous night that was about to unfold, but that's only part of the story.
This new chapter did concern Jesus, but it also concerned all those who were in Jerusalem
that week, just as it concerns you and me today. In fact, this new chapter concerns
all of mankind, without exception.
As we find Jesus and His disciples in the garden, praying, we see that the concern of
Christ was not His personal welfare, but of the spiritual relationship of His followers,
then and now, to God, the Father.
Jesus prayed that you and I would be in the will of God. He prayed that we would be
at one with Him. He was most prayerful that we would come to understand how much God
loves Jesus and how much He loves each of us as well.
Those following Christ on that evening had no idea of what was about to happen, let alone
that they would see, first hand, the love of Jesus for all of mankind. In fact, it
would be some time before those men would really understand the depth of His love.
How deep was His love for His friends? For you and me? Let's look at some
glimpses of His love for us on that night of His betrayal.
Read: Luke 22:47-51
We see that even as He was being arrested, Jesus had compassion on those who were doing
the arresting. He could have easily ignored the servants wound, and no one, not even His
own disciples, would have given it a second thought, let alone blame Him for doing
nothing. But, because of His love for all of us, Jesus stopped and healed the
servant.
You and I would never had done that, in fact, we probably would have thought, "serves
him right, coming out here to arrest me!" No, we are not like Jesus, no one is.
Only Jesus has the perfect love of God, and He wants us to share in that with Him.
Imagine a night of terror, if it would be possible to terrorize Jesus, when you were
passed from one official to another. First of all, you are sent to the high priest,
the leader of your own faith. There you are listening to false accusations and
trumped up charges, hearing nothing as it really had happened.
You and I would have spoken volumes, telling everyone within ear shot that what was being
said were lies. But Jesus was silent. At least until the high priest ask Him
one last question- Matthew 26:63-68.
But Jesus had no need to defend what He had been saying for the last 3 years. He
knew the truth, and those who were accusing Him wanted anything but the truth, and He knew
that also. But He wanted to be sure that they would know with whom they were
speaking.
Imagine yourself there in the crowd outside the praetorium, awaiting Pilate's decision of
what to do with Jesus. Just a few days ago you were in another crowd waving palm
fronds as He made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
You were excited by this wonderful new leader, and the promise He seemed to bring to you
and your nation. You had thought that He would surely be the One who would release
Israel from Roman rule.
But on this night things are different. All of a sudden, and you are not quite sure
why, Jesus doesn't seem to have the same hold over you as you once thought. And,
could the high priest be wrong? Maybe not.
Isn't that what happens to us even today? We get so excited about finding Jesus and
getting to know Him, all we can think about is His ability to save us. But that only
carries us so far, doesn't it?
If we never took the time to develop a close, personal relationship with Jesus Christ, how
could we ever expect to stay with Him, especially when things got rough?
We all waived palm fronds at Him in the beginning, but are we still waiving them now?
It requires effort on our part to be sure, as all important things do. But
this is so important that these examples are recorded for us in Scripture.
When we read about the crowds turning on Christ all of a sudden, we ask, "how could
they do that?". Don't we do that? Haven't you and I acted as though we
never heard of our Savior at one time or another?
As Christ was preparing to go to the cross, to His earthly suffering and horrible death,
He was praying for you and me. You and I were already beginning to feel as though we
never knew Him. We were almost ready, if not fully ready, to deny Him as Peter
would.
Isn't that what we do when we turn our backs on God and do things our way? We have
all done it, and some here today are continuing to do it. We try to live the life we
think is best, or most desirable to us, while at the same time thinking we are being
acceptable to our High Priest, Jesus Christ.
As you look closely at your Christian walk, do you see yourself waiving palm fronds at
Jesus as He leads you and loves you? Do you eagerly anticipate whatever the Holy
Spirit has in store for you, looking toward the next opportunity to grow as a Christian?
Or could it be that you have started to second guess your previous loyalty to Jesus, and
what He requires of you? Do you, do we, begin to want Him out of our lives when we
know that He doesn't approve of our actions or lifestyle?
We would never consciously think in such a way, but it's our actions that tell the true
tale of our desires. We sinful humans like to do things our way, don't we!
The crowd in Jerusalem never knew Jesus as well as you or I, and yet we still sometimes
secretly want Him crucified from our lives as did those on that fateful Passover.
That's hard to accept, I know, but how else can we explain why we sometimes do the things
we do, as if His sacrifice was worthless.
Jesus knew that we would, just as He also knew that Peter would deny Him three times that
evening. Peter could not even comprehend that he could ever do such a thing, but he
did deny Christ three times.
Don't ever let Satan fool you into thinking that you would never deny your Savior, that
you would secretly wish Him crucified.
When we start thinking things like- that sort of thing could never happen to me, that's
when we should fall to our knees and ask God to give us strength to overcome Satans
deception.
The love of Jesus on that night was so great that He was able to look Peter in the eye and
tell Peter that he would be doing something that Peter considered impossible, all the
while being filled with love and compassion for Peter.
We must never wonder if our Savior loves us or not, because the answer is always a
resounding "yes"!
We are all familiar with John 3:16 "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."
We plainly see that God loves all of us, His entire creation He loves so much, that we
don't earn, we can't earn His love, because it's already there. Just as a parent
automatically loves their new-born baby, smells and all!, God automatically loves us the
minute we are conceived.
We all too often feel that God is just waiting to bring the hammer down on us for the sins
we have committed and are still committing. Is that how God really is? Let's
look at Scripture and get the right picture of the nature of our God.
John 3:17 is often missed or overshadowed by 3:16, but 17 shows us
just how much God really does love us. "For God did not send His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved."
Brethren, I don't know about you, but these Scriptures encourage me immensely. They
help me to see that there is a love for me greater than anything I have ever experienced
in this physical life. I know that the Almighty God, the Creator of the universe,
loves me.
And I know that He loves you too, even if you feel unlovable for some reason. His
word tells us so, and God's word cannot ever fail.
If we feel unwanted or unloved, know that it is Satan who makes you to feel that way.
He wants you to feel that way so that you give up on your Christian walk when things
get rough.
Don't let Satan ever have the right to say that he brought you down, remind yourself
everyday that God loves you as much as He loves His Son.
On the surface we usually see the Passover season as a somber time, a time of deep
reflection on our Christian growth, and that's good, we need to consider those things.
But there is something that is just as important, possibly more important than
seeing our faults and weaknesses.
We need to look through the eyes of Jesus and see ourselves as He sees us. We need
to know, without a doubt, that we are loved with a love so great that He was willing to
die for us, that He, in fact, did suffer and die for us, and considered it good, for
everything from God is good.
Let's not come into this Passover season full of guilt, Jesus paid the penalty for our
sins, including our guilt. Let's come to the Passover table full of joy.
Joy that His death paid the price for our transgressions, a price so high that it is
impossible for us to pay.
Joy that, even if no one on this earth loves us, the Creator of the earth does, totally
and without exception, and he showed it by sending His only Son to pay our debt.
Joy that our Savior went willingly to the cross because He too loves us without
reservation. We must never doubt the depth of His love for us.
And the joy in knowing that we have eternal life, life everlasting, because of the events
of that Holy Week.
No brethren, let's not be sorrowful to the point of denying our Savior and His sacrifice
by our doubts and fears. Instead, let's rejoice in His unbounded love for us, the love
that He displayed on the cross.
Yes, we are sinners, but even while we were still in those sins, Jesus came to ransom us
out of them, and He did. It is we who hold tight to those feelings of being unworthy
and incapable of being forgiven.
God has shown us in His word that we are mistaken when we think that way, and we need to
see that, in order to fully accept our salvation without guilt.
At this special time of year, when we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord
Jesus Christ, let's be reminded that the reason we can celebrate, is Jesus
loves you!