“THE GREATEST LOVE EVER KNOWN



“THE GREATEST LOVE EVER KNOWN!”

JOHN 15:12-14

INTRO: Mankind often speaks of love. As Valentine’s Day approaches, the

word Love will be on the lips of many. One philosopher defined "love"

as "a feeling you feel you're going to feel when you have a feeling you

haven't felt before!" - Rusty & Linda Wright, _500 Clean Jokes_, p. 29.

Love can take many forms. We can say we love our families. We can

say we love material objects. We, as Christians, often say that we love

Jesus, but often do little to show that love. G. W. C. Thomas said,

“There is no greater love than the love that holds on where there

seems nothing to hold on to” (1). That is true love!

In 1 John 4:8 We read, “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God

is love.” I want you to notice those last three words in that verse:

“God is love.” John Wesley wrote: “God is love - This little sentence

brought St. John more sweetness, even in the time he was writing it,

than the whole world can bring” (John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes).

Oliver B. Greene in his commentary on the epistles of John wrote:

“Never has so much meaning, so much truth, been crowded into three

short words: ‘God is love.’ In this age of hatred, strife, animosity,

greed, distrust and selfishness when the majority of the people seem

to think only of self, when most of the wealth seems to be in the

hands of only a few and in this land of plenty many go to bed hungry

at night, how refreshing it is to know that ‘GOD is love!’’ (2).

True love only comes from God manifested to this world in the person

of Jesus Christ! He was and still is perfect love. Only through HIM

can the world experience the love is it so desperately longing for!

The world isn't waiting for advice about how to solve its problems. It's

waiting for somebody to listen to it and love it. -- Keith Miller.

Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 4. Friends, God is that lover! And by sending

His Son, Jesus to die for us we see the greatest display of love ever

seen! Notice v13of our text—“Greater love hath no man than this, that

a man lay down his life for his friends.” The highest human exhibition

of love that earth has ever seen was this. Christ was about to exhibit

this highest type of human love by dying for his friends. He did even

more, as Paul shows us in Rom_5:6, he died for his enemies,

something that man had never done (The People’s New Testament

Commentary). I want you to note with me this morning three things

about “The Greatest Love Ever Known!”

LET US SEE:

(1) THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS LOVE

JOHN 15:13—“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay

down his life for his friends.”

*Notice the word Greater in v13 in the Greek it means “larger, more.” No

higher expression of love could be given (Albert Barnes Notes on The Bible).

What are the characteristics of this great love? :

A. IT IS SACRIFICIAL. Jesus gave His own life to pay for our sins. 1

John 3:16 tells us, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he

laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the

brethren.” The word perceive in that verse in the Greek means “to know,

be sure, understand.” In this verse we see love in action, love at its

highest: Jesus loving a world of sinners! loving them to such an extent

that He was willing to lay down His life that those who deserve hell

might have life and have it abundantly (3).

ILLUS: The famous King Cyrus the Great was hounded by Cagular, the

provincial ruler in this day. He sent out his invincible army,

and they captured the rebel Cagular and his family. The great

monarch delayed killing his victim He interviewed Cagular, and

during the conversation decided to spare the life of this local

rival. "What would you do if I spared your life?" Cyrus asked

him. "Oh, King, I'd serve you with all my strength," Cagular

replied. "What would you do if I spared the life of your wife?"

Cyrus asked. "I'd serve you to my death," Cagular answered.

Then the mighty Cyrus made Cagular the captain over his

southern forces and sent him to assume command. "Did you

see all the silver armor?" Cagular asked his wife as they

journeyed to his new position. "No," she replied. "Did you see

the marble and ornaments in the king's court?" he asked. "No,"

she replied again. "Did you see the gold throne where Cyrus

say?" "No," she replied. "Well, what did you see anyway?"

Cagular asked her She looked lovingly into his eyes and

answered, "I saw only the face of the man who said he'd die for

me!"

That is what we see in Jesus; the one who was willing to die for us. He

willingly laid down His life for us. Jesus said in John 10:14, 17-18—I

am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.

Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might

take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I

have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again. This

commandment have I received of my Father.” He willingly laid down His

life for us because we were lost sheep (Isaiah 53:5-6). The Greatest

Love Ever Known is SACRIFICIAL, but also…

B. IT IS SINCERE. It is easy to love someone when they love you back,

but what if they hate you, despise you, and spitefully use you? Notice

what 1 John 4:7-10 tells us—“Beloved, let us love one another: for love

is of God; and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He

that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested

the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son

into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we

loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for

our sins.” Notice the words in v10—“Herein is love, not that we loved

God, but that he loved us…” When the Lord Jesus came into this world,

this world was not seeking Him, nor is the world seeking Him today!

But sacrificial, sincere love of God came seeking lost man. As Luke 19:

10 tells us, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which

was lost.”

ILLUS: Oliver B. Greene gives this testimony: The night God saved

me I did not go to the house of God seeking Him. I did not go

because I loved Him. I went due to certain circumstances I

was forced to go. But even though I went to God’s house

against my will, Jesus was seeking my poor, lost soul, and the

Gospel which is “the power of God unto salvation” reached my

heart and convicted me of sin. I trusted Jesus that night—

but not because I was seeking Him. I came under the hearing

of the Word, God sought me through the Word, the Holy Spirit

troubled my heart and I was saved. I love God now, I love the

Church, I love the Bible, and I love my fellow Christians, but

that was not true until God gave me a new heart in which the

Holy Spirit dwells (4).

Think of how GREAT and how SINCERE this love is. Romans 5:8 tells

us, “But God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet

sinners, Christ died for us.” His love is not like human love. Christ

died, not for friends, but for enemies (The People’s New Testament

Commentary). Warren Wiersbe said, “God revealed His love at the cross

when Christ died for those who were ‘without strength,’ who were

‘ungodly,’ ‘sinners,’ and ‘enemies,’ thus proving His great love” (5).

The Greatest Love Ever Known is SACRIFICIAL, SINCERE and…

C. IT IS SAVING. NO matter what our situation, NO matter how sinful

we see ourselves to be, God’s love can span the gap; God’s love can

save us! Ephesians 2:4-5 declares, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for

his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins,

hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved).” By HIS

Grace and because of His great love, He through faith can save

ANYONE! Notice what Paul said of himself in 1 Timothy 1:15-16—

“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus

came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit I

obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-

suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to

life everlasting.”

This GREAT LOVE was bestowed so all men might be saved (John

3:16). All men matter. You matter. I matter. It's the hardest thing in

theology to believe. -- G. K. Chesterton in The Father Brown Omnibus.

Christianity Today, Vol. 39, no. 13. There is not one person for whom

Jesus did not die. There is not one person who God does not love!

The Great Love Ever Known is SACRIFICIAL, SINCERE, SAVING, and…

D. IT IS SECURE. It is forever. As the Lord tells us in Jeremiah 31:3—

“Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-

kindness have I drawn thee.” God tells Israel here, “I love thee with the

same love now as of old. My love was not a momentary impulse, but

from "everlasting" in My counsels, and to "everlasting" in its

continuance” (Jamieson, Fausset & Brown Commentary). This is the

same love He loves us with as Romans 8:35-39 tells us.

ILLUS: I read the testimony of an ironsmith, who said he worked with

iron because iron was so hard to bend into something

beautiful. He said he wanted to make iron into poetry. We're

like that with our sins. We are hard, and we are rigid, and we

do not bend easily. We are intractable; like dogs returning to

our vomit, we go back and back and back again to the same

old sins. But God loves us, and not because of anything within

ourselves. There is no reason why he should love us. He loves

us, as Moses says, Because. (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). -- Bruce

Thielemann, "Because," Preaching Today, Tape No. 105.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS LOVE is that IT IS SACRIFICIAL, SINCERE, SAVING, and SECURE, but also notice…

(2) THE COMPASSION OF THIS LOVE

JOHN 15:13a—“Greater love hath no man than this…”

*The word love in v13 is agape. This GREAT LOVE speaks of the

compassion and affection of Christ for us. Let us see that the compassion

of Christ led him to:

A. DEPART THE GLORIES OF HEAVEN FOR US. Philippians 2:5-8 tells

us, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being

in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made

himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and

was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man,

he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of

the cross.” He willingly laid aside His glory and “put on” the form of a

servant. He did not cease to be God, but he did lay aside His glory and

the independent use of His attributes as God. His life as the God-Man

on earth was completely subjected to the Father. “I do always those

things that please Him” (John 8:29). Jesus humbled Himself to become

flesh, and then to become sin as he willingly went to the cross (6).

Dottie Rambo wrote:

He left the splendor of heaven,

Knowing His destiny,

Was the lonely hill of Golgotha,

There to lay down His life for me.

Chorus:

If that isn’t love;

The ocean is dry,

There’s no stars in the sky,

And the sparrows can’t fly.

If that isn’t love;

Then heaven’s a myth,

There’s no feeling like this,

If that isn’t love!

His COMPASSION led him to DEPART THE GLORIES OF HEAVEN FOR

US and also His COMPASSION led him to…

B. DIE BECAUSE OF GRACE FOR US. Hebrews 2:9 says of Him—“But

we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the

suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace

of God should taste death for every man.” HIS COMPASSION, His agape

for us, led Him to die in our place!

ILLUS: Shortly after sunrise on January 2, 2000, a noose was placed

around the neck of 17-year-old Morteza Moqaddam. He killed a

fellow Iranian in Tehran on December 13th after a quarrel about

smoking in public. Now, the portable gallows was standing just

thirty-feet from where the crime was committed and a large

crowd had assembled for the execution. With hands cuffed and

tears streaming down his ashen face, the teenager waited for

the final signal to end his short life. To his utter surprise, the

victim’s father, Ali Mohebbi, exercised his privilege under Iran’s

Islamic legal system and granted the boy forgiveness. Just

seconds before he was hanged, he was extended grace rather

than justice. The killer’s mother collapsed under the strain and

cried out, “I will never forget as long as I live how he gave my

son’s life back.” After receiving clemency, Moqaddam was

ushered away from the gallows in an ambulance that was

waiting to take his body to the morgue. State-run television

ran footage of the teenager repeatedly thanking the father

whose son he killed. Like this young man from Iran, we are all

guilty of sin and worthy of spiritual execution. But God has

“demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). (Houston Chronicle, 1/3/00,

p. 8A) (7).

His COMPASSION led Him to DEPART THE GLORIES OF HEAVEN FOR US and DIE BECAUSE OF GRACE FOR US. We have seen THE CHARACTERISTICS, and THE COMPASSION of THE GREATEST LOVE EVER KNOWN, but finally let us see…

(3) THE CONSUMMATION OF THIS LOVE

*The word consummation means “fulfillment, perfection, completion.”

Although God’s love is eternal, it will never end, yet it will be fulfilled in

two ways for all those in Christ Jesus. How will God consummate His

GREAT LOVE? :

A. WE WILL ENJOY AN ETERNAL HOME (JOHN 14:1-3). Because of

His great love, He has gone to prepare a place for all who believe!

Someone has written concerning our heavenly home:

Light after darkness, gain after loss;

Strength after weakness, crown after cross;

Sweet after bitter, hope after fears;

Home after wandering, praise after tears;

Sheaves after sowing, sun after rain;

Sight after mystery, peace after pain;

Joy after sorrow, calm after blast;

Rest after weariness, sweet rest at last;

Near after distant, gleam after gloom;

Love after loneliness, life after tomb;

After long agony, rapture of bliss;

Right was the pathway, leading to this.

B. WE WILL ENJOY ETERNAL FELLOWSHIP (1 THESSALONIANS 4:15-

18). Notice the last part of v17—“…so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

Listen to the words of the late Oliver B. Greene, who is now enjoying

that eternal fellowship with God: Paul does not say that we will remain

in the AIR forever; he says we will be with the Lord forever—and that

statement is sufficient comfort for me, just to know that I will always

be with the Lord. Wherever He is, in heaven, peace and joy. Jesus

said, “Where I am there shall also my servant be” (John 12:26). To be

with Jesus is good enough for me, whether it be in the air, on the

earth or in the Father’s house. Hallelujah! We will never again be

separated from the Lord, from our precious loved ones, nor from our

brothers and sisters in Christ! (8)

ILLUS: Charles Spurgeon said, “The true Christian life, when we live

near to God, is the rough draft of the life of full communion

above…I bear my testimony that there is no joy to be found in

all this world like that of sweet communion with Christ. I

would barter all else there is of heaven for that. Indeed, that

is heaven. As for the harps of gold and the streets like clear

glass and the songs of seraphs and the shouts of the

redeemed, one could very well give all these up, counting them

as a drop in a bucket, if we might forever live in fellowship and

communion with Jesus” (9).

CLOSING: THE GREATEST LOVE EVER KNOWN IS the Love of God. One of

the most beautiful verses in the Bible is 1 John 4:8 which says,

“God is love.” He is the true expression of love! The poet Loreta

Inman put it this way:

Love is a power

That transforms the soul,

Fills hearts with heaven

And gives life its goal.

God is love! And you cannot know true love until you know HIM!

THE GREATEST LOVE EVER KNOWN is SACRIFICIAL, SINCERE,

SAVING, and SECURE. It led Jesus to DEPART THE GLORIES OF

HEAVEN FOR US and DIE BECAUSE OF GRACE FOR US. This

Love will find its fulfillment in OUR ETERNAL HOME and OUR

ETERNAL FELLOWSHIP with God! Friend, Have you experienced

this kind of love? If not, you need to come today and give your life

to Jesus and experience true love today.

Saved friend, What are you doing to show your love back to Him?

Let us as David consider, “What shall I render unto the LORD for all

his benefits toward me” (Psalm 116:12).

NOTES: 1. Albert M. Wells, Jr. Inspiring Quotations-Contemporary &

Classical. p. 121.

2. Oliver B. Greene. The Epistles of John. p. 159.

3. Greene. p. 136.

4. Greene. p. 161.

5. Warren W. Wiersbe. Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on The New

Testament. p. 376.

6. Wiersbe. pp. 563-573.

7. Raymond McHenry. In Other Words. Volume 10. Issue 1. Winter

2000. pp. 6-7.

8. Oliver B. Greene. The Epistles of Paul The Apostle To The

Thessalonians. pp. 147-148.

9. Charles H. Spurgeon. 2200 Quotations From The Writings Of

Charles H. Spurgeon. pp. 95-96.

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