And we want to consider today something more
about the meaning of love, a word which
is much misunderstood, but which we can understand
clearly when we look at the life of
Jesus and see how we can have the
same love in our life for other people.
One mark of love is gentleness.
Jesus was gentle with all people, particularly with
people who were battered by life, who had
fallen into sin.
Jesus loved especially those who had fallen deeply
into sin.
He came to help such people because they
were rejected by everybody else.
The woman caught in adultery, the thief on
the cross, rejected criminals.
Jesus went, picked them up and encouraged them.
He saw the good points in those weak,
sinful people and He hoped for the best
in everyone.
You know, Jesus was this type of person
whom other people would just long to be
with because He was so understanding, so kind,
so gentle.
You know who were the people who avoided
Jesus?
Those who were proud, those who were hypocrites,
those who had some secret sin which they
were afraid He would expose.
The Bible says that Jesus, Matthew 12, verse
20, it says, Jesus would not break a
bruised or a battered reed.
A reed is a very small little thing
and if that's bruised or battered, most people
would throw it away and pick another reed
because reeds are cheap.
But Jesus wouldn't do it.
And a wick that's burning very dimly, Jesus
would fan it to a flame.
That's what it says there.
He would not quench a dimly burning wick.
You know that?
That if you're like a battered reed, weak,
most of your life broken, Jesus cares for
you.
He can bring you back into His perfect
plan for your life, even if you're like
a battered reed or a dimly burning wick
or a wick that's about to die out.
Jesus saw the good points in people.
He always hoped for the best.
His love was not sentimental.
He always sought the highest good.
That's why He rebuked Peter with strong words
of admonition.
You can't rebuke people strongly unless you love
them.
When James and John were seeking for places
of honor, He rebuked them.
When they wanted to call down fire on
the Samaritans, He rebuked them.
He rebuked His disciples seven times for unbelief.
Why?
Because He loved them.
If He didn't care for them, then He
would have just not corrected them at all.
He wouldn't have bothered whether they went to
hell or anywhere.
And so we see that Jesus was not
afraid of speaking the truth, even if it
hurt others, because He loved them.
He was concerned for their eternal good.
He was not seeking a reputation for being
known as a kind person or that that
reputation for kindness would be lost if He
spoke strong words.
No.
He loved other people more than He loved
Himself.
And so He was willing to sacrifice His
reputation in order to help other people.
He spoke the truth firmly because He did
not want men to be ruined eternally.
So in one sentence we could say, the
eternal welfare of men mattered more to Jesus
Christ than their opinions about Him.
And a true Christian is like that when
he encounters other people.
Their eternal welfare means more to him than
all their opinions of him.
Once when Peter was in the house of
Cornelius and he was talking about the ministry
of Jesus to them, he summed up the
whole ministry of Jesus in one sentence.
In Acts of the Apostles, chapter 10, verse
38, he said, Jesus went about doing good
and delivering people who were oppressed by the
devil.
You see what the ministry of Jesus was?
Doing good.
Not just preaching, not just saying nice words,
but actually doing good to people and delivering
them from the oppression of Satan.
He didn't just want to win souls.
He loved the total man.
He was concerned about man's physical need.
There was a time when there were more
than four thousand people who had been with
Him for three days.
You read about that in Matthew 15.
Three days.
And they didn't eat anything.
And Jesus was concerned.
He said, let's provide them with some meal,
something to eat.
He was concerned about man's physical need.
He taught us to pray, give us this
day our daily bread.
And wherever He went, He did good not
only to the souls of men, but to
their bodies.
He cared for people who were sick and
suffering.
He cared for the worst of sinners so
much that His enemies would taunt Him, saying,
oh, He's a friend of tax collectors and
sinners.
But that's what He was.
He was a friend of the most despised
people in society.
And a true man of God will be
like that also.
You know, you can be like that.
What's hindering you from loving people who are
despised by others, from loving people who are
low in society?
It's your own sense of dignity.
You don't want to be like Jesus.
You want to have a respectable type of
Christianity with a respectable type of people?
No, it's not natural for man to go
around becoming friends with the outcasts of society
like the lepers and things like that.
But Jesus did that.
You know, we seek to make friends with
those through whom we can get some benefit
for ourselves.
Our love is selfish.
Jesus' love was selfless.
It was pure.
It's not by all this cultural refinement and
nice words that we manifest the nature of
Christ.
It's by love, a love that seeks the
good of others, a love that enables us
to be their servants like Jesus was.
Jesus washed their feet, not to impress them
with His humility, but because He loved them.
You know, whenever Jesus did good to others,
He never had the slightest thought that He
could get something in return.
Jesus used an example of the sun.
The sun shines on the evil and the
good, He said in Matthew 5.45. And
what is the sun expecting in return from
all these people?
Nothing.
What about the rain?
He used the illustration of the rain also.
He said the rain falls on the righteous
and the unrighteous.
And what is the rain expecting in return?
Not even a word of thanks.
Nobody looks up at the sun and says,
Well, thank you for rising this morning and
shining upon us or giving us light.
But the sun is not bothered.
Even though nobody thanks it, it still rises
in the morning.
And Jesus said, Be like that.
Be like your heavenly Father who gives His
sunlight to good and evil people, whether they
thank Him or not.
Nobody turns up to God and says, Thank
you, Lord, for giving me sunlight this morning.
But He still sends it.
No, Jesus was not interested in getting something
in return.
See, God's nature is one which wants to
give and give and give and give.
That is as natural for God as it
is for the sun to shine and shine
and shine and shine.
And Jesus came to earth and manifested that
nature of God, seeking to do good and
serve and help and bless wherever He went.
Whether people appreciated it, whether they thanked Him
or didn't thank Him, it didn't make a
difference to Him.
See, it's not easy to manifest this type
of love.
Human love is so selfish.
If that fellow loves me in return, then
I continue to love him.
That is the way we can distinguish between
human love and divine love.
There is a lot of difference between the
two.
In divine love, it doesn't matter to us
whether the other person responds or not.
We just continue.
Consider the way Jesus used His money.
In John 13, 29, we see that Jesus
used His money basically for two things, to
buy what was needed and to give to
the poor.
Now, Jesus was not a great rich millionaire,
but He still found some money to give
to those who were poor.
He taught people, it is more blessed to
give than to receive.
And His love taught Him that whatever possessions
God gave Him were to be used to
bless others.
How many of us have understood it?
How many Christians are there in the world
who have understood this, that God gives us
material things so that we can bless others,
use them for the benefit of others?
This is love, when we learn to love
people and use things to bless people.
Let me say something else about His preaching.
We read of a time in Luke 19
and verse 41 that He wept over Jerusalem.
Why did He weep over Jerusalem?
He used such strong words when He preached.
And little later we read in the same
chapter, verse 45 of Luke 19, that He
used a whip.
But before He used the whip, He wept.
This was the balance.
Let me mention another aspect of Jesus' love,
and that is, you didn't have to see
a secretary in order to meet with Jesus.
Now in the world, if you want to
meet a big man, you've got to meet
a secretary first.
What secretary did Jesus have?
Anybody could meet Him.
Nicodemus could go in the middle of the
night, wake Him up and speak to Jesus,
and Jesus was ready to talk to Him.
Once Jesus was so busy helping people that
we read in Mark 3, verse 20 and
21, He did not even have enough time
to eat.
He did not have anybody to regulate the
access of people to Him, saying, You can't
come to me.
You know, when you become so busy that
you cannot meet with ordinary people, you have
become more busy than Jesus Christ.
When you need a secretary to prevent people
from meeting you, you're not a servant of
God anymore.
You're just a businessman.
You're running an industry, not a Christian church.
The relatives of Jesus thought He was insane
to allow people to take so much of
His time, but that is because He loved
them.
Jesus was freely approachable.
Once they brought sick people to Him at
sunset, we read in Luke 4, verse 40,
and He spent the whole evening till late
into the night, praying for them, laying His
hands on them, healing them.
He did not feel His time was His
own.
His time was for other people.
He came to live, to do God's will,
to bless them, and He was willing to
be inconvenienced.
And this is why the mighty gifts of
the Spirit that were manifested through Jesus brought
life.
You know, miracles are a dangerous thing if
they are not operated in love.
This is the love of God that we
need to flood our hearts.
Let's ask God to give it to us,
a love that's concerned, even in His last
moments, to bring a thief into God's kingdom.
When the world around us sees such love,
they will be drawn to Jesus.
Let's ask God to give us this love.