SERMON: John 10:14-18; 15:12-17 “NO GREATER LOVE!”
Introduction:
This is indeed a very well-known passage of Scripture. On the day before HIS arrest, trial, and crucifixion; Jesus gathered HIS disciples together on the evening of Passover to transform this ancient religious ritual into a living memorial to our living LORD that we now call The Lord’s Supper!
In the process of this first, “LORD’s Supper” Jesus demonstrates by washing their feet what true humility looks like and tells them the price of really loving one another.
After “portraying” what real love looks like, Jesus “proclaims” to them that really loving one another means that they must be willing to lay down their life.
HE tells them that HE is, HIMSELF, going to lay down HIS life for them (and for all who will HIS chosen people) and that this ultimate selfless act is the greatest love a person can have and the greatest love a person can demonstrate.
These verses are Holy Scripture. Therefore, they are true. Therefore, laying down one’s life truly is the greatest act of love that one human being can demonstrate for another.
In context, this passage is about Jesus – and only about Jesus – Who laid down HIS physical life for the salvation of HIS people. But the statement is true in any context. The greatest act of love that ANY HUMAN can offer is to lay down one’s life for another.
You and I are here today to publicly worship God. We are perfectly free to do this; and we are under no threat because we have chosen to do this. This is America; and, in America we are (at least for now) free to worship in any way we choose.
Hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of our brothers and sisters in Christ are not free to worship Jesus today. Thousands have been killed; thousands have been enslaved, and hundreds of thousands are homeless and running for their very life today because they do not share in our good fortune.
What is our good fortune?
Why are we free to worship while millions of others are not?
The answer is as simple as it is profound.
Since early Wednesday morning, April 19th, 1775, when a handful of American Patriots on the village green of Lexington, Massachusetts and at a small bridge at nearby Concord; “fired the shot heard around the world” * 583,199 Men and women serving in the Armed Forces of the United States have “laid down their life” because of their love for this Country and their fellow Americans!
**US Department of Veterans’ Affairs
Revolutionary War: 4,435
War of 1812: 2,260
Civil War: (North) 140,414
Spanish American War: 385
WW1: 53,402
WW2: 291,557
Korea: 33,739
Viet Nam: 58,220
Desert Storm: 148
Global War on Terror: 6,639 (Since 9/11 2001)
TOTAL AMERICANS KILLED: 583,199
We are here today to worship Jesus Christ – and we are perfectly safe while we are doing so – because of the selfless sacrifice of these nearly 583,199 American Servicemen and Women.
May we never forget!
Exposition:
We have not gathered here today to worship America or those Americans who have given up their life for our safety and freedom. We are here to worship Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who gave up HIS life for our salvation.
There is one thing more important than our freedom!
That one thing is our salvation from the guilt (and the penalty) of our sins that we have sinned against a thrice-Holy, perfectly righteous and justifiably angry God!
To rescue us from the judgment we deserve for our sins, Jesus Christ had to lay down HIS life on the Cross!
First, Jesus was willing to lay down HIS life for HIS people!
John 10:18(a) “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.”
Second, Jesus was able to lay down HIS life for HIS people!
John 10:18(b)
18 “I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again…”
Third, Jesus did lay down HIS life for HIS people!
Luke 23:33
33 “And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.”
Fourth and Finally, Jesus was able to take HIS life back up and raise HIMSELF from the dead!
1st Corinthians 15:13-22
13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.
14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. 15 We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.
16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”
Jesus Christ is the One True Living God of the Bible Who came to this earth in human flesh!
He was born of a Virgin!
He lived a sinless life and perfectly obeyed the Law of God!
He willingly went to the Cross to pay for the sins of HIS people!
Three days later HE rose again from the dead!
Right here and right now; today, Jesus is alive; and He will forgive the sins and change the life of anyone anywhere and everyone everywhere who will repent of their sins against God and believe on Jesus as their Savior and LORD!
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
Jesus was willing to die for us; the question now is are we willing to live for HIM?
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