Wanted: Christians who Love Like Jesus

Affection required immediately! Single, white Christian male, 30 yrs. old, 6’, cute, trim, needs heavy-duty snuggling with warm, caring, single female. Help! Save me! I’m about to overdose on bachelorhood and male bonding. ID #74396

You can read ads like that in the newspaper every week. Two full pages or more of personal ads. Like this one…

Born again single white Christian female never-married non-smoker seeking single white Christian male non-smoker, 30-42. I’m 38, 5’4”, slender, Pentecostal, educated. If you’re down to earth, love the Lord, emotionally healthy, write. Let’s share good conversation, nice restaurants, movies, the country, beaches, biking. ID #74386

Although most of these ads are no more than 1/2 inch of tiny black print, they somehow manage to communicate volumes about the nameless people behind the ID numbers. Take this one, for example…

Athletic, extremely good-looking, but modest, Italian single white Christian male, 30, 5’11”, 180 lbs., physically-fit, sincere, spontaneous, intelligent, humorous, easy-going, successful business owner, sometimes shy. Seeking an attractive, honest, sensual, slender single white female 20-29, who is ready to meet her match. ID #74367

Some of these ads can be quite creative. Listen to this one…

Found: one glass slipper by tall, handsome, romantic, gallant gentleman, 32, of excellent physical, financial, and emotional condition, who is hoping the slipper belongs to an intelligent, attractive, trim, graceful lady 22-30, at least 5’4”. If the shoe of the description fits you, why not try an old-fashioned romance on for size? A daring beginning will lead to a happy ending, but only if that beginning happens before I mistake someone else for you.

But other ads can be almost brutally straightforward…

Stunning stewardess, 33, blonde, blue-eyed, single white female never-married non-smoker. Cultured, refined, yet sweet girl next door. Seeking wealthy, attractive, funny, single white male non-smoker 30’s-50’s for marriage and babies. ID #74452

I guess if that’s what you want, you might as well come right out and say it! There’s something sad about all of these ads. They have a quiet desperation about them. Underneath their perky, self-confident exterior, you can almost feel the hollow loneliness that drives people to advertize their innermost needs in the newspaper at $19 per line for three issues.

Hollywood has convinced most people in our culture that romantic love is the answer to our deepest inner longings; that falling in love with the man or woman of your dreams is the be all and end all of human experience. These personal ads capture the essence of that wistful fantasy.

Attractive 6’ athletic professional single Jewish male, 36. Seeking that one special, attractive, slim and intelligent single Jewish female to love forever. I haven’t been able to find you. Please find me.

People are looking for love. But as the song says, they’re looking for love in all the wrong places; looking for love in all the wrong faces. And they’re looking for the wrong kind of love. What happens, for example, when you are no longer athletic, or successful, or slim, or attractive, or young, or physically fit? What happens then? Do you lose your last chance to find love?

The Bible says that there is only one kind of love that will ultimately satisfy - that is God’s love. The key to understanding God’s love for us is to understand that it is unconditional. It doesn’t depend on any quality in us. We don’t have to be at least 5’4” and in our 30’s with a good figure to be eligible for it. It’s free to one and all who will receive it.

God packaged his love for us in a person - that person being Jesus Christ. If Jesus were to place a personal ad in the newspaper, it would probably read something like this…

Single Jewish male, 30’s, not especially attractive, have deep scars on my hands, feet, and side. Looking for an eternal relationship with ordinary, unattractive people of any race, sex, age, or size. You don’t have to be interesting, intelligent, successful, or funny. But if you need loving, comforting, encouraging, and a home in heaven when you die, and if you have been missing out on the very best life has to offer, try me.

The Apostle John was a man who tried Jesus, and his life was totally transformed. We have been studying a letter he wrote about the experience - the letter is called 1 John. In the first chapter of this letter, John explained to us that Jesus really came from God, and was God himself in human form. He said “I saw him, I heard him, I touched him.” There can be no question that God really came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ because I was there when he did. I was a witness.”

Last Monday, Carolyn and I stood on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, in a little place called Capernaum. Nobody lives there now, but there are some ruins there which date back to within twenty years of the time of Jesus. There are the remains of a synagogue, and some public buildings, and some houses. One of the houses is particularly interesting.

Archaeologists think that it might have been where Peter and Andrew lived. They found some graffiti on the walls of the house which mentioned the name Peter. But even more interesting is the fact that one of the rooms in that house seems to have been modified into a place of worship. It was plastered and whitewashed in a way that none of the other rooms was.

Scholars think it is quite possible that that room was where Jesus may have stayed while he was in Capernaum. So after the Resurrection the early Christians made it into a place of worship.

Jesus really came. He really lived and walked and talked on the shores of Galilee.

John goes on to say that Jesus essentially came to communicate one thing - that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. He is pure, he is clear, he is free from any shadow or darkness caused by sin. Well that might lead us to conclude that, in order to have fellowship with God, we would have to get rid of our sin.

But that isn’t true. In fact, the only way to have fellowship with God, John says, is to acknowledge your own sin. The only way to be able to walk in the light is to admit that you’re walking in the darkness. And if you’re willing to admit that about yourself, then Jesus can lead you into the light. But if you pretend that you’re already in the light, then it only proves one thing - that you are still in the dark, and Jesus can’t do a thing for you.

That is the essence of what John has told us in chapter 1. Now, as we move into chapter 2, he’s going to tell us that there are three tests of whether or not you really know Jesus:

1. the test of obedience (which we looked at a couple of weeks ago):

1 John 2:3 We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him.

Do you really know Jesus? It’s going to be demonstrated in your obedience to him.

2. the test of love (which we want to look at today):

1 John 2:9-11 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.

3. the test of truth (which we will get to in a few weeks)

That is found in verses 20-23

Let’s look at this test of love. John leads us into this section by telling us that there is a link between the test of obedience and the test of love. What is that link? Simply this: God has given us various commands. We prove that we know him if we obey his commands. One of the most important commands that he has given us is the command to love others.

The command to love others is not a new command…

1 John 2:7 Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard.

1,500 years before John wrote these words, which he wrote 1,900 years ago from where we sit today, God gave the children of Israel the commandment to love one another. It was part of the Law of Moses.

Leviticus 19:18 ”’ Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.

Rabbi Akiba, one of the authors of the Talmud, the Jewish commentary on the Law, said that this little command in Leviticus 19:18 was the fundamental law of the Torah. All of the 613 commandments of the Law of Moses which governed the relationships between human beings could be summed up in this one little verse.

Jesus himself agreed with that assessment. In Matthew 22, Jesus was asked a question by one of the Pharisees, who were experts in the Jewish law:

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

So the command to love your neighbor is not a new command. It’s a very old command; one that’s been around since Moses climbed Mount Sinai and received the Law from God. But there is also a sense in which it is a new command:

John says in verse 8 “Yet I am writing you a new command…”

Turn to John 13:34. Did you know that the day before Good Friday is called Maundy Thursday? Do you know how it got that name? The word “maundy” comes from the Latin word “mandatum”, from which we get the word “mandate” or “command”. It was on the Thursday before he died, in the Upper Room at the Last Supper, that Jesus gave his disciples a new mandate - a new command.

John 13:34-35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

Why is this command new? This command is new because the world had never seen it demonstrated before. The newness of that mandate is related to its visibility. Now that Jesus has come, people will really be able to see what love is. That’s why John goes on to say, in v.8…

“…its truth is seen - it’s visible - in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.”

Up until Jesus came, the world had never seen a man who had personified God’s love. And they had never seen a group of people who were willing to love others with the self-giving, self-sacrificing kind of love that Jesus had. Even though the children of Israel had that old commandment to “love thy neighbor as thyself” they didn’t practice it.

I saw that vividly when I stood at the Western Wall to pray. As I stood there, running my hand over those ancient stones I had read so much about, all around me, orthodox Jews were praying. I was standing in the most holy place of Judaism.

But then, all of a sudden, I heard a disturbance behind me. One Jewish man began yelling at another in Hebrew. In a flash, the two of them were into a heated argument, and I thought they were going to come to blows. I’m not sure what they were arguing about, but I suspect that it had something to do with the fact that one man was accusing the other of violating the sanctity of that holy place.

How bizarre to find these two men screaming at one another in a holy place of prayer! They had a zeal for God, but that didn’t translate into love for each other.

Religious devotion without love for your fellow man brings out the very worst in people. It’s what makes two Jews scream at each other at the Western Wall. It’s what turns a Muslim fundamentalist into a terrorist bomber. It’s what makes so-called Christians dispute and divide and disfellowship each other.

One of the major Christian sites in Jerusalem is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It’s the oldest church in Christendom. There are five different Christian groups which claim to have jurisdiction over that place: the Roman Catholics; the Greek Orthodox; the Syrian Orthodox; the Armenian Orthodox; and the Russian Orthodox, and they are all bickering with each other. And they won’t even let a sixth group, the Ethiopian Coptics, have a presence in the church. They have to live up on the roof in little shanties.

Religious people, whether they are Jews or Muslims or so-called Christians, cannot demonstrate God’s love for one another because they don’t have the power to do it.

A couple of weeks ago, our church phone system went dead for no apparent reason. We called in a technician and he found that our power transformer had failed. Without power, the phones would not operate. We could not communicate. We were cut off from the outside world, and even cut off from one another, since we couldn’t even use the intercom feature.

In a similar way, the love that God commands us to show to others takes a special kind of power. On our own, we don’t have that special power to love others. Oh, we can love some people - the people we find easy to love. But we can’t love those people who are hard to love. Listen to what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount…

Matthew 5:43-47 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

That kind of love is not unique - it’s not unusual. But loving your enemy - loving people who don’t love you back - that’s special. That’s beyond your power to do.

Until Jesus comes into your life. Jesus is like a power transformer. He takes the power of God’s great love and makes it flow through you. But you don’t have that power unless you have Jesus.

Recently, I was talking with a woman who felt herself attracted to our fellowship. I asked her why she was drawn to our church. Now, I’d like to say that it was the preaching, but she didn’t mention that. Nor did she mention the music, the building, the convenient parking, or the various programs that we offer. But she did mention the people.

She said “I can sense, from the people that I have come to know in your church, that they really care about me as a person.” You know what she was feeling? She was feeling the power of God’s love flowing through people. It’s magnetic. It’s attractive. And it’s what the church needs today.

As we approach the end of the 20th century, we are going to have to come to grips with the fact that the only thing we really have to offer the people in our society is the love of God. We have tried to offer them a legislative program, but they are not interested in that. We have tried to offer them a political agenda for governing this nation, and getting America’s house in order, but they are not buying that.

We have offered to entertain them, and make them feel good, but they can find better entertainment elsewhere.

They could care less about our doctrine. They don’t care if we’re Calvinists or Arminians; or whether we believe in baptism by immersion or speaking in tongues. (Incidentally, last week several of our tour group were baptized in the Jordan River. Half of them were sprinkled, half of them were immersed. But all of them were declaring their faith in Jesus.) People in the world are not interested in evaluating the various nuances of theology that we get so excited about.

But they are interested in love. And they can sense whether or not we really care about them as individual human beings. Every one of us has a little internal receptor that tells us whether someone really cares about us or not. It’s like a “love antenna”. And the people out there— the people on the outside of the church— they have a love antenna too.

Genuine love is something that they will pick up from you, if you are walking with Jesus. Genuine love may be the only thing about you that will get their attention.

John says, “The extent to which you really love people with God’s love, that’s the extent to which you are living in the light. That’s the test of whether you really know Jesus Christ.”

You’ve all heard that dumb expression “Love is never having to say you’re sorry.” Well that’s dead wrong. Real love is saying you’re sorry, and owning up to your mistakes. Real love is setting aside your own personal agenda in order to meet the needs of another person. Real love is returning blessing for cursing.

Real love keeps trying to reach across the chasm of mistrust and hard feelings to find reconciliation. Real love is doing something nice for somebody without them ever knowing about it, and without any hope of your ever getting recognized or thanked for it.

Last week, Carolyn and I stood together on the most historically significant piece of real estate in the world: we stood at the foot of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

That mountain is where Abraham offered Isaac. It is where Solomon built the first temple, and where the returned Jewish exiles built the second. It is where Jesus went to worship and to teach. And one day, it is where the Jews are going to build another temple. We saw them getting ready to do that. We saw the tools and the implements they have prepared for the new temple. That is the Temple that the Antichrist is going to desecrate in the last days. The temple mount is an enormously important place.

There is a beautiful Jewish legend about it. Long ago, before there was a temple and before there was a city there, two brothers lived near that hill. They were farmers. One of them was the head of a large family, the other lived alone.

One night, the brother with the family lay awake thinking “My brother lives alone. He doesn’t have the companionship of a wife or children to bring joy to his heart. When he grows old, there will be no one to take care of him. Tonight, while he is sleeping, I am going to carry some of my grain over and put it in his field.” So he got up to do it.

Meanwhile, the single brother was also laying awake that night thinking, “My brother has a large family and many responsibilities. He has many mouths to feed. His needs are greater than mine. Tonight, while he is sleeping, I am going to carry some of my grain over and put it in his field.” So he got up to do it.

And in the darkness, the two of them bumped into each other, each laden down with grain for the other. And, according to the legend, the place where they met was where God decided to build the temple.

The NT tells us that God is building another temple - a living temple made up of living stones. It is the church of Jesus Christ. John says that the church of Jesus Christ is going to be built on a place where real, practical love is demonstrated for one another.

“By this will all men know that you are my disciples; if you have love for one another.”

May God grant us grace to have it happen here.