Celebrate
the amazing love of Jesus for you.
John 13:1
“Now before the Feast of
the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart
from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world,
He loved them to the end.”
Today is Palm
Sunday. On this day in the history of our redemption, Jesus enters
Jerusalem as the people cried out:
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
Hosanna in the highest!”
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
Hosanna in the highest!”
Jesus was entering
Jerusalem to preach, and minister, and rebuke sin, with great power and authority.
But most of all, Jesus was entering Jerusalem to die to save us from our
sins. Jesus did this purposefully and of His own will. Luke 19:51 “Now it came to
pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He
steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.” I am always
moved by this passage. When the God ordained day dawned for Jesus to move
toward the cross, toward Jerusalem, He “set His face to go to Jerusalem.”
Knowing fully what going to Jerusalem meant, Jesus willed to go toward the
cross, He desired to go toward the cross, and He did go toward the cross.
Nothing would deter Jesus from living out or accomplishing His love for you.
Why did He do this? Jesus did this for many wonderful reasons
that all work together to accomplish the salvation of God’s people. But
the reason that touches my heart this day is that Jesus did this because He
loved me. Jesus did this because He loved you. Jesus loved everyone
He came to save. Jesus was living out or accomplishing His great
purpose. What was His great purpose? “An angel of the Lord told
Joseph, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His
people from their sins.” Jesus loved you so intimately, so
passionately, and so completely that He died to save you from your sins.
This prompts the
question: What does it mean to be loved by Jesus Christ? John 13:1 gives
the dramatic, life-changing answer.
“Now before the Feast of
the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart
from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in
the world, He loved them to the end.”
Jesus loves you as His own:
unique, exclusive, and committed.
Scripture says that
Jesus, “having loved His own
who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” Dear fellow believer, dear child of the Living
God, by grace through faith you are His. His, His, His:
this possessive pronoun expresses that Jesus has a special saving love for His
people.
In John, Chapter 10, Jesus develops the relationship between the
shepherd and his sheep. This shepherd/sheep relationship reveals the special
loving relationship between Jesus Christ and the believer, or His people.
10:3&4, “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice;
and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes
before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd. The
good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” Praise the Lord that
Jesus is the Good Shepherd and we are blessed to be His sheep.
This special
saving relationship with Jesus is further highlighted in scripture as He calls
us His friends for whom He would lay down His life, John 15:13. Jesus
has a special, unique love for believers, John 17:1, “I do not pray for these alone, but also
for those who will believe in Me
through their word;”
In
the scriptures, we are called such glorious and amazing names that identify us as
the objects of Divine Saving Love: His own, His sheep, His friends, Believers.
We love to sing, “O how He loves you and me,” because that truth is so very
precious to our souls. That truth is so powerful in every aspect of every
day of our lives upon the earth. That truth changes everything.
My dear fellow believer,
Jesus loves you in a special way, a unique way. God, “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and
sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” We praise the Lord for this sunshine and rain that
benefits all. But God our Father, through Jesus Christ His Son, loves us in an
intimate special way today that goes far beyond His love that blesses all in
our world in a general way.
I tell each couple that
goes through pre-marriage counseling that their marriage is about much more
than just them. As a married couple, they have a mission in life that is
very important and Divinely appointed. Everything about their marriage is
to display the special union between Jesus Christ and His bride, the
church. When people see them as a married couple, they should see a
picture of Christ and His Bride, the church. Ephesians, chapter 5, speaks
to this very special relationship between Jesus Christ and His bride. It
is a unique relationship. It is an exclusive relationship. It is a relationship
of committed love. What spouse longs to hear words such as, “honey, I
love you in exactly the same way as I love our neighbors, my co-workers, and our
dog?” No spouse longs to hear that. No further comment needed on
that one. In marriage, we long to be loved in a unique, exclusive,
committed fashion.
Jesus loves you in this
unique, exclusive, committed fashion. His love does not fail. His
love does not falter. His love does not ebb and flow. He loves us
on our best days. He loves us on those days when people don’t like
us. He loves us even on those days when we really don’t like
ourselves. He loves in ways that fill us with confidence and
purpose. This love of Jesus for us is so overwhelming that it draws us
ever closer to Him. Even in times such as the Coronavirus, this love
draws us closer. Jesus loves us as His very own. Praise the Lord for such
love.
Jesus loves you to the end:
in all circumstances, now and for all eternity.
The love of Jesus for
His own, is a love that is unique, exclusive, and committed, but it gets even
better. It does not end. This love of Jesus for us does not end.
Jesus cherishes you now and forever. Nothing can separate us from this
love of Jesus.
Romans 8: 31-39, What then shall we say
to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He
who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall
He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge
against God’s elect? It is God who
justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who
died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of
God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution,
or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors
through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life,
nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to
come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This Romans, Chapter 8,
passage expands on the power packed phrase in our verse for today. John 13:1, “Now before the Feast of the Passover,
when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this
world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved
them to the end.”
As Jesus leaves the
Upper Room of John, Chapter 13, He is on the way to Calvary. Jesus loved
you in His life of perfection and He loved you in His sacrificial death that
was for our sakes. His death on Calvary is the ultimate sign of His love for
you. He loved you to the end. He loved you when He spoke the words
of Calvary’s Cross: It is Finished. Jesus loved you through the
false accusations against Him, He loved you through the denials and the
betrayals, He loved you as He was being beaten, He loved you as He was spat
upon and mocked, He loved you as He was scourged, He loved you as nails were
driven through His flesh. He loved you as He breathed His last
breath. He loved you, He loved you, He loved you --- to the end.
Jesus loves you right
now, right where you are. In the present circumstances, He loves you. He
loves when all is going so phenomenally well and He loves you when everything
is going wrong. And that love never ends. Praise the Lord.
O how He loves you and
me.
Jesus loves you as His own:
unique, exclusive, and committed.
Jesus loves you to the end:
in all circumstances, now and for all eternity.
As we
look at Calvary’s Cross this week,
And as
we prepare to celebrate the empty tomb next Sunday,
let us
glory in the love of Christ Jesus for us.
In that
amazing love,
Pastor Campbell