To:

Preparing the Bride:
Divine Measure of Love

How much does Jesus love you?

Of course he loves us: ‘Jesus loves me this I know ‘cause the Bible tells me so"

How much does he love you?

Saves you because he has to? Fireman saving murderers from burning jail – its his job?
Our understanding of his love is colored by our view of ourselves

SS 1:6-7 Do not stare at me because I am swarthyDo not stare at me because I am dark, because I am darkened by the sun. My mother’s sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards; my own vineyard I have neglected…. Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends?

Sinful, tainted, others angry with us, we have neglected following the Lord, we are covered in shame – so don’t stare at us. Do what you have to do to save us, then leave us alone!

How much does he love you?

Jn 15:9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. …

Oh sure, he loved the Apostles that way, they were holy, chosen, etc.
They were sincere, but they were weak!

Arguing about who is the greatest (Lk 22:24)
Not having a clue who he was or what he was talking about (Jn 14:8)
Jesus knew they were all going to deny him that very night

Jesus loved these weak & sinful disciples as the Father loved Jesus

The measure of divine love – how the Father loves Jesus

How can you describe how much the eternal God loves his uncreated Son?

Jesus describes it as total unity – 3 times saying he and the Father are one.

Father’s voice at Jesus’ baptism – this is my Son in whom I am well pleased

Jesus always seeks Father’s will, does only what he sees the Father doing, total voluntary submission out of love

Jesus is looking at you and saying – this is my beloved in whom I am well pleased!

Hard to get our mind around this, to accept it

Surely there is something I need to do, I need to deny him less, to be less concerned with who is the greatest …
Shame shuts down our hearts so that we can’t receive Jesus’ love
Surely he loves _______ more because they are so holy, so committed
There is a reward for holiness and commitment – but it isn’t Jesus’ love!

John, the apostle, got the point. 4 times he describes himself as ‘the one Jesus loved’! this is the key identity of his life, astounded by it!

How can it be that Jesus could love us as the Father loves Jesus?

Isa 55:8-9"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD."As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

True about God’s wisdom but this is specifically speaking of God’s grace toward sinners who turn to him

Song of Songs tries to express this reality

SS 4:9 You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes

SS 6:5 Turn your eyes from me; they overwhelm me.

Love sick Bridegroom in love with his Bride / a Father totally loving his Son / Jesus loving you and me that much

This changes everything

Like John we come before the Lord saying – "here is the one you love!"

Shame from failure & denying the Lord can’t keep us away from him

Exhilarates our hearts, gives us strength and boldness to obey

Gives us a message to share with others – and a life to back it up!

If Jesus loves you that much, how much do you love Jesus?

When we realize how much Jesus loves us, tempted to feel like we need to crank up a deeper love in response

Compare ourselves to Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, _________, Paul

How much prayer & fasting & Bible study & self-denial & service do I have to do?

Make the mistake of thinking we can prove our love more by obeying more

Turn Jn 14:23 "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching." Inside out
Jesus talking about obedience flowing from love

How much are we to love Jesus?

Jn 17:26 …in order that the love you have for me may be in them …

Jesus is asking that the love the Father has for Jesus will be put in us so that we will love Jesus the way the Father loves Jesus
There is not way we can meet that standard by cranking up our love
It has to be a work of the Father through the Holy Spirit – it takes God to love God!
We can be confident that the Father is going to answer this prayer because it is Jesus who is praying it

This changes everything, too!

Don’t want to settle for a moral life or even a ‘committed’ life

Ask Father to fill us with all the passion and steadfast love that he has for Jesus

Open our hearts so that Holy Spirit can pour more of that love into us (Rm 5:5)

Behold his beauty, goodness, majesty, …

Let our response in our life flow out of this – love sick person doesn’t count the cost

How much do we love one another (very briefly)

What is the standard, the measure for love among Christians?

Is there a list of commitments that we have toward one another?

Again, the measure is how the Father has loved Jesus

Jn 15:9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Jn 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Way the Father loved Jesus is how Jesus loves us. The way Jesus loves us is the way we love one another. Therefore the way the Father loved Jesus is how we love one another!

Conclusion

Christianity is an impossibility built on an imponderable!

It is imponderable to think that the eternal God loves weak and broken people the way he loves his perfect and uncreated Son – and yet that is just what he tells us

It is impossible that we can love Jesus or one another the way the Father loves his perfect and uncreated Son – and yet that is the standard!

What is impossible with man is possible with God!

This is the romance and power of the Gospel – it is all God’s work coming out of God’s love!