Do You Love Jesus?

[0:00] Just continuing really the theme of do you love Jesus? Do you love him? The Lord Jesus. John 21. And here the context is of our Lord. He's resurrected. He's appearing to the disciples. And wonderfully, he meets Peter and there's a wonderful great harvest of fish that they catch. And they have breakfast together.

[0:32] And John 21. The Lord Jesus challenges Peter. Verse 15 of John 21.

[0:47] So, when they had died, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.

[1:07] He saith unto him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonah, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

[1:23] He saith unto him, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Let us pray. Lord, we pray that you help us today. Help us, Lord, to receive something from heaven today that might, might help us to walk in a more heavenward direction. Lord, help us to be lifted up from our cares and concerns that we might have our hearts set on things above.

[2:04] Lord, that you might take our hearts and help us, Lord, to be closer to you today. That if there's any present in whatever situation of life, that each one might receive something from your holy scriptures today.

[2:20] Something that will help them to grow closer to you. We pray in your wonderful name, Lord Jesus. Amen. Jesus says, Do you love me?

[2:32] Do you love me? Do you love me? Each one of us can take stock personally. He says, Do you love me?

[2:45] Do you? Do you love him? The Lord Jesus today. What is love and how do you measure it? Of course, it's Mother's Day. We think of our mothers and we think of every one of us has has a mother in our life or has had a mother.

[3:03] And some are mothers here this morning too. Look at the love of a mother to a newborn baby. A mother, as she cares and sacrifices for that newborn, she's already sacrificed much of her life and the personal ambitions of her life for the life of the child before it is ever born.

[3:25] But after the birth, the sacrifice continues. Every time the baby cries, the mother is disturbed from much needed sleep. Hours are spent giving often.

[3:38] Regular feedings. Messes are cleaned up. Clothes, napies, sheets and so on are in the washing machine continually. She hovers over the little baby and gives her a protected environment.

[3:50] Sometimes she is so tired she thinks she will collapse. She loves the baby with a love that cannot be described in words. But you know something?

[4:01] That newborn baby does not love her. That's right. The baby doesn't love anybody really at the start, does it? She begins to work on the problem right away.

[4:14] The mother, she cuddles and hugs and kisses and rocks and coos over the baby. She gives it the constant attention and then one day she is greatly rewarded when she hears it say, Mummy, I love you.

[4:28] That little short sentence makes it all worthwhile, doesn't it? All the tiring effort seems worthwhile. But the mother's love, it's commitment, isn't it?

[4:40] It's commitment. That's what it really is. It's commitment. From the moment of conception really, it's commitment to seeing that baby grow and nurture and thrive.

[4:52] And friends, today, my thing's not really about mothers as such or a mother's love, but about love. And this is certainly a timely time to think of love, but I mean, every day is really a time to think of our Saviour's love and about our love relationship with Him.

[5:10] How is that this morning? How is it today if you were to take the barometer and measure and the, if you could take some kind of measuring stick and measure, do you love Him?

[5:21] The Lord Jesus. Do you love Him? Think of His love for us in Romans 5, verse 8, but God commended His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

[5:34] His love was in a way like the mother's love, isn't it? He loved us before we loved Him. He loved us when He was at the cross.

[5:44] He saw you. He saw me. He thought of you. As someone has said, when He was on the cross, you were on His mind. The Lord Jesus was thinking of us and of our sin that He took the price for and payment for.

[5:58] And the Lord Jesus, He demonstrated that great love, that love that, as the Bible says in His love, greater love had no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

[6:10] That's the kind of love. It's awesome, isn't it? It's extravagant. It's amazing love. So great, so free. And loving Jesus really is the question today.

[6:24] Consider His love for you and consider your love for Him. Loving Jesus means really, firstly, commitment. Here it's as if the Lord is testing Peter, isn't it?

[6:35] As He questions him over and over and over. How strong is your love? Do you love Him, the Lord Jesus? Is your love for Jesus just a token thing?

[6:49] Something that's a take it or leave it kind of thing? Just words? Do you love Him, the Lord Jesus? Does it go beyond convenience? Do we only love when it's comfortable?

[7:02] Do we only follow Christ when it's easy to? How do we measure our love for the Lord? Is our love conditional on circumstances? Does our love suffer inconvenience?

[7:16] Will it face the hardships and tests? Friends, we're in the Western world. We know it's so easy. I know a brother in Christ sent me an awful video of a martyrdom of some Christian people in a Muslim country and the Muslim captors had the three Christians kneeling down on the ground, huddled on the ground.

[7:51] They poured petrol on their heads and they kicked them into a burning fire pit. We have got nothing compared to that. Friends, we've just got it so easy.

[8:02] Do you love Jesus? Do you really love Him? Do you really love Him? You know, we've just got no comparison in our country. The hardest thing that we have to do is spend an hour and a half on a Sunday morning.

[8:15] You know, that's the extent of it for many, isn't it? We've got nothing compared to what many believers in many countries of our world face. For their love for Christ.

[8:29] That is love. Is our love dependent on how we feel? You know, what side of the bed we get out in the morning, whether we come to church or whether it's comfortable, whether the weather's comfortable, whether it's easy.

[8:44] For some, the Christianity is just some experiential thing, dependent on feelings. And some churches major on that. Of course, we want to come to church and enjoy it and get hope and encouragement.

[8:57] But there's also a challenge there too. Friday night, another brother from another church was witnessing on Rundle Mall and they took him away in handcuffs.

[9:09] He's locked up in Adelaide at the moment. All right. Now, as I say, it's not, we don't, he doesn't come to our church and we have some differences with him, but I know he's a brother in Christ and he's preaching the gospel.

[9:23] And he was just declaring the message in the public place. Now, of course, there's rules and regulations, but there should be freedom of speech in our country. And there should be the opportunity to declare the message publicly in the open air.

[9:36] And yet, he's taken away in handcuffs, locked up. He's facing the courts Monday morning. And his crime is telling the people about Jesus. It's telling the people about the Saviour.

[9:47] Do you love him? Do you love Jesus? Real love goes beyond what's convenient, what's comfortable. I mean, a cold night, who wants to go out, down, you know, drive, waste petrol and time, you know, energy, the discomfort.

[10:04] You know, we could all think of excuses, couldn't we? Why it's a lot easier not to do something. But real love goes beyond what's convenient. It goes the extra mile. Beyond what's comfortable, real love is about carrying a cross.

[10:16] Think of the love of our Saviour, what it took him to, took him to the cross. Yet look at the average Christian, the average Christian. Do they display this devotion, this commitment?

[10:29] It's not always evident, is it? The real love for Jesus will impact on our every decision, on our every choice in life, on how we live our life. We all want to live to please our Lord and not ourselves.

[10:43] We'll be led by the Spirit and not by the flesh. It's about commitment. Secondly, loving Jesus means a cost. It means a cost. Think of what it cost our Lord.

[10:54] Are we willing to sacrifice? Do we love Him? Jesus. Is our love giving only so far, going only so far? Is our Christianity really just a cheap substitute version that does not count the real cost?

[11:10] as it turned out for Peter, he would also go through much trial and challenge and it's believed that Peter himself died a martyr's death for Christ.

[11:21] His love went beyond the bounds of what was convenient, what was comfortable. What did our Lord give for us? Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and was made in the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of man and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

[11:52] That's love, isn't it? God's love, His great love for you, for me. How great is love. In comparison, how great, how weak is our love.

[12:04] Look at Luke 7, 36, the context of a woman meeting our Saviour, a sinful woman, a sinful woman. She had a reputation. She was one, she was well known what she was.

[12:19] Luke 7, 36, the Pharisees were there and that was the house they were seated in as they ate and met together. And Luke 7, 36, it talks about how the Pharisees wanted to eat with the Lord Jesus.

[12:36] They wanted to put on a feast, a party and then who comes in the door? Who walks in the door? It says in verse 37, a woman in the city which was a sinner.

[12:51] When she knew that Jesus had a need to the Pharisees' house, brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his feet with tears and did wipe them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.

[13:09] What an outrage! What a spectacle! What a scandal! This woman, this sinner, that she would dare to even venture into the Pharisees' house let alone put on this spectacle.

[13:25] And what a waste of that ointment! What a waste the cost of that ointment! Boy, that could have been spent doing all kinds of good stuff and yet she poured it on his feet.

[13:38] You know, and there's other like verses of similar incidents where our Lord, where people wanted to pour themselves out, pour their substance out and pour out their love in a visible demonstration of their love.

[13:53] And what a picture of love! Of her love for Christ! A sinner! And as our Lord said in the context of he that has much sins forgiven loves much.

[14:09] And for whom little is forgiven the same love of little. You know, it's often the case when some have got an amazing testimony of how God has ransomed their soul out of a life of sinfulness and waste how much they love the Saviour because they can contrast it with what God has done for them.

[14:31] You know, sometimes you've got to look at the contrast of things, don't you? It's like when we were there on the street in Adelaide. You know, one well-meaning Christian comes up, presumably she's a Christian, and she says, oh, you know, you're a bit too hard there.

[14:48] You know, we should be talking about hope and attracting people to the Lord. You know, that's true, but you also need to talk about heaven and hell.

[15:01] You know, you've got to contrast, there's a heaven to gain and there's a hell to shun. The full message, the full gospel, if you like, is talking about there's a hell to flee and there's a heaven to gain.

[15:14] And you've got to contrast the two. People need to know they're facing judgment and damnation. If they refuse the Saviour's gift, then they're in great danger, great danger, and woe betide me, woe to me if I preach not the gospel, that, friends, if you're lost, you're going to go to an eternal damnation, an eternal doom.

[15:36] And so we need to declare the message, imploring, beseeching, beckoning people to the Saviour, to the hope that He represents. And like that too, we see this context, the sinful woman, she loved much.

[15:50] There's a contrast there, isn't there? We think of our great sin and we think of His great love. No matter how great your sin today, you might feel like you're that sinful woman.

[16:01] Just come to Him, just come to Him and weep before Him and give your heart to Him as she did. How much do you love Him? The Lord Jesus. Are you willing to give Him your all or just a part?

[16:13] There was this woman giving her wealth, her substance, who she was. The embarrassment, she didn't care, she just wanted to show her love. She just wanted to love the Lord Jesus.

[16:25] Are you willing to be like that, to be a living sacrifice? Exactly what does that mean? We use it so glibly, don't we? That gives your bodies a living sacrifice. We should be a living sacrifice.

[16:37] Our lives should be in sacrifice to Him. Do we really love Him, the Lord Jesus? So we've seen commitment, we've seen that wonderful cost of that love.

[16:48] And thirdly, love is about caring. In John 21, the Lord Jesus says to Peter, do you love me? Three times. He says, yes Lord, you know that I love you.

[17:00] And then the Lord Jesus says, he goes on to say it's about ministry. It's about ministry. If we love the Lord Jesus, we're going to care about other people. We're going to care enough to share the message with others.

[17:11] We're going to care enough that we want others to grow as Christians. It says, our Lord tells Peter, tend my lambs. Feed my lambs. Look after my lambs, the little ones.

[17:22] As a church, we want to care for the little ones. Not just the people our own age, but care for the lambs. You know, we shouldn't really call them kids, should we? Which is a baby goat.

[17:34] God's children, if they trusted the Saviour, these little children, they're His lambs. They're His lambs. Because the Bible puts a contrast between goats and sheep.

[17:47] Goats are talked about as being those people who do not know the Lord, and sheep are those who follow the shepherd. They belong to Jesus. And baby sheep are lambs.

[17:59] Baby goats are kids. So really, as a Christian, just an aside, we wouldn't want to call our children kids. We want to call them lambs. And Jesus says to Peter, tend my lambs, look after them.

[18:10] We want to look after the young people, the young children. I know many do care as they demonstrate that love. As we spend time, as we give a smile, a cheer, an encouragement.

[18:21] We were once that age too, weren't we? Amen. So take care of my sheep, he says. Shepherd them, lead them to pasture, in effect. Tend my sheep.

[18:32] When we love the Lord Jesus, we'll care about people. We'll care about people more than ourselves. Sometimes we live our lives so self-centeredly, don't we?

[18:43] It's so easy to be selfish, to think just about ourselves. The Lord Jesus says, think about others. Put your love towards others. We will walk in love towards people. We want others to be built up and nurtured in our faith.

[18:56] It was a personal question, and it's a personal question for you today. Do you love him, the Lord Jesus? He says, care for my sheep. He says, look after my lambs. Do you love me?

[19:09] Each one of us must ask, do I love Jesus Christ? And search our own heart. Think about, you know, Jesus could have asked Peter many things. He could have asked Peter, what about your faith?

[19:22] You know, your profession of faith? He had one. He could have asked Peter about his work, about the great things he had done, about his experiences. But the Lord Jesus honed right in to what really mattered, to what really was the critical, central thing.

[19:36] Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? It's real love for the Lord Jesus that sets apart the true Christians from the false. A fake believer may profess to have faith.

[19:49] They may have been baptised. They might come to church morning, noon and night, and in between. They might hold a church office, but they may not love the Lord Jesus. That's the bottom line.

[20:00] That's what counts. That's what matters. It's like, as Job 27.10 talks about those who delight in the Almighty. Here's your delight in the Lord. Have you got that adoration, that delight, that longing, that desiring to be with Him, to grow in your faith?

[20:17] Some people, they put their love into their work, don't they? We can all make that mistake, where our life is consumed with working, with earning, or with our family, with our hobbies.

[20:29] It's not the Lord's day anymore, it's the sports day. Some people love their sports more than God. Friends, what matters? What counts for eternity? What is really of value to you?

[20:40] What do you want to devote your life to? Perhaps your faith is in your doctrine, or in your baptism, or in your denomination. You don't have that faith, that loving faith in our Savior, that true love for Him.

[20:53] Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16.22, a very telling statement. He says, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, or a cursed.

[21:05] Maranatha, our Lord is coming. He says, 1 Corinthians 16.22, if any man love not the Lord Jesus, let him be a cursed. It's a critical thing that you love Him, that you follow Him.

[21:18] And love for Jesus is central to the Christian life. If you love me, keep my commandments, he says. Love will lead us to obey Him. His very commandments are the very nature of love itself, he says.

[21:33] Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

[21:45] Love is central to everything about Christ, isn't it? Love your neighbor, love the Lord with all your heart. Love. It says the love of Christ constrains us. The love of Christ, it urges us, it compels us, it prompts us to want to do His work, to do His will.

[22:04] The love of Christ constrains us that we want to keep the message not to ourselves but to give it to our world around us. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, etc.

[22:17] God's love is central to everything about our lives as Christians. God is love. It's His very nature. And friends, what does it mean to love Jesus?

[22:29] Let me just bring it down personally now. It means to put Him first. To love Him means to put Him first. It means to put the interests of God's kingdom first, to obey Him and to love one another.

[22:44] Do you love Him, the Lord Jesus? Do you love Him? Will you commit to loving Him more? As the song goes, More about Jesus, would I know.

[22:55] More of His love to others show. We can all grow more in that relationship, can't we? It's not something that we say, a token that we love Jesus and leave it at that.

[23:08] It's a lifetime of love. It's a lifetime of living in His love and sharing His love. That love that is unconditional, that's forever kind of love. And do you love Jesus enough to serve Him?

[23:22] In Colossians 3 it says, And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not unto men. Maybe when it's inconvenient. You know, if we only did ministry when it was convenient, it wouldn't get done.

[23:37] It wouldn't happen. We could all think how the easy path would be to not do anything for our Saviour. The easiest thing would to not volunteer, to not offer to help, or to be selected.

[23:55] We'll just do what we're comfortable to do. But sometimes we grow when we do that which we're not comfortable to do. I know for Michael, you know, reading from the Bible in a language other than his native language, that is a big thing, isn't it?

[24:13] That is huge. That is very hard. And I know there's others that sometimes they do things and I feel just so inadequate. So, it's too hard for me.

[24:26] And yet, that's when God steps in, isn't it? When we come to the end of our own strength, when we think, well, I just can't do it. I just can't make it. That's when God steps in.

[24:38] And he helps us, he gives us that strength to keep on going. If we love the Lord Jesus, we want to serve, we want to live and please him.

[24:49] Do you love him, the Lord Jesus? He questions the disciples in Luke 14. If any men come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

[25:05] And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. That's Luke 14, 26. Now, of course, it's not meaning literally that we hate our mother and father. But it's in contrast to that our love for Christ should exceed our love for our family.

[25:21] I know for some believers, obviously, they shut off from their family. When they follow Christ, a big wall goes up. They shut off from their family. As much as they still love their family, they love the Lord more than their family.

[25:35] The Lord Jesus urges us to, that must be our priority as hard and as very difficult as that must be. The Lord Jesus says we must love him above any other, above even ourself.

[25:48] Above even ourself. Do you love the Lord Jesus more than yourself? Sometimes we just go to the path that is easy and comfortable for the flesh. But as believers, we are to step out.

[26:00] And there, as it says, a sacrifice to God, a sweet-smelling savor. That's Ephesians 5. And also, it means putting ourselves out with other people too.

[26:11] In Romans 15, it says, from verse 1, We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good.

[26:24] So edification. And there's another verse that talks about how, look not on your own interests, on your own considerations, but look out for the interests of other people.

[26:36] Look out for one another. Friends, we've really come to a close of this message. I know I've been pressing this point, but it's a question that only you personally can answer.

[26:46] Do you love him, the Lord Jesus? Do you love him more than sin? More than sin. 2 Timothy 3, verse 4 talks about some who are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.

[26:59] Sometimes we love sin more than we love the Lord Jesus. Or will we be like Moses who chose rather to be with God's people than to enjoy the pleasures of sin.

[27:11] Do you love the Lord Jesus enough to follow him? If you love me, keep my commandments. We need to obey God's word and take it into our life and make it personal.

[27:22] The Lord Jesus says of some, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Luke 6, 46. How much time do you spend in growing as a Christian, in reading the word, in talking to him in prayer?

[27:39] Do you like to be around people who love the Lord Jesus and who talk about him? And do you like to tell others about the Saviour? It says in Mark 8, 38, whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

[28:03] Don't be afraid, don't be ashamed to be a Christian who's an out and out Christian. A Christian who, if someone was to step into your workplace and question your work colleagues about you, that they wouldn't find something that you would be ashamed of, that you would be a testimony, that you live a consistent Christian life.

[28:25] You're not just one thing at church and something outside of church. Friends, I urge you today, love him, love him. We've got so much reason why we should love him, haven't we?

[28:37] Think of what he's done for us. He's great love. If anybody deserves your love, it's him, isn't it? He deserves every ounce of your love, of your devotion, of your service.

[28:51] He loves you so much that he, as it says, that he gave his only begotten Son. He loved you while you were yet a sinner. There was nothing positive about you.

[29:07] Yet Jesus loved you, even when you're in your miserable sin. He loved you even in the depth of your sin. He loved you still. And he loves you still today.

[29:18] Friends, let's love him more. Amen. Amen. Amen.