Christ, Our Example: Love
August 28, 2011 Morning Service
Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK
Rick Boyne
Message Point: Jesus calls us to lay down our lives for Him, as He laid down His life for us.
Focus Passage: John 15:9-17
Supplemental Passage: If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NASB)
Introduction: On May 2, 1962, a dramatic advertisement appeared in the San Francisco Examiner: "I don't want my husband to die in the gas chamber for a crime he did not commit. I will therefore offer my services for 10 years as a cook, maid, or housekeeper to any leading attorney who will defend him and bring about his vindication."
One of San Francisco's greatest attorneys, Vincent Hallinan, read or heard about the ad and contacted Gladys Kidd, who had placed it. Her husband, Robert Lee Kidd, was about to be tried for the slaying of an elderly antique dealer. Kidd's fingerprints had been found on a bloodstained ornate sword in the victim's shop. During the trial, Hallinan proved that the antique dealer had not been killed by the sword, and that Kidd's fingerprints and blood on the sword got there because Kidd had once toyed with it while playfully dueling with a friend when they were both out shopping. The jury, after 11 hours, found Kidd to be not guilty. Attorney Hallinan refused Gladys Kidd's offer of 10 years' servitude.
From the Book of Lists #2, p. 157.
I. Abide in the Love of Christ
a. He loves us
b. We abide in Him by obeying Him
i. He commands us to “love one another”
c. We will have joy in Christ
II. What Great Love
a. "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13 NASB)
b. Jesus gave us the example of this great love by laying His life down for us
c. He calls us to do the same for Him.
i. "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. (Luke 9:23 NASB)
ii. "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. (John 14:15 NASB)
d. He calls us to love one another
i. "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35 NASB)
III. Friends, not slaves
a. We show Jesus that we are His friends by obeying Him in love, not “duty”
b. He calls us friends instead of slaves because He tells us what God has revealed
i. For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16 NASB)
c. He chose us!
d. He appointed us to bear fruit!
Invitation: Jesus says, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” He laid his life down for you; are you laying your life down for Him?
