John 13 and verse 1 simply says this. Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come, that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. Let me tell you a story. It's a story about an 18-year-old boy. In his late teens, mid to late teens, he met the love of his life. And at age 18, he proposed marriage to her. And she accepted. He, as a young boy, had developed some vision problems. And by the time he had reached 18, he was nearly completely blind. His fiancee, thinking about the prospect of being married to a blind man for the balance of her life, came to him one day, and she said, I can't marry you. And she broke off the engagement. He was devastated. He was overwhelmed with grief, to say the least, because he had lost his first love, and as it turned out, his only love. And sure enough, 18 to 19 years old, he lost his vision completely. But he didn't let that stop him in how he lived the balance of his life. He went on and became that brilliant Scottish scholar and preacher, George Matheson. 22 years later, on his sister's wedding day, he was overwhelmed, he said, with a grief he could not deal with. So what he did, he penned the words to a poem. And he said in his journal that they came quickly. He had written it in five minutes. Because for 22 years, he had been thinking about this lost love and about the love that he had gained in Christ. And as he compared the two, how Christ's love had secured him and remained with him and endured with him, though he had lost that earthly love. The poem that he wrote was later put to music, became one of our great hymns of the faith. The first verse goes like this, O love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee. I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be. George Matheson. He knew something about this loyal love of Jesus for his own. In spite of our failings, in spite of our foibles, in spite of our disasters, in spite of our sins, the Lord Jesus remains faithful in his love to those who are his own. And that's what I want to talk about this morning. In John chapter 13, the very first verse, we discover three elements of that great love, this loyal love that Jesus has for us. We discover, first of all, that Jesus' love is selfless. It is selfless, unlike our love. Our love is very selfish. We love to get something in return. Jesus only loved because He wanted to give something that was needed and essential. Jesus' selfless love. Secondly, we're going to discover Jesus' unconditional love. We love very conditionally. You treat me good, I'll love you back. You treat me bad, no love for you. And thirdly, Jesus' enduring love. It outlasts our sins. It outlasts our disobedience. It outlasts all of our failings. So let me talk about that love. Let me set the context first. John chapter 13. It's kind of interesting. This is the John's record, John's record of the Last Supper. It's unique to John. You don't find any of this data, any of this information in any of the other Gospels, Matthew, Mark, or Luke. This is a unique description by John of the Last Supper. It's kind of interesting to note Jesus chose to spend his last hours on earth because literally in just hours he will be arrested, he will be tried, and he will be crucified. So he chooses to spend the last hours of his life on earth with his guys, the apostles, the disciples, The setting is very private and it's very personal. You know what's kind of interesting? In chapters 13 through 17 of the Gospel of John, he's just alone with his disciples. The first 12 chapters of John, as you and I have discovered in our study through John, covers three years of his public ministry and his encounters with all kinds of people in all kinds of places. But these next chapters, 13 through 17, covers one evening and one group, his disciples. The mood is solemn, and it's serious. It testifies of His love for these men. As a matter of fact, love is the theme of the chapters that we'll be looking at here in the weeks to come, beginning in chapter 13. Love is the theme. His love for these men. And He demonstrates it in a very graphic way, as we'll see later on. Not today, but later on, where He washes their feet. a task that should have been performed by a servant but was not. So Jesus serves them by washing their feet and in doing so he's manifesting his purpose for coming. I didn't come to be served, I came to serve others and to give myself a ransom for all. And he graphically demonstrates that love. This section prepares the way for understanding the real meaning of foot washing in this incident here. It's a contrasting between God's love and the devil's evil designs. The devil wants to destroy, Jesus wants to deliver. The devil hates, Jesus loves. It says there, Jesus knowing. Jesus knowing. He had a full consciousness of what was about to happen. He was not stumbling in the dark. He was not caught off guard. He was not surprised by what was about to happen. He was not a pawn in the plan of God. He was not unsuspecting. He's facing his hour, understanding perfectly what it's about to become. The hour, as we've talked about in the past, refers to that moment in history that He came for. That moment in history that had been established in eternity past. That moment in history where He would go to a cross. He would die for the sins of the world. All of the sins of humanity would be placed on Him and He would pay the debt owed to God. God is holy. Man is sinful. Man owes a debt to God because of that. Jesus had one express purpose in coming to this planet, and it was for this moment. It was for this hour. It was for this season. He would go to the cross. He would die for the sins of the world, and that did not catch him by surprise. From the human point of view, it was seen as suffering, but from God's point of view, it was seen as a glorification of the Lord Jesus. It is true He would die, but in dying, He would bring life. It is true that He would be buried, but three days later He would rise from the dead, overcoming death. And it is true that He would leave the planet, but He would go to heaven and He would sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty where He would pray for those who were His own. That's glorification. And with all of that in Jesus now spends his final hours with these men to impart to them his final will and testament, his final instructions, his final teachings, because soon he'll depart. He'll leave this world, this planet, and he'll go to the Father, which means he's going to go back to heaven from where he came. Now it's an intriguing picture, and here's where the application comes. Jesus is on the verge of his own sufferings and death. his arrest, his trials, his beatings, the whippings, the humiliations, the mockings, and ultimately his execution on the cross. And yet, and yet, he's not absorbed with his own awful prospects. He is not preoccupied with the fact that I'm going to die, and I'm going to die a horrible death. I'm going to die the death of a common criminal. I'm going to die how all the dregs of society of first century Israel die. I'm going to be crucified. I'm going to be executed on a cross. But that's not what he's preoccupied with. Something quite unexpected occurs. He was more concerned about his own than himself. That, my friends, is selfless love. He was more concerned about those who were his own than he was himself. Selflessness characterizes Christ's love for his own. In Ephesians chapter 5, the Apostle Paul describes the marriage relationship between a husband and a wife and in doing so he parallels it with Christ's relationship with His bride, the Church. Now I want you to notice the words He uses as He describes this relationship. This is Ephesians chapter 5 beginning at verse 25. So He writes to husbands and He says, Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself up for her. Two things to note there, Christ loved selflessly and he loved sacrificially. He gave himself up selfless sacrifice. To what end? Verse 26, So that Jesus might sanctify her, the church, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. And therein is an application for you and me. As we think of Jesus' selfless love, how antithetical Jesus' selfless love is to how we love. Most of us are so self-absorbed, so self-centered, and self-concerned, we don't know the first thing about selfless love. Because it's always about us. What do I get out of this? What do I get out of this? You see, we operate life on the cafeteria plan, as I heard someone once say, self-service only. That's how a lot of us live our lives. It's self-service only. It's all about me. My three most favorite people are me, myself, and I. Not Jesus. Not Jesus. The challenge is, here's an example for us to follow. The example of Jesus, our Savior, our Lord. We, by the grace of God, should endeavor to follow His pattern of loving others selflessly. As a matter of fact, a little later on in John 13, I want you to go there, John 13, look at verses 34 and 35. He's speaking to His disciples And he conveys this very idea. Not only that I love you selflessly, guys, but I want you to love each other selflessly. As a matter of fact, I want all of those who in the future will become my followers to love each other selflessly. Look at verses 34 and 35. He says, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." Now let me say something here. Some people have said, well this isn't a new commandment because you go back to the Old Testament and he admonished the Israelites to love one another. No. The new commandment isn't that you love one another. The new commandment is how you love one another. You love one another the way I love you. By this he says, all men will know that you're my true disciples, you're my true followers, you're my students. If you have love, one for another. This selfless, sacrificial love. It's how He loves us. It's how He wants us to love each other. That's where the challenge is. Do you remember the What Would Jesus Do campaign from a few years ago? That's a good question to ask sometimes. And let me apply it to this circumstance. As you think of how you care for others, as you think of how you have a concern for others, is it a selfless one? Is it a sacrificial one like Jesus has for you, like he has for his bride, the church? In Ephesians chapter 5 verses 1 through 2, Paul put it this way, he said, Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love just as Christ also loved you. almost like the same words of Jesus, isn't it? The word translated imitators there is the Greek word mimētes and we get our English word mimic from it. So he says, I want you to mimic how God loves you as beloved children. Who are the greatest mimics on the planet? Children are. You have to be ever so careful regarding what you say and what you do. Isn't that true? Because if you're not, They'll do and they'll say just as you do. And as a parent, you understand that, right? As a grandparent, you come to understand that. I have to be careful sometimes when I'm around my grandchildren. because I might do something or I might say something that they'll mimic shortly thereafter. I remember with Andrew. I think I told you this story. He was maybe four. No, he wasn't even four. He was maybe two to three years old. He's in the back seat with a couple of other children that were watching for some friends of ours. We're living in Southern California. And I pull out of an alley from the back of our apartment. I'm trying to get on to this very busy street in Upland, California. four lanes, two in each direction. And finally, I pull out into the middle lane, but the rear end of the car is still in the southbound lanes, and some guy lays on the horn. I turned around and said, shut up. All three of those kids said, shut up. Kids are great mimics. Paul exhorts us, he says, be good kids and mimic how God loves you. He loves us selflessly. As a matter of fact, he goes on and says, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up, there's that sacrificial idea, there's that selfless idea, an offering and a sacrifice to God, and I love this next part, as a fragrant aroma. What's your favorite smell? your sweetheart's cologne, perfume, fresh bread baking. My favorite is bacon sizzling. Bacon sizzling in the pan. I love it. Just inhaling that thickens my arteries. What's your favorite aroma? Gardenias. Roses. Think of your favorite smell. He says, if you mimic how God loves you, and it's characterized by selflessness and sacrifice, it smells good to God. It smells good to God. And I might add, frankly, it'll smell pretty good to people around you. When they see how selflessly and how sacrificially you love them. You see, it isn't about us, it's about others. Ask yourself that question. When it comes to your attitudes and actions towards those around you, your wife, your husband, your parents, your children, your friends, your co-workers, your fellow student, in any and all your relationships, do you love them selflessly and sacrificially, or is it all about you? I remember years ago, just kiddingly, my oldest daughter, Anna, would often say to me, Dad, it's just all about me. So one day, Lori and I were shopping somewhere, and we saw this t-shirt, or someone gave it to us, and it said on it, it's all about me. So I gave it to her. I said, here, I have a gift for you, honey, and it's very appropriate. And she opened it up and said, Dad, I didn't mean it. But unfortunately, a lot of us do. But if we're followers of Jesus and we want to smell good to God, we need to follow Jesus in this sense. We need to love selflessly. We need to love sacrificially. And when we do, oh man, it smells good to God. It's a sweet smelling aroma. But not only does He love us, selflessly, but we also learn that he loves us unconditionally. It says there, having loved. Now we know what word that is in the Greek, right? You know what word it is. The Greeks had a lot of words for love, and this is the one you think it is. It's agape. It's agape. It's that word that means to cherish something. It means to highly esteem someone. It means to care for someone, to have a great concern for someone. And I want you to know something this morning. There was nothing in you or in me to somehow generate in God a love for me or for you. Nothing in you or me to stimulate this love, to ignite this love, to stir this love, to motivate this love. Frankly, we are pretty unlovely people. Isn't that true? We're very unlovely people. We're selfish, we're self-centered, we're rebellious, and frankly, we're quite revolting. I mean, that's the reality of it. I know you think you're a pretty good guy, but you're not. You think you're a pretty good girl, but you're not. How do I know that? I just know it because God has revealed our hearts in the Scriptures. Jeremiah 17 10. I hate this verse. He says of the human heart, it is deceitful and it is desperately wicked. That's you and that's me. You think that somehow stirs God? Woo-hoo! I love Chrissy because he is so bad. I don't think so. It's an affront to Him. It's offensive to Him. It grieves Him. Or how about Isaiah 53, 6? The first part of the verse says, All of us are like sheep who go astray, and each one of us turns to our own way. See? It's all about us. or James 4.4. This is a very disturbing verse. I don't like to read it. He says, you adulteresses, you know what an adulterer or an adulteress is, right? A husband or a wife who's unfaithful to their spouse, unfaithful to the one that they have covenanted before God to be faithful to. He says, you adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of this world makes himself an enemy of God. I mean, that's who we are, folks. So there was nothing in and of ourselves that caused Him to love us. It isn't who we are, but it's who He is. It's who He is. And who is He? Well, 1 John 4 says, God is, you complete it for me, love. Eight verses later, it says, God is, you complete it for me, Okay, let's try that one more time. You complete, that means you finish it. Okay? God is love. In His very makeup, in His very essence, in His very nature, God is love. It isn't that He chooses to love, it is that He is love. There's a big difference there, folks. Because of who He is, He loves us. And what does that love look like? Well, let me give you what I think is the best definition of that love. We know what the word means. It means to cherish. It means to highly esteem. It means to care and have a concern for another. But what are the details of that love? Well, I think in 1 Corinthians 13, we actually have a description of God's love. You know it. Let me read it to you. 1 Corinthians 13, starting at verse 4. Love is patient. Has God ever been patient with you? Man, He's been patient with me. Love is kind. Has God ever been kind? to you. The fact that you're sitting here this morning, upright, in health, saved, sanctified, on your way to heaven, is that not an expression of His kindness? He's never jealous. Love doesn't brag. It's not arrogant. It doesn't act unbecomingly. It's not rude. It never seeks its own. Remember? We talked previously about a selfless love. It never seeks its own. It's not provoked easily. It doesn't take into account a wrong suffered. I like that. God doesn't keep a black book. It doesn't rejoice in unrighteousness, but it rejoices with the truth. And then he summarizes by saying it bears all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things, and it endures all things. That's how God loves us. That's what God's love is like. This is a special love that He has for those who are His own. And it governs His actions. And I like that little phrase, having loved His own. It's the Greek word idios, and you ever heard the word idiosyncrasy? You know what an idiosyncrasy is? It's a unique feature about us. Well, the word is used here to help us understand that we're objects of His love. We're distinctly His. We belong to Him. I like what Harry Ironsides long ago, translator of the scriptures and interpreter of the scriptures, he said there's a five-fold sense in which we belong to Him. Let me just give you the first three. Number one, we're His by creation. He's our creator and we are His children as a result of that. Secondly, we are owned by redemption. He purchased us with His blood. We belong to Him because of the cross. And thirdly, we are His owned by the Father's gift. Remember what Jesus said back in John 6? No one comes unless what? The Father draws him. We're a gift to the Father. And he said, these that I love, these who are the objects of my high esteem and affection and care and concern, they're in the world. What he means by that is they're in this unsaved, wicked, evil world. the world of unsaved men, and the society those unsaved men have created, the culture those unsaved men have created, the value systems which they have established. And he says, that's where my people are. But in spite of the fact that they're in that world, making them susceptible to the forces that work in that world, the world itself and the flesh and the devil, Yet he says, in spite of that condition, in spite of their exposure to those forces, I love them unconditionally. I love them unconditionally. You know what I love about him, about the Lord? He starts where we are. Have you ever stopped and thought about that? He starts where we are. He didn't come and say, Chris, now you get your act together. Then I'll love you. Revelation chapter 1 verse 5, notice the order of the words. It says there, as John writes, that God loved us and then cleansed us with the blood of Christ. What did He do first? He loved us. And then what did He do? He cleansed us. He loved us, then He cleansed us. Or Romans 5 in verse 8, but God proved His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He loves us unconditionally. He starts where we are. And to me, that's an awesome, awesome reality about God's love. We need to rejoice in it. We need to revel at Christ's unconditional love for us. We were hopelessly lost sinners, doomed for a Christless eternity, but He made a way. He made a way. Because of His great unconditional love, He has made a way to secure hope and an eternity with Jesus, and that way is the cross. The cross. He went to it. He died on it as a perfect sacrifice, acceptable to God. And as a result, the doors have now swung open for all who will repent and believe. And there's hope in this eternity. This Thursday, I will stand at a gravesite for Pastor Garland. And I'll be able to say with utter confidence, this man is in heaven. He went there instantly the day he died. And all we're doing right now, we're just putting his body into the grave to let it sleep until Jesus returns, raises it from the dead, gloriously transforms it, and then reunites it with JL's soul, which is very much alive up in heaven. The cross makes it possible for us to have that hope. Later that day, I will be conducting a service for Jane Sundquist. I'll be able to say the very same thing. Many years ago, Jane heard the gospel. Jesus Christ came and died for sinners and He rose again to prove He was the Son of God, to prove that God accepted Christ's sacrifice for all sinners' sin. And when we repent and believe, we gain that life and that hope. That's why we sorrow but not as those who have no hope. He made a way. That way is the cross. You know, I'm never weary of hearing John 3.16. I'm never weary of reading it. I'm never weary of quoting it. I'm never weary of anybody else quoting it or reading it to me. Say it with me. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. He made a way. We used to sing a song when I was in Bible school. I was in a quartet and we sang a song. God made a way for me. He did. The way of the cross. The Lord Jesus. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes unto the Father except by me. Can you say that this morning? That Jesus is your Savior? May I call upon you may I encourage you may I even go so far as to beg you if you've never trusted the Lord Jesus is your savior to do it even right now right where you're seated you don't have to walk an aisle you don't have to raise a hand all you need to do is in your heart of hearts have a little conversation with God it might go something like this God I know I am a sinner for the Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God God I know there's a penalty to pay and I must pay it. For the wages of sin is death, the Bible says. And then you say something like this, I can't save myself. I can't save myself. Doesn't matter how hard I try, I will never be able to save myself. The Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. Not of works lest anybody should boast. And then I love this. One day, a man said to the Apostle Paul and his friend Silas, Sirs, what do I need to do to become a Christian? What do I need to do to be saved? And they were evangelists. They were missionaries. They were pastors. You know what they said? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That simple. Believe that he died for your sins. Believe he rose again from the dead. And just absolutely cast yourself upon that to save your soul. And when you do that, you're saved. It's that simple. And then He calls us to a life of obedience and yieldedness because He has the desire to give us the absolute best in our lives. And by the way, sometimes the absolute best for us can be hard times because the hard times make us more like Jesus. I'm reading a book about prayer. It's called Transforming Prayer. John recommended it to me. Excellent book. And I came across a quote this week. He said, so much of our prayer energy is used to keep sick people out of heaven, but not lost people out of hell. How true. He has so much for us. He has so much He wants to give to us. He wants us to be delivered from hell. He wants us to be set free from the penalty that awaits those who reject Him. Because He loves us, He wants to give us life. And if you're here this morning and you've never trusted Him, trust Him today. And I just told you how to do it. It's a simple thing. I did it 41 years ago when I was just a kid. You could do it today. And then finally, not only is his love selfless and unconditional. I love this part of it. Jesus' love is enduring. It says he loved his own to the end. He's stating a fact here. The way this is written, he's stating a fact in John 13.1. This isn't theological theory. This is spiritual reality. And what does he mean by that? He loved his own to the end. Well, he answers the question, how long will Jesus love us who are his own? He will love us completely. He will love us fully. He will love us absolutely. The idea is he loves to love us to the fullest extent of the love he has. He loves us without limits. You see, Jesus gave everything. and he just keeps on giving. He holds nothing back. I like how some translations have translated this. He loves us unto the utmost. He loves all the way through. Through what? Through everything. Our foibles, our failures, our weaknesses, our flaws, our defects. His love is eternal. His love is enduring. His love is tenacious. It's undiminished. It's stubborn. It's obstinate. It's loyal. You know what? Loving kindness in the Old Testament, you know you read that word often in the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms. You know what it means? Loyal love. It's the Hebrew word kesed. He loves us loyally. What does that mean? He loves us faithfully. This idea that no matter what we do, You see, I want you to know something this morning. You can never commit a sin that will in any way, shape, or form diminish how much He loves you. Nor can you do a good thing that would ever, in any way, shape, or form, cause His love to somehow increase towards you. Because the fact of the matter is, He already loves you with the maximum amount of love that He is to the fullest capacity that He can. and you will never diminish it and you will never increase it because you already have all of His love. Can you grieve Him? Yes. Can you disappoint Him? Yes. Can you offend Him? Yes. But He doesn't stop loving you. He doesn't stop loving me. He continues to love us tenaciously, faithfully through it all. As you sit here this morning, think of all the stuff you've thought about, all the stuff you have felt, all the stuff you've done, all the places you've gone, even as a follower of Jesus, I just want you to know that you have not caused Him to love you any less. And then I want to speak to you who maybe have really endeavored to live a righteous life. That has not increased His love for you. Because you see, He already loves you with all the love He has. It's that simple. That's what it means here. His love is eternal. It's enduring. It's tenacious. It's undiminished. It's stubborn. It's obstinate. It's loyal. It's faithful. It's dependable. And you know what's amazing about this? He persistently loves us because we persistently fail Him. Stop and think about the disciples. He is saying this in context about His disciples. Well, who were those guys? Who were those guys? Well, let me just remind you. Just to walk through one book alone, the book of Matthew chapter 14, there we see them doubting Him, but His love remained true to them. In Matthew chapter 16, we see them misunderstanding His teaching. We see them lacking faith in His power, yet His love remained faithful. Later in John 16, we see them actually opposing his plans, yet his love remained faithful. In Matthew 17, they didn't listen. They had a very weak faith, and yet his love remained faithful to them. Or in Matthew 26, he was betrayed by one of his friends, yet his love remained true. Later in chapter 26, they were overconfident. They were weak. They even deserted him. and one even denied him. And yet his love for those men remained true. How about you? How have you let him down? What are your failures? What are your disappointments? I just want you to know his love remains full and enduring. Sunday school class, little four-year-old boy, was sitting there listening to the teacher, and she was teaching on God's love, and she was kind of summarizing the class. And she was saying that God's love has no limits. So, as she reviewed the lesson, she finally concluded with this question, So, how much does God love us? And one of the little boys, the four-year-old, he quoted Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story. And he said, To infinity and beyond! That, folks, is good theology. God loves us to infinity and beyond. I want you to know that this morning, because if you're anything like me, you let the Lord down regularly through the course of the day, and you feel like He doesn't love you anymore, but He does. His love hasn't waned. Mary Boley Peters wrote, Whom have we, Lord, but Thee? soul thirst to satisfy. Exhaustless spring, the water is free, all other streams are dry. God's love is an exhaustless spring. Our disobedience can't diminish it. He doesn't love us any less. His love remains steadfast, constant, consistent, undiminished, unwavering. He loves us with all the love he has. Jesus loyally loves his own. And we come to communion this morning, and I can't think of a more graphic way to be reminded of that. Oswald Chambers wrote this, in the cross we may see the dimensions of divine love. The cross is not the cross of a man, but the exhibition of the heart of God. At the back of the wall of the world stands God with his arms outstretched and every man driven there is driven into the arms of God. The cross of Jesus is the supreme evidence of the love of God. Communion reminds us of the cross. I want you to view the cross as God standing in heaven with outstretched arms Bidding you come Because he wants to embrace you and when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ That moment occurs and that embrace will never ever be lost Father we thank you this morning for this reminder of the Lord Jesus limitless love, His unconditional love, His selfless love, His enduring love. And there's no better demonstration of it than the cross of Calvary because there He died. He willingly suffered. He who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. And when we repent and believe, when we acknowledge we're sinners and we need a Savior, and Christ is that Savior, and we believe He died in our place and He rose again, and we rest in that, we are born again, we are regenerated, and we embrace you and you embrace us. And that embrace will never be lost again. We come to communion now and pray for your blessing. as we remember the sacrifice of love. Amen. This message has been brought to you by the Santa Rosa Bible Church. Our purpose is to lift up the Lord by living out the word, loving one another, and leading others to Christ. Be sure to visit us on the web at www.santarosa.org. www.srbible.org or come visit us in person at 4575 Badger Road, Santa Rosa, California 95409. You can also give us a call at 707-538-2385.