FOURTH QUARTER 2024
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #13
DECEMBER 28, 2024
"EPILOGUE: KNOWING JESUS AND HIS WORD."

 

"That you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:31, NKJV).  This is why we are told John had written this gospel. Moreover, what stands out in the gospel of John is also what kind of person Jesus is and what His thoughts and feelings are toward those He came to save.

John understood Jesus' thoughts and feelings towards himself, which he tells us in the very name he uses for himself, the disciple whom Jesus loved (John 13:23, 19:26, and 21:7, 20). Through John's firsthand experience with Jesus, face-to-face encounters, and daily interactions, he knew Jesus. And by that, he knew that Jesus loved him deeply and completely in ways that, it would be safe to say, John had never experienced before.

Notice that John does not describe himself as the disciple who loved Jesus. John recognized his inabilities. Like Peter in John 21:15-17, he would not claim to possess agape love toward Jesus, but would recognize the unique and superlative quality of love Jesus had toward him and that this was not something he had of himself to give.  

Jesus asked Peter three times, "Do you love me?"  The first two times, He used the word agape.  "Do you agape me more than these?”  And each time, Peter responded not by saying, "Yes, Lord, you know I agape you," but rather by responding, "Yes, Lord, you know I phileo you."

Phileo is one of three Greek words that can be translated into English as the one word we use for love. Phileo, eros, and storgedescribe various aspects of human love. A fourth Greek word used for love in the Bible is agape, which transcends human love.

The difference between agape and phileo is unmeasurable.  Phileo is to love and have affection for a brother or a friend, whereas in this context agape denotes selfless, sacrificial, unconditional care of another.  Agape is a love of the highest order that comes from choice and not out of attraction or obligation.

Human or natural love can be characterized and contrasted with agape or divine love in the following ways.  Human love depends on its object's beauty and value, while divine love always sees and creates beauty and value in its object. The nature of human love is always trying to climb higher and ultimately uplift oneself and make oneself feel better, while divine love steps down and is self-emptying for the sake of others.  Human love ultimately finds itself seeking after God for the objective of gain and reward, while divine love always seeks after the other and is willing to relinquish all personal rewards.

It is in John's letters that he writes the most profound three words of the Bible: "God is love” (1 John 4:8,16). John means more than God is loving. John is expressing that God's very being is oriented toward others and not Himself. Stepping down, serving, and giving are His very nature and person.  And John understood this personally, which is why He wrote things like:

“Love is of God” (1 John 4:7). 

“By this, we know love because He laid down His life for us” (1 John 3:16).

“In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9,10).

It would not be surprising that John has brought to light the agape of God personified in the life of Jesus Christ through his Gospel record. In chapter 1 we see the pre-incarnate Jesus, the Word of God made audible, the agent of creation (John 1:1-4), being in the form of God, willingly relinquish His position and prerogative and step down to become one with the fallen race (John 1:14, Philippians 2:5-8). “Love does not seek its own” (1 Corinthians 13:5).

In chapter 2 we see Him honoring his earthly mother's request even though His "time had not come."  He did not put her down for asking such a request of the Son of God at such a time. “Love is kind and not puffed up” (1 Corinthians 13:4).  And we see Him, with zeal for His Father's house and the gospel plan that was supposed to be represented there, drive exploitation, greed, and selfishness out of the temple that day.  “Love does not rejoice in the iniquity but rejoices in the truth” (1 Corinthians 13: 6).

In chapter 3 we see Jesus patiently allowing a leader and teacher of Israel to come to Him at night because Nicodemus was afraid to risk his reputation by coming to see Jesus. Jesus treated him thus for the opportunity to share the gospel of the self-sacrificing love of God (John 3:16, 17). Jesus was not slighted nor did He take offense by this teacher's manner of approach, nor His lack of spiritual insights. “Love does not behave rudely” (1 Corinthians 13:5).

In chapter 4 we see this same Jesus going out of His way to meet with a Samaritan woman who had a checkered past and was to a degree outcast and marginalized in her community.  It was not beneath love in the slightest to do such a thing but was instead something love necessitated.  It takes opportunity to break the social norms  for the good of another and bring salvation to an outcast and her entire village.  All of this is because “[l]ove believes all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7).

Jesus heals a desperate father's dying son and a pitiful man palsied for thirty-eight years who had put his faith in superstition in chapters 4 and 5.  In the midst of a diseased and dying world, He stooped low to lift up and help the suffering of those He hoped to save.   “Love hopes all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7 ).  And when the religious people sought to kill Him because of His ministry, He did not ignore them nor rail against them but instead took the opportunity when they sought Him out to try to reach their hearts with words of life and light that they were hell-bent on rejecting.  “Love suffers long” (1 Corinthians 13:7).

Jesus fed more than five thousand because He saw the people's immediate need, only to have them turn around and want to exalt Him as a temporal king.  How tempting it must have been to take the outpouring of human praise and honor that this King deserved.  Instead, he saw the crisis that was brewing and diffused the situation.  The next day they were still seeking to exalt Him to be king to deliver them from their political and social situations, so He taught them the spiritual realities and necessities they were missing.  This would resulted in a popularity purge as many no longer followed Him after this. The kingdoms of men were not His purpose, and the methods of establishing His kingdom were not about being exalted by popularity or fame but instead by sacrifice and giving.  “Love does not parade itself” (1 Corinthians 13:4).

He who is the bread of life, the light of the world, and the wellspring of living water, was rejected by authorities repeatedly; how He longed to reach their hearts and gathered them to Himself as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings (Matthew 23:37).  Yet continually they tried to trap Him and test Him, not because they thought he had anything they wanted but because they wanted him out of the way.  And in the face of all of this, Jesus would bear all things and endure them (1 Corinthians 13:7), loving them to the end (John 13:1).

Still testing Him, they had an adulteress thrown at His feet (chapter 8).  The scribes and Pharisees tried to have Him call to have her stoned as the Law of Moses commanded.  Instead, He quietly brought conviction to their hearts without shaming them in public and then asked for the one without sin to cast the first stone.  And while all those with stones in their hands quietly departed, she was left there with Him.  Her guilt was evident, and her shame was humiliating.  But somehow, she did not feel accused in the presence of the only one there that day who was without sin.  And the following words He would say to her with no evil thought or motive: "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more” (John 8:11). The law and the gospel perfectly combined as justice and mercy were on display for her heart that day because “love… thinks no evil” (1 Corinthians 13:5).  "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17).

And John portrays Jesus giving His life for the world that barely recognized Him and, for the most part, rejected His every overture of love.  While dying at the hands of those He came to save was a revelation of their hearts, the revelation of His hearts comes from the knowledge that He was Maker of all that was made, that He made Himself of no reputation (Philippians 2:7), made Himself to be flesh (John 1:14), and was made to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).  On the cross of Calvary experiencing what the lost will ultimately experience as the sins of the world crushed out His life, He chose you over Himself, loving you to the end. "Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:8).

“The heart of the human father yearns over his son. He looks into the face of his little child and trembles at the thought of life's peril. He longs to shield his dear one from Satan's power, to hold him back from temptation and conflict. To meet a bitterer conflict and a more fearful risk, God gave His only-begotten Son, that the path of life might be made sure for our little ones. ‘Herein is love.’ Wonder, O heavens! and be astonished, O earth!” —Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 49.

If we were to go through every passage of John and describe the unselfishness, sacrifice, and giving on display in every act of Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, I suppose this Sabbath School Insight would never end.  However, describing and understanding the agape of God is not the end—it is only the beginning.  The truth about God and His heart toward you is essential information that is meant to be not only understood, but in the end must be experienced.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is more than information, words, and ideas to which we give mental assent.  Jesus is a person, and His love is real. He is a living Savior longing to be known and experienced personally by every person, in every way.

“For the Love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know  Him no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:14-21).

Today we find ourselves in a world that is barely holding on by a thread, separating itself more and more from the life and the love of God. While social, political, and moral conflicts are at an all-time high, there is still only one compelling, motivating, and empowering force that can save a planet and a church in disarray, and that is the love of God.

And it is this love that He is longing for us to appreciate and receive in all its fullness.  "Those who wait for the Bridegroom's coming are to say to the people, ‘Behold your God.’ The last rays of merciful light, the last message of mercy to be given to the world, is a revelation of His character of love. The children of God are to manifest His glory. In their own life and character, they are to reveal what the grace of God has done for them." __Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 415.

Let this love be in us that was also in Christ Jesus.  Even so come, Lord Jesus.

 

~Kelly Kinsley