As I Have Loved You

Okay, I want to begin today by looking at some of the scriptures that we read during the Passover service. And for the most part, these are words that Jesus spoke to his disciples that evening, after the meal, before he was taken captive. Now we're going to begin in Luke 22.

This is kind of to set the stage a bit. So, in Luke 22, we're going to read verses seven and eight and 14 and 15. So Luke 22, seven, then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover must be killed.

And he sent Peter and John saying, go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat. So, he gave them instructions on what to do. And then in verse 14, it says, when the hour had come, he sat down and the 12 apostles with him.

Then he said to them with fervent desire, I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. I wanted to start here because I think it shows us that Jesus was filled with emotion. And when we see that even leading up to this time where he was kind of, you know, leading the way charging up to Jerusalem on their way to Jerusalem before the feast, he knew what was in store for him.

He knew that this was his last Passover with them. And the things that we're going to read are his last words that he spoke to his disciples before his death. And I think that, you know, these are important words.

They are the things that he wanted them and us to hear and understand. So, let's turn to John chapter 13. And as I mentioned, these are Jesus's words from that night.

And as I mentioned at Passover too, for those of you who were there, I could never get enough of these words. Altogether, they are an amazing, I guess, an amazing set of instructions, information, everything. So, beginning in verse 33, he says, little children, he loved them.

It says, little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek me. And as I said to the Jews, where I am going, you cannot come.

So now I say to you, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. My title today is, As I Have Loved You.

What is new about this commandment that he gave? Previously in his ministry, when he was asked what the greatest commandment was, what was his answer? Well, if I can get my computer to work here, in Matthew 22, we can read his answer. He says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Loving others wasn't anything new, was it? What is new is how he told them to love one another, as I have loved you.

That is how we are to love one another. How much did he love them? How much does he love us? Well, that's what we're going to explore a bit today. Not only how much he loves us, but what it all has to do with this feast, the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Before we get there, there are some other things that I think we need to read during the Passover that I want to read now. We are going to stay in John for now. Next, we're going to John chapter 14.

As we read through all of these passages, keep in mind that if we are true Christians, it means that we believe in him, we follow him, we do what he wants us to do, we love him, and we must love one another as he loves us. See, it was love your neighbor as yourself. He loves us more than that.

John 14, verse 12. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also. And greater works than these he will do, because I go to my Father.

And whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it. Now, this is not some, well, I guess as some refer to as the prosperity gospel, right? All we need to do is ask.

Whatever we ask, God's going to give us. If you want to be rich, ask for it. This is so much more important than that.

First, we must truly believe in him and all that he was, and that all he is and will do. We must be focused on doing the works that he did. What did he do? Well, he spoke his Father's words.

He did the will of his Father, right? Not my will, but your will be done. When we seek to do the will of the Father, and we ask in Jesus's name, he'll do it. And why? Because this is what he tells us, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

We are not asking for ourselves. We're asking to do the will of the Father, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. It's a completely different way of looking at things than the world looks at things.

This is all part of loving others as he loves us. Verse 15, if you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper, that it may abide with you forever, the spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive, because it neither sees it nor knows it, but you know it, for it dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans.

I will come to you a little while longer, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me, because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me, and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.

Verse 23, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words, and the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me. So if we love him, we will keep his commandments, his word, including that new commandment which he gave to love one another as he loves us.

And if we do that, not only will he love us, but the Father will love us, and they will make their home with us. The word that is translated home is kind of interesting. It comes from another word that we are going to read in a minute, so for now just keep that in mind.

They will make their home with us. Now in the next chapter where we're going to go next, think about that as we read the word abide. So John 15, beginning in verse 1, Jesus says, I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. So let's look at these words. The word that is translated as home was the Greek word “monē”.

It is a noun, and here's what Strong's has to say about it. It says it is from another word, G 3306, and it is a staying, that is a residence, the act or the place, abode, mansion. Now I think Thayer's Greek definitions provides a more, and it has three different definitions.

It says one, a staying or abiding dwelling or abode. Number two, to make one or an abode, or to make an abode or one's abode. And then three, metaphorically of the Holy Spirit indwelling believers.

The word that is translated as abide here is meno, a verb, and the root word from which monē comes from. So again, we'll start with the definition from Strong's. It says a primary verb to stay in a given place, state, relation, or expectancy.

Abide, continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand, tarry. So again, I think that Thayer's definition is a little bit more comprehensive here. And as I read these, I'd like you to think about how all of them relate to abiding with Jesus and our Father.

So again, it gives multiple definitions. It gives two primary definitions, and then some, I guess, subcategories of those. So number one is to remain or abide.

And then it says this, in reference to place, to sojourn or tarry, not to depart, to continue to be present, to be held, kept continually. In reference to time, this is still under the first definition, in reference to time, to continue to be, not to perish, to last or endure, of persons to survive or live. And in reference to state or condition, to remain as one, not to become another or different.

And then the second definition is to wait for or await one. Now let's continue with John 15. So verse five, John 15, verse five.

Jesus continues, he says, I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me, and I in him bears much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this, my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples. As the father loved me, I also have loved you, abide in my love.

Jesus says here that he loves us just as his father loved him. His father was with him every step of the way. And when Jesus was put to death, his father raised him up.

And they love us in that same way. And then Jesus says, stay that way, abide in my love. Verse 10, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

You know, many Christians in the world think there's a difference between the commandments of God in the Old Testament and the commandments of Jesus. And here Jesus says, my commandments, right? Keep my commandments, but I kept my father's commandments. I in him, he in me, they're the same.

These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.

You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. Verse 17, these things I command you, that you love one another. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. And then in John 17, we read the prayer that Jesus prayed that night to his father.

I want to look at some of that. We're going to begin in verse one, John 17, verse one. It says, Jesus spoke these words, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, father, the hour has come glorify your son, that your son may glorify you.

Everything that he did was to fulfill the will of his father. Father, the hour has come glorify your son, that your son also may glorify you as you have given him authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do. Jesus always did the father's will.

And we also need to do the same. Verse six, I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours.

You gave them to me and they have kept your word. Verse nine, I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

And then in verse 14, he says, I have given them your words, or I have given them your word. And the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one.

Just as Jesus himself was in the world doing the work that the father had given him to do, so must we do the work of God while being in this world. And just as Jesus was being subject to it, which isn't always good or easy. And then in verse 20, all of us here are brought into this whole discussion.

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they all may be one as you father are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me and the glory which you have, that you gave me, I have given them, that they may be one just as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you loved me.

Father, I desire that they also, whom you gave me, may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. Oh, righteous father, the world has not known you, but I have known you and these have known that you sent me and I have declared to them your name and will declare it, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them. It was Jesus's earnest desire that we be loved like he was, loved by his father.

And there is no end to that love, I in them and you in me, that they may be perfect in one. That is an incredible blessing, to be loved by the father just as he loved his firstborn son. And all of this, Jesus tells us on the night before he was put to death for being a perfect man.

I want to take a step back now and look at the instructions that God gave the Israelites for the Passover before they left Egypt. So that's found in Exodus chapter 12, Exodus chapter 12, and we'll begin in verse one. Exodus 12 verse one, now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, this month shall be your beginning of months.

It shall be the first month of the year for you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel saying on the 10th of this month, every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house, take it according to the number of the persons.

According to each man's need, you shall take, or you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.

Now you shall keep it until the 14th day of the month or that same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it.

Then they shall eat the flesh on that night, roasted in fire with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs, they shall eat it. Do not eat it raw nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire, its head with its legs and its entrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning and what remains of it until morning, you shall burn with fire.

And thus you shall eat it with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hands. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.

Verse 12, for I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike all the firstborn of the land of Egypt, both man and beast and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are.

And when I see the blood, I will pass over you and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So this day shall be to you a memorial. You shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations.

You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. Those are the instructions that God gave for the Old Testament Passover. And as we will see in a minute, Jesus changes things.

Before we look at that, let's go to Leviticus 23 where we read about God's feasts, including the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This time we're going to read Leviticus 23, verses 4 through 8. These are the feasts of the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the 14th day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover.

On the 15th day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord. Seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation.

You shall do no customary work on it, but you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation, and you shall do no customary work on it. Passover included eating the lamb with unleavened bread.

And then we keep a seven-day feast where we are to continue to eat unleavened bread for those seven days. Let's go back to John, John 13, where we can start to look at how Jesus changes things. John 13, beginning in verse 3, says, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel and girded himself.

After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. Then he came to Simon Peter and Peter said to him, Lord, are you washing my feet? And Jesus answered and said to him, what I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will know after this. Drop down to verse 12.

So, when he had washed their feet, taken his garments and sat down again, he said to them, do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. If I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you.

This was not done in the Old Testament Passover. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 11 next, because I think we see here in a succinct picture of what happened after this. So, 1 Corinthians 11 verses 23 through 26.

Paul is writing here and it seems that Paul received direct instructions from Jesus. But here he says, I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat.

This is my body. Which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

And the same manner he also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes.

Jesus changed the symbols of the Passover. No longer do we sacrifice a lamb and eat it with bitter herbs with a staff in our hand. The lamb represented him and his sacrifice.

But now he set a new example of how we are to celebrate the New Testament Passover. He washed the feet of his disciples. He broke bread and blessed it, telling them that this is my body.

He gave them wine and blessed it and told them that this was his blood that was shed for them, for us. And in some ways, that's where all of this intersects with the Days of Unleavened Bread. The bread we eat both at Passover and during the feast is unleavened bread.

He tells us that the unleavened bread we eat at Passover is his body. That he is the bread. This is not the first time that he says we need to eat that bread.

Turn to John chapter 6. What we're going to read here takes place shortly after Jesus fed the 5,000 and then walked on water to his disciples in the middle of the lake. The following day, the people find him again and ask for a sign. Feeding of 5,000 wasn't a sign enough, but they ask for a sign saying that their fathers ate bread from heaven.

So, John 6 verse 32. Jesus said to them, most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

That's quite a summary of who he was. Gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always.

And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe.

All that the father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. This is the will of the father who sent me that of all he has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of him who sent me that everyone who sees the son and believes in him may have everlasting life.

And I will raise him up at the last day. They couldn't understand what he was saying. And they questioned him.

Let's continue down in verse 48. Again, he says, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are dead.

This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.

And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. He was talking about our spiritual consumption. We need to take Christ into us to allow him to live in and through us.

That is the only way to eternal life. I in you. Verse 53.

Then Jesus said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is food indeed.

And my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him, he who eats his flesh and drinks his blood abides in him. Just like what we read earlier, the things that he told his disciple on that Passover.

Verse 57, as the living father sent me and I live because of the father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me. He who feeds on me. Every word of Jesus, we need to follow.

We need to believe. We need to trust. This is the bread which came down from heaven.

Not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever. It is only by taking on Jesus Christ, becoming like him in every way that we can become a part of his body, the body of Jesus Christ.

He is the head. The body follows where he goes, where he directs. How do we do that? Well, there are lots of things that we could talk about, and we can't cover them all today.

So I want to just give you one thing. I'd like you to turn to Philippians chapter two. This is one of my favorite passages in the Bible.

I think it goes right along with the Passover and the things that we learn from it. We're going to read Philippians two verses one through eight. Paul writing to the Philippians says, therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the spirit, which is how he lives in us and we in him today, if any affection and mercy fulfill my joy by being likeminded, having the same love being of one accord of one mind, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.

Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. I think by this, it's really look out for those interests even more than you, right? That's loving others like he loved us. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, who being in the form of God did not consider it, or I'm sorry, I read that, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

On the Passover day, we are to make sure that the leaven is out of our homes. Spiritually, we are cleansed from our sins. And the next thing that happens is that we enter into the feast of unleavened bread.

And we are to eat unleavened bread for seven days. We are to take on Jesus Christ where we portray that every day we eat unleavened bread. We are symbolizing eating his flesh, becoming like him in every way.

We understand what it means by what Paul wrote to the Philippians. We need to have the same mind as Jesus Christ, who humbled himself to death that we might be at one with him and the father. God created us in his own image and likeness.

He gave us direction. He gives us his love. God wants us to know him, to understand him.

His whole creation points us to him, and he wants to have a relationship with us. He wants us to be just like him, to be a part of his family. And we can only do that if we become like our example, Jesus Christ, who did everything that his father wanted him to do.

He loved us that much that he was willing to die for us. And then God gives us the means for reconciliation, that we can start down that path because we didn't start that way, did we? As we continue through this feast, let's think about what eating that unleavened bread represents. We are to spiritually eat the true unleavened bread.

When we do that, we are learning to abide as Jesus said, I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me. Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. Oh, righteous father, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you sent me.

And I have declared to them your name and will declare it that the love with which you love me may be in them and I in them.