What Kind of a Person Was Jesus?

Well, there's an old saying that says, variety is the spice of life. And when we look around the world that God has placed us in, and the earth that He's created for us, we can certainly see that God was interested in variety. You know, as we look out over the trees and whatever, God could have designed just one tree, and they could all look the same. We wouldn't know any difference.

But it's nice to be able to drive through, go from various areas, and see different trees, different leaf sizes, different shades of green. Some trees are green all the time. Others lose their leaves in the winter. It's very pleasant what God has done. Some trees are in different shapes and different sizes. We can say the same thing about flowers. God could have created no flowers, and we wouldn't know the difference. He could have created just one flower.

Different flowers have different looks, beautiful, different colors, different smells, so that we are able to use that sensation as well. God created different types of animals, some for just our enjoyment. Cats and dogs, some that we eat. Not just beef that we eat, but chicken, beef, other things that we eat as well. Others are not for food at all, but the other purposes that they serve. God took the time to prepare all that for all of us, so that we could enjoy it and use it, and so that the earth had a variety and a spice to life that it wouldn't otherwise have had.

If we ever take the time to lay out and look at the sky, which is always an interesting thing to do, even at night, right? More so at night, maybe. You look up in the sky, and you can see all sorts of things up there. We used to live in Palm Coast, and I've noticed since we've moved out of Palm Coast, the sky doesn't look as dark in Orlando or Jacksonville as it does in Palm Coast, so I don't see the stars as clearly as I used to be able to.

But you look up there, and you see the moon, you see the stars, and there's billions of stars up there, all of different shapes, all of different sizes, all of different brightness. God adorned or covered the earth with the sky. He created all of that. Scientists say no two stars are alike, but I guess only God knows that. But He took the time to do all that. And there's different varieties of people, too, aren't there? Different varieties of people. People come in different races, they come in different shapes, they come in different sizes.

Some are really tall, some are really short. Some have different abilities. Not one of us here has the same set of abilities, not one of us has the same set of backgrounds, not one of us here has the same exact heritage. Even our children don't have the exact same heritage as us because it's combined with mom or dad. So God created different people all over the world, and He did all that for a reason. It's all those different people. They all have different personalities, too, don't they? Some are introverts, some are extroverts. You go through the Meyer Briggs, which probably many of us have done, either at work or some place in the past.

Remember those four initials that you come up with? You're an INSJ or an INFP or whatever the ones are. The kind of show you take this test and it kind of shows what your personality trait is and what is unique about you. And at the end of it, they give you four initials that kind of say, this is what you're about. And there's, you know, they tell you, this many percent of the population have those four initials.

And usually it's a very small number because when you have four that can be interchanged, there's any number of combinations that you can have. We all have different personalities. We all have different strengths that we have. God didn't create just one personality. And He doesn't call into His Church just one personality. He calls different personalities. And He did that for a reason. Because it would be pretty boring if everyone in this room had exactly the same personality, if we had exactly the same interests, the very same common interests or things that we common disinterests.

It would be pretty boring. We would learn very little from each other and we wouldn't learn anything about how to get along because we get along with everyone. If someone's exactly like us, we know exactly what they're thinking. We know exactly what they like, exactly what they don't like. We know exactly the type of things that we could say to them that's going to tick them off.

So we avoid that, the kind of things they like to hear. So we talk about that and everyone gets along very well. Well, it is God's intent that we all learn to get along very well, but it's a little more difficult to do that when we have different personalities and different ideas and different things that we've come back from, different interests. We all have one thing for sure in common and that's God's Holy Spirit. That's a big, big, big thing that we have in common. But apart from that, we're all very different people and God has called us to be that way.

When you look in the Bible, you see that even as the New Testament church began, there were different personalities that God used. When you look at the Twelve Apostles, and there's some who have studied the Twelve Apostles, and they can give you the Bible verses on what this one's personality was like and what this one's personality was like, some we know very well because we have occasions in the Bible where they're called out on something.

We have people like Peter, James and John. Peter, he was one who was outspoken, always saying something, and had a good heart in what he was saying. But he would just kind of blur something out, and sometimes those louder personalities have to be corrected, if you will. Christ, in a number of cases, had to correct Peter. When he said, No, no, no, we will never, never, never, never, never. We don't want that to happen to you, and I will never, never, never deny you.

And Christ had to let him know, I'm glad you have that attitude, I'm glad you think that, but that's not exactly what it is. One time, he had to tell him, get behind me, Satan, on something that Peter said. Something that was said to us, we might think, Whoa, wow, that hurts, that smarts. But Peter understood what God was doing, because we do get corrected from time to time.

None of us are perfect. None of us are exactly who God wants us to be today. Our other apostles, like Andrew, Matthew, the other names you could put in there, we don't really read much about them. Three or four of them might have been the extroverts, but the rest of them might have been more introverts. Thinking, referred to be by themselves. Compliance, and we don't even read where those were corrected by God. Now, I'm sure they were. I'm sure that as he worked with each of them, he had points that he was going to make to them on what they can do.

And as they made a comment or he saw actions, he would talk to them. And he would mold their personalities into what he wanted them to be, or their behavior, I guess, if you will, into what they wanted to be, as they, as the Holy Spirit led them. But he never attempted to change their personalities. He wasn't interested in every single apostle being the loud commanding type, because he had different, he'd had different purposes for each one of them.

And he knew that the people they would be talking to would have different personalities, and some would respond to one, but not to another. Just purposeful, personal preferences that we all have. And so we see a variety in the apostles, and we see even the two that began the era of the New Testament, if you will, be John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. Two very important people. John the Baptist, only six months older than Jesus Christ, and he was the one who was going to prepare the way for Jesus Christ.

And Jesus Christ, of course, the Messiah, born as flesh, born as a human. But when we look at those two men, they had very different personalities, very different personalities, and very different ways of living, if you will. You don't have to turn there, but back in Matthew 3, you'll remember the verse. It says that John the Baptist wore camel hair, and he ate locusts and wild honey. We never read a verse where it says, Jesus Christ wore this and ate this.

John the Baptist, you know, John the Baptist, it was noteworthy. This is what he wore, and this is what he ate. The only reason you would say something like that is if it was something that stood out about him. You know, if I came in wearing camel hair or wild locusts, and someone said, tell me who your pastor is, you'd say, he's the one in the camel hair up there.

Every woman know who it is, right? So there was something about John the Baptist that that was what he wore. That was his personality. It kind of stood out about him. He had, you know, maybe a different personality than a lot of people there, and people would take notice of that. Nothing wrong with it. God used him. God used him in exactly the way that he wanted to use him. Jesus Christ, we never hear, this is what he wore and this is what he ate.

So we can assume, by the silence of it, he looked like everyone else. And we kind of know that because even when he was being arrested, they had to have Judas go in and give him a kiss. So they knew who he was because he looked and he acted and he ate it like everyone else. They wouldn't have had to do that with John the Baptist. They wouldn't have had to pay those 30. Here he is. You'll find him.

You know, John the Baptist spent his time outside of Jerusalem. That's where he preferred to be out there and he would preach the gospel of repensing and he would preach the gospel of baptism and people would come out there in flocks to be baptized by him. But he had a personality that was different than Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ kept preaching the exact same gospel.

But he was in the city more. He was around the people more. He talked to them more. He was out and about with them. He would go to dinners. He had throngs of people following him because they wanted to hear what he had to say. He had a different personality. God never says that his personality was better, suited to what his purpose was and what his mission was going to be. But the two men had two different personalities and some might have thought, how can these two be related? How can they be doing the same work? They're so different. Let's go back to Luke 7. Because back in Luke 7 we find something that either John the Baptist or his disciples are questioning Jesus about Jesus Christ. They unask the question, are you the Messiah that we're looking for?

And it's an interesting conversation here, if you will, that Christ has with John's disciples. Because John absolutely knew that Jesus was the Messiah back at the time he came to be baptized. He saw him coming and he goes, this is the one. This is the appointed one. This is who we've been waiting for. Let's pick it up in Luke 7, verse 18. Leading up to these verses, Christ has risen some or has brought the son of a widow back to life here. And the verse is leading up to this. But in verse 18, with all these things that are going on that Jesus Christ is doing, some of the miracles that he's working and everything, it says, the disciples of John reported to him, John, concerning all these things. And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying, Are you the coming one? Or do we look for another? Now, either John had that question, or the disciples had the question, and John wants the answer. Let's just use this Christ answer this question. Because we're seeing something, and John, because we all are personalities, we all think, Oh, our personality is the best one. It's the most suited, right? I mean, this is the one that's most pleasing to us. That's kind of who we are. So John the Baptist and the silent. He should be like John the Baptist. Why isn't he out here? Why isn't he out here in the outside of Jerusalem? Why isn't he going to dinners and doing things like that? So, are you the coming one? Or do we look for another? When the men had come to Christ, they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, Are you the coming one? Or do we look for another? And then notice what Christ did. That very hour, He cured many of infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits. And to many blind, He gave sight. He didn't answer right away. What He did is go out and start doing things. Started healing people. Started restoring sight to the blind.

The lame could walk. And then He answered and it says, and He said to them, Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard, that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them. The inference being, John, what are these the works of? Would these be the works of the Messiah, or would these be the works of someone else? And then He follows it up with a sentence and He says, And blessed is he who is not offended because of me. What He's saying there is, Look at the works.

Look at what I'm doing. Then you tell me if I'm the Messiah or not. I might be different than you, John. I might be different than you, the disciples of John. I might be different than you.

Don't be offended because of me. Don't look at what I do. Don't look at how I say it. Don't look at my personality, whether it's extrovert or introvert. Don't look at me whether I'm quiet or very loud and make your determination on that. Base it on the works. Base it on the fruits. Base it on what you see. You make sure that you're following God and you know what those works are and what those works should be looking like. That is a very effective answer that Christ gave the disciples of John. Look at me, but don't be offended because of me. If I don't talk the way you want me to talk, if I don't respond in the way you...ah, respond isn't a good word. If I don't look or dress the way that you like, don't do that. Look at what I do. Here are the words that are said. Are they from God or are they Bible? Are they showing you the kingdom of God and preaching the kingdom or not? Then the messengers of John left and he starts asking the people, who are they out there? When you went out to see John, what were you looking to see? Were you just looking to see a spectacle? Were you just looking to see that he had nice clothes on? What were you going out there to do? And he said, no, you're just going out there to see a prophet. You heard what he was saying. You heard the words and you came out there and you were moved to be baptized and repent as he was preparing the way. Acting differently than I act. Dress differently than I dress. Speaking differently than I speak. Living differently than I do.

And then he gives him a tremendous compliment. Even though John the Baptist had a different personality and a different lifestyle, if you will, in the physical sense, certainly not in the spiritual sense. In verse 28, Christ says, I say to you, among those born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

Wow! There's not another prophet among the born of women who's greater than John the Baptist.

Different personality, but he did what God had wanted him to do.

Down in verse 33, Christ says, for John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine.

He was the opposite of me in that regard. He wasn't sitting down to dinner. He wasn't going out to dinner, even with the Jews, the high society of Jews. He wasn't doing any of those things. And yet there were some who said, he has a demon. Didn't like him. Didn't like what he was doing. And here's the son of man. He's different. He's come eating and drinking. He's willing to sit down and have dinner with you. He's willing to drink wine. He's willing to have a regular meal, not just wild locusts or locusts and wild honey. And yet there's some here who say, look, he's a glutton. He's a wine bibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

No one personality is going to please everyone, is it? No one personality is going to please everyone. And here are the two men of God that were leading up. Or as the New Testament began, John preparing the way in Jesus Christ who was the Messiah, living in human flesh, two different personalities. And yet there were people who disliked both of them. Yet God used both of them and used them very effectively. God knew what the personalities were. He knew exactly what John the Baptist was like. And yet he used it. Because God looks at things differently than we look.

We might look at it and say, that person's an extrovert. Well, he just tells good jokes. Boy, he's got this and he's got that. He must have the Holy Spirit. Well, the words might say, the words might be good. There's another one who might be quiet, who doesn't speak much at all.

And yet maybe his actions speak a little louder. Because as it says in 1 Samuel 16 verse 7, it's not, God doesn't look at the thing, the people the way we do. He doesn't look at the outward appearance or the outward words or whatever. He looks at the heart. He looks at the heart. And while John the Baptist and Jesus Christ were two totally different people, in terms of the physical personalities, if you will, they had the same heart.

They had the same heart, led by God's Holy Spirit and what they did and how they did that. So, same thing with the 12 apostles. They were different. We think of Peter, James, John. We think of Paul, who wasn't one of the original 12. But, you know, he was outspoken. We think of them because they're out there. But there's the other nine, eight that were there as well.

They were very effective. In fact, God says in Matthew 19, of those 12 apostles, well, the 11 and the 1, they will be all of them. Regardless of their personality, they will be kings over the 12 tribes of Israel. Not based on how loudly they spoke or how many jokes they could tell. Now, how much they were talking to the dinner parties, but where was their heart? What were they doing? All of them, he said, will be over the 10-12 tribes of Israel.

So, we look at the man Jesus Christ. You know, we're here in Luke, Luke. Let's look at Luke 6.

Luke 6 and verse 40. So, disciple, and you remember what disciple means. A disciple is not just a student. It's not like a student and teacher where we go to a college class and we listen to what the professor has to say and learn as we pass a test. A disciple is more than that. He listens to what the professor has to say and the teacher has to say, but he also studies the man because he wants to be like him.

You know, years ago, and some of us who were older, you'll remember that we would read autobiographies in school about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington and people that had character that we'd read about. And your teachers, you know, learned some of the traits of them. Later when I got into college, we would read books on Lee Iacocca and some of the other business leaders who were different than some of the leaders today, and you would learn their traits. How were they successful? What was it about them? Not just what they said. Who were they? Who were they? How did they handle themselves? And you could learn things about that. So, when we follow Jesus Christ, we follow what he says, we learn what he says, but we study him too because he was the perfect example of what God is looking for in us that he wants to develop. So it says, you know, in verse 40, the disciples are not above his teacher. We're always going to be below our teachers. Okay? That's just part of the order that it is. The disciples are not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. Ah! If we are perfectly trained, if we let God train us, if we let his Holy Spirit lead us and guide us, we're going to become like Jesus Christ. Maybe not exactly the same personality, maybe not as engaging in some areas, maybe more engaging in some areas, but we'll have the same heart, we'll have the same personality and character traits that really make a difference, the things that shine through when we look at a person and when we get past the surface.

Back in 1 John 3, it says that, you know, we're going to be like him.

When we're resurrected, we'll be like him. We'll recognize him because we've become like him. Over the course of our lives, God has molded us into who he wants us to be.

So we can look at the man, Jesus Christ, and ask the question, who was Jesus Christ as a person?

We know what he stood for. We know his spiritual, what he believed in. We know that he absolutely followed every principle of the Bible, was faithful, but what was he like as a person?

Because if we're going to study the man, we need to know something about him from the pages of the Bible. And what are the traits that he has that, regardless of our four-letter Myers-Briggs definition of who we are, that would be part of us.

Well, here, if we go here in Luke 7, let's go back to where we were, we see one of those things. And if we were going to go around the room, I would venture to say we'd have at least 50 different things that we could come up with and say, you know, this is what Jesus Christ was like. This is the type of person he was. And they'd all be right, and we could give scripture references to back those up. But here's one in chapter 7, verse 11. I referenced it already. Jesus Christ is coming out. He's in the city of Nain, and he sees a crowd in verse 11. And the crowd, what is happening, moves him. It says in verse 12, When he came near the gate to the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep. Now, it's always traumatic when you lose a child. Back in those days, you know, a widow had lost her husband, and then she lost the son, that she was a vulnerable, vulnerable type person. And this would be a big loss to her. And Jesus Christ sized up the situation and thought, this woman has had a great loss. And he didn't know her. He didn't, you know, never met her before. He had compassion on her. I see something there, and I want to help.

How can I help? And he helped in a way that no one expected that he would. He brought her son back to life. But he had compassion on her. Now, Jesus Christ, it's one of the hallmarks of him among the many other things, he had compassion. When he looked at a situation, whether he knew that person personally or not, he had compassion. He wanted to help. He wanted people to be joyous. He wanted people to be happy. He wanted people to have what they needed to have. You know, he came to earth.

He came to earth, lived as a mortal human being, died, because he had compassion on us, every human being. He wanted us to experience what God wants us to experience, why he created us, the potential that he put in us. Matthew 23, verse 37. You know, before he's arrested, and whatever, he looks at Jerusalem and he says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. All I wanted to do was gather you up as a hen would gather her chicks and take you under my wings. I just wanted you to have the truth. I just wanted you to grasp it. I just wanted you to experience it. I just wanted you to have it, but they would have none of him. They rejected him flat out. But he wanted them to have what God would offer, and he wanted that throughout his time as a human, even though people would jeer at him, even though people would, you know, wanted to kill him. He still wanted them to have what God would offer. Let's go back to Mark 3.

Mark 3. Now, we could come up with any number of examples of compassion that Jesus had, but here in Mark 3 we see another kind of compassion that he had, in that he wanted people to know the truth of God, and he wanted them to experience that. And he didn't come to make people do it. God doesn't force us into anything, but he offers it, and it's up to us to choose it or reject it.

Mark 3 and verse 1, it says, "...he entered the synagogue again..." This is after his disciples had been going through the fields, picked some grain, and they challenged on the Sabbath, you know, you're breaking the Sabbath. And it says, "...he entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand..." You can imagine what it would be like to go through like with a withered hand. "...so they watched Christ closely, whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him." They saw Jesus Christ see the man. And maybe they knew from past experiences, he's going to have compassion on this guy. He's watching him. He sees the need, and he can do something about it, and he'll have compassion on it. They weren't looking to see, with the right attitude, is he going to heal him? I hope he heals him. I hope he'll take the time to heal that withered hand. Now they're looking at him, saying, I hope he does it. I hope he does it so we can nail him, so we can take it to the high priest and tell him this is what he did on the Sabbath and that's not lawful. Kind of an awful attitude that they had there. And he said to the man who had a withered hand, step forward. And then he said to the crowd, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life, or to kill? They kept silent. They didn't want to answer that question. It would not convict them because, of course, we would do good if we can.

And when Christ had looked around at them with anger, because, you know, he knew their attitudes, he knew what they were doing, and he was angry, just that was we might be angry if we see an attitude when we're offering something. And we know that there's someone there who's just not receiving it, just not getting it. And you think, you know, just open your eyes, get off of whatever soapbox you're on, and look at things the way God looks at them. And we might be a little angry, you know, not that we're going to yell or anything like that, but he was looking at him with anger, but, you know, he wasn't yelling at him. And notice what it says, he was being grieved by the hardness of their hearts. They simply weren't going to listen. No matter what he did, they weren't going to listen. He was angry at that, but you know what? He was sad about that as well. Because there they had someone tremendous among them, among them, but they were just ignoring it.

They had already made their decision, and no matter what he did, they were going to ignore it and go on their way. And Christ healed them, and through the form they followed through with what they were going to do. They were going to do it their way. They went and they began to plot to see how they could how they could kill him. We could go down the live list, and we could talk about some other examples. We could talk about Jesus Christ being merciful.

We can talk about John 8, the woman who was caught in adultery, red-handed, if you will, and they were ready to stone her. And Jesus Christ could have come in and said, sorry, you were caught. The law says you're stoned to death. But he had mercy on the woman.

He had mercy on her. And he told her, go and sin no more. Probably a powerful lesson to her. He didn't want her to die. He wanted her to repent. His will was always that you would repent and get back on track with God and follow Him and find Him and let Him lead you.

He would tell us the same thing. Tell us the same thing as we deal with each other.

Be merciful. Don't condemn someone just because you see one thing.

Have the attitude that you want them to be restored. You want them to repent. You want them to get on with life. You want them to see like that woman did, the error of her way, and get back with God. So we can talk about mercy. If we go over to John 2, we can see a very interesting first miracle that Jesus Christ did and learn something about Him from that.

There they were in Cana, Galilee, and at a most unlikely occasion, but a joyous occasion, a wedding.

Weddings are always joyous occasions.

His mother, as you recall, saw that there was a problem. Here's this wedding party. Everyone is having a good time, but wow, they're going to run out of wine. That was an embarrassing thing to have happen in that day and age. She saw it and she thought, I don't want that to happen to this couple. I don't want that to ruin the wedding. I don't want them to run out and have this thing hanging over their head. What can I do? So she goes to Jesus Christ in verse 3 and she says, they have no wine. Christ responded to her. This is a respectful thing. Not one teenager or child in here should go home to your mom and say, woman. In that day and age, what he would say, when you read the commentaries, is that you are the woman. It was a respectful thing that he said. Woman, what does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. What do you want me to do about it? He was saying, it's not time yet. It's not time for me to start doing miracles. It's still early in my ministry. But his mother went to the servants and said, whatever he told you to do, do it. And then those six water pots were all filled with wine. It was better wine than they had originally. Now, we can learn a lot about Jesus Christ and his heart from that.

Now, he could have said, he could have left it as what he told her.

It's not yet time for me to start doing miracles. They should have thought ahead. It's not my wedding. We weren't responsible for planning it. Oh, well, they'll learn a lesson. The next time, they'll think a little harder about what they do. And no one could have said anything, but he saw a need. You see his heart. Okay. Oh, my mom wants me to do this. I'm going to do that. I'm going to follow through. I'm going to do what she has to say, and I'm going to help this people because I can help them. And Mary knew he could help. And he did it. It wasn't a great miracle of healing. It wasn't healing the withered hand or raising someone from the dead. But it talked a lot about his heart and who he was. And that was all part of his personality. Part of what made the crowds want to follow him, the people to come and listen to him. And part of what we read about him, who he is. He had respect. He was always thinking of others and what the effect it would be on them.

I wasn't taking his own comfort or position or anything else into consideration.

The disciples learned a lot about Jesus Christ and those things. They learned a lot about Jesus Christ back in Matthew 18 as well when there were people wanting to bring their children to him.

I want to bring my children to you. I just want you to touch them. I just want you to bless them. The disciples said, he doesn't have time for those children. And Christ said, yes, I do.

For as such as the kingdom of God, bring the little children to me.

I enjoy them. They are part of the family as well, just like we enjoy the family and the children in church. And they're very important to us, just like the children were very important to God and Jesus Christ. And we learned he has a heart for that. For everyone, not just those that could further his mission or just those that could do whatever they could do for him. But everyone, everyone, regardless of age, regardless of background, he ever was a respecter of persons. Part of what got him in trouble with the Pharisees is that he would sit down with anyone if they wanted to sit down. He would talk with sinners. When you didn't talk with sinners, if you were a Jew in good standing, he would talk with tax collectors. He would talk with the Samaritans, as he did with the Samaritan women. He had no bias. He had none of that. He was not a respecter of persons. And the people who encountered him from afar recognized that. This man has no bias. He has no respect for person, regardless of their socioeconomic status, regardless of their background, regardless of anything. He loves them all, and he would do anything to help them all. It was part of who he was, part of who he was, part of who his heart was.

He wasn't ashamed of the truth. His truth was different than the religious leaders of the day. He challenged them on many things, but he was very willing to speak up and speak it with authority and take the grief that they were going to give him back. But he wasn't going to compromise, and he wasn't going to lay down and change anything. He was going to follow exactly what they, what God said, and what was there in the scriptures.

He also accepted the fact that not everyone was going to like him.

That can be a tough thing. All of us want everyone to like us, and not everyone's going to like us.

Makes no difference. We like everyone in church, right? There are some people we get along with better than others and whatever. We get along with everyone is what God wants us to do, but we love everyone. Jesus Christ knew among these people some are going to like me and some are not, and he was right. They put him to death. They really didn't like him, even though he had all these traits and everything. Because that was his mission, and that was what he did, and that was how he lived and how he came. It was part of who he was.

And when we study Jesus Christ, we study who he was as a person because we are to become like him.

Like him. Maybe not introvert or extrovert exactly as he was. Maybe not those other initials in Briar 6 exactly as he was, but you know we have the same heart. We have the same personality, so whether we're the loudest one in the room or the quietest one in the room, people see.

People see, oh that's who you are. That's who you are. You know when they would look at Jesus Christ, and as we look at Jesus Christ, we would say, who is he? How can we describe Jesus Christ?

The Bible does it for us. Back in 1 John 4. 1 John 4, verse 8.

1 John 4, verse 8. Everything we've talked about up to now, the things we'll talk about from here on out, are all in the one description, the one line that defines Jesus Christ and God the Father.

1 John 4, verse 8. He who does not love, that's the Greek word agape, that's not the marital love, that's not the brotherly love, that's not the friendship love, that's the agape love, the choice that we make, the love that God has, that Jesus Christ had when he gave his life for us. He who does not love, does not know God, for God is love. God is love.

Summs it all up. That's who he is. And we know that God the Father and Jesus Christ are two beings, but they're one, they're exactly alike. Jesus Christ is love.

Wouldn't it be nice if we just had a list of what are the things that Jesus Christ was like?

That we could kind of look at ourselves and what we could learn about him and look at ourselves and say, that's where I need to be. That's who I need to become. That's what needs to define me. Somewhere down the road, God wants to look at me and he wants to look at you and say, your name is love. And he spent his lifetime, in her lifetime, becoming love, becoming the way Jesus Christ was. And when he was a human, and still is.

Well, there's a place. There's a place in the Bible that we can get a list, a partial list, because we could come up, as I said, with 50, 100, I don't know. If we all went around the road and took the most obscure thing that we say, when we think about Jesus Christ, or that we could, that we said, that would fall in, it would all fall into this thing of love. And that place we can find is back in 1 Corinthians 13.

1 Corinthians 13. Chapter, we all know very well.

I just want to look at four verses of 1 Corinthians 13 here, for the remainder of the sermon.

And as we look at it, look at it a little bit differently than maybe we have in the past.

Now, you might remember from grade school, maybe it was middle school, in math you remember the commutative property, and it would say, if A equals B and B equals C, then A equals C.

Right? That's kind of one of the things we do. And so, we know that God is love. God equals love. Jesus Christ equals love. And so, here in four verses in 1 Corinthians 13, we see what love is. Love equals this. Love equals this. Love equals this. So, we can look at those verses and we can say, oh, in verse 4, for instance, love suffers long and is kind. There's two traits right there. Two things that define love. Now, we can read love, but maybe today let's look at Jesus Christ, who is love. Jesus Christ suffers long and is kind. Or, if you want to use the past tense, when he was a human, Jesus Christ suffered long and was kind. Because he was. And we can look at those verses and you can come up with the examples in the Bible and say, you know, he did suffer long.

He was patient. He was patient with the disciples. They didn't get it. How many times did he repeat things to him and they just didn't get it? He didn't yell at him. He didn't scream at him.

He didn't say, if you don't get it, I'm going to replace you with someone else. He said, you know, I'm patient with you. And he did that. He did suffer long with them.

But, you know, when you look at that trait, it wasn't that his patience was endless.

And I were patient with our children.

But our patience isn't endless. There was a time when Jesus Christ hammered the Pharisees. He was patient with them for most of his ministry. But back in Matthew 23, there was a time the patience ended. You've heard enough. You've seen enough. You should know better.

Boom! You're hypocrites. You're hypocrites. He would say over and over again to them. There's a time when patience ends because it's good for the other person to really know what's going on. And if they're just not getting it, and if patience isn't having the effect that it is supposed to have, to give them time to learn, to change, to become who they need to be, to repent, to turn back to God, then something has to be done. Jesus Christ showed that. Paul showed that in his letters. Jesus Christ was patient.

I want to take one more step. Now I want you to think about that verse and put your name in it.

Put your name in there. And I can ask myself, am I patient? Do I suffer long? Where am I on that scale? Jesus Christ suffered long. Do I suffer long? Because if I'm going to become like him, I need to do that. Jesus Christ was kind. You know, that word kind is the only time in the New Testament that that particular Greek word is used. And it means act benevolent.

Act benevolently. He was gentle. He was respectful to people when they spoke to him. He didn't have a sharp answer. He listened to what they had to say. He kind of looked at what their needs were. I mean, even the lady that we read about in the city of Nain, he looked and sized up the situation.

And he was kind to her. He didn't even know her. He just raised her son and gave her back.

He was kind. You've known people in your life who are kind. Others, you might say, may put you off a little bit. You may sense that they want nothing to do with you, or you may sense that they always have a sharp answer and whatever it is. That's not who Jesus Christ was. He was kind. When God looks at us, He wants us to become that way. You know, it tells us something about love, too, something that we know about Jesus Christ, because we know that Jesus Christ was very humble. Right?

Of all the men who lived on earth, He had more reason to talk about or think about Himself really highly. I was the Son of God. He could have run around thinking. Who are these people? Don't they understand that they should be so happy to have Me in their midst? It grieved Him that they didn't get it. But He never looked at life that way. He looked at Himself as equal or that they were more important to them because He was there to serve them. He loved them in the sense of the word of Agape. He served them. He was there to do whatever they needed to do so that they could be where God the Father and He wanted them to be. And if we're not humble, we're not going to be kind.

Because if we think that someone is beneath us or that we're above someone, you know, you see it in work all the time. I'm sure kids see it in school. Someone thinks they're above you. You know, you're not even worth my time. You're not even worth my time. Just go somewhere else and do something else. Right? That's not kind. Jesus Christ never did that. He didn't just, He just didn't diss the Samaritan woman at the well. He didn't diss the people who wanted to have dinner with them, the sinners, the tax collectors, the harlots. He was kind to them.

He was different than the other people of the day. The other religious leaders of the day, the scribes even, and everyone in that religion, they wouldn't even talk to people. He was kind.

Jesus Christ was kind. Love is kind. Question for us? Where are we on that? Are we kind?

And do we have what love takes as it in order to have agape love, we've got to be humble and esteem each other more highly than ourselves. Otherwise, we're never going to reach that trait.

With everyone, regardless of what their station in life is, or whatever socioeconomic status, or whatever else you want to say, He was kind to them all because they were all, in His mind, potentially God's children. And that's the way we need to become as we look at each other, potentially God's children. Now, for baptized, we already have the down payment of being His sons and daughters, right? We have the Holy Spirit. It's up to us. God's already given that to us if we've repented and been baptized and received the Holy Spirit. It's up to us by the choices we make to continue down that road and endure to the end, or by the choices we make, we forfeit it. God wants us to continue, of course.

Going on in verse 4 there. Love does not envy. Jesus Christ did not envy.

You know what envy is? Jesus Christ wasn't interested. He could have looked at Caiaphas and said, you know, buddy, I'm the one who's going to be the high priest here.

That's the position that I should be in. They didn't look at Caiaphas or any of the other priests of that day and say, that's where I should be. And yet, He had the right to all of us. He was the Son of God. He was the Messiah. But He wasn't envying any position. He wasn't envying anything, any station in life. He was just there to do what God had called Him to do.

Yeah, interestingly, or ironically, if you will, it was envy that killed Jesus Christ.

Because the chief priests, the Caiaphas of the world, the Sanhedrin, they had the position. They had the titles. But they didn't have, as they looked at Jesus Christ, who never once said, never tried to gather a following after Himself, never went into the synagogue and said, follow me, never talked down about the leaders of that day. He just spoke the truth.

Interestingly, it was envy that killed Him. They had the titles and positions, but they were jealous of Him because they saw something in Him that they didn't have. They had the heart. The people were responding to Him. He was a different type of person, a person that they wanted to emulate, a person that was approachable, a person that was easy to talk to, that didn't have a condemning look in their eye, which was what they were used to when they talked to the high priests. Of those days, how many steps did you walk on the Sabbath, they might ask? How much weight did you carry on the Sabbath?

Just the way that they did Jesus Christ and watched every move He made.

Jesus Christ did not envy. Love doesn't envy.

As we look at ourselves, can we put our name in there and say, do I envy? Because someday God wants to say, your name does not envy. So it's not envy. There's no part of Him. He's willing to do whatever I ask Him to do and isn't concerned about what title, position, seat in the synagogue or anything else like that.

And that's what true love is. Agape love. Going on to verse 4, love does not parade itself. One translation puts it, love does not boast.

And boast is a good way to translate it because the word there, parade itself, literally means love is not a braggart. In plain language, look it up. That's what it says, love is not a braggart. Jesus Christ, look at all the miracles that He did. Raising people from the dead, healing the withered hand, feeding 5,000, 4,000, turning water into wine, healing lepers who couldn't be healed any other way.

And you know what? He didn't go around patting himself on the back and making sure everyone knew what he had done. In fact, He told many of those people, don't tell anyone what happened.

Just go glorify God. Because when we intrude Gappe, we don't need to elevate ourselves or do those things. We are humble and just happy to do what God wants us to do.

Jesus Christ never did any of that, nor do you see His apostles doing that. Love does not parade itself. Love does not boast. Jesus Christ did not parade Himself. Jesus Christ does not boast. Can we put our name in there? Will God one day say about us, He doesn't boast. She doesn't boast. She or He equal love, just like Jesus Christ, equal love.

Love versus sport does not puffed up. Paul, in contrast, I didn't mention, but that word braggart is the only time it's used in the New Testament as well, parade itself. But puffed up is used a number of times. Paul uses it a lot in 1 Corinthians, because that church over there had become puffed up. They really thought that they had the inside corner on how to do things and what to do things. They, of course, were the Greek mindset. We're the preeminent thinkers. We're the ones who have changed the world. They did do a number of those things, and they did them very well.

Paul had to say, you're puffed up. You're doing things that you shouldn't be doing.

He says here, love is not puffed up. Now, you might think, isn't that the same thing as being a braggart? No, because you can be puffed up without boasting about what you do.

Sometimes, it seems like they would go hand in hand, but sometimes you can just tell by looking at someone's face and how their demeanor. There's pride there. We live in a society.

I read some of these things, and we live in a society here where I read about boasting and pride, and we see it on display a lot if we watch the news. We see a lot of braggadocio patting ourselves on the back. We see pride, and part of the problem is people don't like.

They don't really like the puffed up stance. It causes problems. If you work with someone, I remember, well, people that you work with, and they come in, and you can just tell. They've had a good career. You can't really say that, but they're just really full of themselves. You know what? It's always problems, it seems, when pride enters in. There isn't the accord. There isn't the team spirit. It becomes all about this and the violence to consternation. If we don't watch it, and the society that we live in today, it can become part of us as well. God says, guard against that. Love does not equal pride. Love does not equal puffed up. Jesus Christ was not puffed up, and he had every reason to be. More than any other human being who has ever lived, if he wanted to do it, who could do it? Satan, on the other hand, was very puffed up.

Jesus Christ wasn't puffed up. Love isn't puffed up. Can I put my name in there and say, am I not puffed up? Because God wants to say, one day, he or she is not puffed up.

And that's what God wants us to become. He's giving us the definition of who we want us to be here and who Jesus Christ was. Verse 5, love does not behave rudely. Jesus Christ did not behave rudely. Now, we know what rudely means, and that's a good translation of what the Greek word is there. If Jesus Christ behaved rudely, people wouldn't have been wanting to have him over to dinner. They would have thought, you know, we'll go listen to him. We don't really want to, you know, we don't really want to associate with him. And yet, when you read, as he would walk through the streets, there were people clinging to him. Wherever he went, crowds would follow him.

Part of being kind, part of treating them with respect, part of not having any kind of bias toward them at all. He didn't behave rudely. He didn't have the sharp, smart answer.

He did. He had the social graces. When he went to a dinner, he knew how to sit down and behave himself. He learned how to engage in some of the social graces. So he was a popular dinner guest.

Now, this year in the Teen Bible Studies, I think we'll talk about some of those social graces and what it means to be a gentleman and a lady. Some things that we just don't talk about much in society anymore that our young people can learn from because Jesus Christ certainly had those as part of his acumen. When people saw him, they thought, what a nice guy! He sat down, he spoke with us, and he might have been an extrovert, he might have been an introvert. Some of us are extroverts, some of us are introverts.

Some of us are feeling people versus what the—I forget now what the other offset of that in Myers-Briggs is. It makes no difference because God's given us our personalities and we can all have the heart. We can all develop those things and, you know, we have to work on those things. In an age of not media, but technology, it's so easy to just not engage in anything anymore. Just text and Facebook and whatever, and you lose a lot of opportunity in the development of being able to converse and to hold your own at some of these things. Thought locks are a good opportunity for us to engage in some of those things, get to know each other, and practice some of the things that we talk about, and to appreciate the variety that God has put among us. But he wasn't rude. He wasn't rude. People didn't look at him and say, you know, I don't know what he's going to say, I don't know what he's going to do.

When he was coming to dinner, they were thrilled. They were thrilled.

Jesus Christ, if we go on to verse 5, did not seek his own. Love does not seek its own.

That goes without saying, right? If he sought his own, he wouldn't have died for us.

At that last night, when the people came to arrest him, and he made the comments to the apostles, you know, don't you know that I could just call the 12 legions of angels would come down here and do it? That's what he would have done if he was seeking his own. But he was seeking the things for us. He was seeking our future. He was seeking what was best for us at his expense, at his pain. Jesus Christ did not seek his own. Love does not seek his own, its own.

You know, years ago, many, many years ago, I read a book called Fire in the Belly, and it was about, it wasn't written by the church, but the author did have some religious background. And it's a pretty good book. It was on how to become a man, I guess is a good way to put it.

And it talks about the type of things you could do and about every aspect of life that a man has to do. But one of the things that I remember, a couple things I remember, one thing that I remember and carried with me for now at least 30 or 35 years is there's a part in the book where he said that, you know, he had a sign on his mirror that he saw every day when he woke up that said, I'm third. I'm third. And his point was, God is first. Whatever we do, we put God first above everything else. If his will says it, we do it. Everything else comes second, we do what God's will is first. And second is the needs of others. If someone else has a need, you do that next. You do what God says first, but you take care of others next. And if you see a need, take care of it.

And you're third. After God's will is done and you've done his will, and as you've done and seen opportunities to serve others, then you take care of your needs. But you put yourself down the list.

Well, that's kind of humble too, isn't it? That's kind of kind in Jesus Christ, you know.

He wasn't looking for his own. He wasn't looking to see what he could get out of life.

He was looking to see what he could give us and how we could make our life, our eternal lives, better. Going on to verse 5, love is not provoked. Love is not provoked.

It can be translated, not easily angered. You know, sometimes we can be easily angered. We're all human. I can get easily angered about some things, more at home than in public, as my wife would tell you, but I'm working on it.

Jesus Christ wasn't easily angered. He did get angry because there is a time to be angry, and there is righteous indignation, right? I mean, when the money changers, when he was there, he got angry because what he saw was they were in affront to God the Father. They were in affront to the temple of God where God dwelt, and he got angry, and he went in there like a bull in a china shop, and he threw over those tables. Nothing wrong with that, and there's times where we get angry to make a point. We stand for God. We do what God wants us to do, and don't offend me by the way that you are treating God, is what Jesus Christ was saying there. But it wasn't easily angered. He didn't get angry with people. He did have to correct them from time to time. He did have to say, you know, Peter, this is not the way to look at this. You know James and John, your mother, this isn't exactly the way that I need you to be. You know Paul, who had to learn some lessons too, that you know, you have to kind of be what the people need you to be. You can't come in exactly the way you want to be. You've got to be come. But God wants you to become first, but what others need you to be as well. But he never got angry with him. Didn't read him the riot act.

Just pointed out to him. But there's a time in the time where it is appropriate to get angry. Can't be not easily angered for a long time. There comes a point where the point needs to be made.

Love, going on in verse 5, love thinks no evil. Jesus Christ thought no evil.

Could save ourselves. Do we think evil?

One translation puts it, love keeps no record of wrongs. No record of wrongs.

If God kept a record of all of our wrongs, we would never make any headway at all, would we?

We would always be constantly being reminded, you know, back in 1988 you did this and it went on for two years and you did this and whatever in your childhood. When God, when we repent and he forgives, he doesn't hold us accountable for that anymore. He forgets it. We might have to remember and remind ourselves when we see ourselves going down a path, oh, a path, oh, that's how I used to be. I've got that predilection. I sometimes will go there and I need to correct that and not go back to the way I was because I left that life behind. I buried it. But God doesn't keep a record of wrongs, but sometimes we might keep a record of wrongs, right? We might remember something that someone did five years ago and say, you know, forever and ever and ever, you know, I'm going to remember forever they did that. I don't think anyone, I don't know anyone that is doing that, but we might. And, you know, you hear the story sometimes. No one in the church at all, but, you know, one of the jokes is that, you know, sorry about this, ladies, but wives can bring up something from 10 years ago, right? Or 20 years ago or something you may not even remember.

You know, love keeps no record of wrongs. If it's been repented and changed and you change, you know what? That's it. If you get the message, if you turn back to God, that's what He's interested in. Repent, forgive, and reconciliation is the next, the next step in forgiving. But it takes two, takes two, and if two are having love written to them, if they're writing the script that love is, you know, it'll happen. If they're not writing that script, may not, may not.

You know, also no record of, well, now let's go on here.

Verse 6, love does not rejoice in iniquity. Jesus Christ did not rejoice in iniquity.

Ask ourselves, or know that somewhere down the road, God's going to have to look at you and me and say, He or she does not rejoice in iniquity. That doesn't mean to rejoice in iniquity. We know Jesus Christ wouldn't rejoice in iniquity because He knew that was the thing that would separate us from God. He came to pay the price for the iniquity that we've done. So we can rejoice in iniquity, right? Someone does us wrong and we can kind of develop this fantasy about, oh, you know, how, how, what would happen if this would happen to them? If this could happen, wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't that be great if this person who offended me or sinned against me or somehow angered me or whatever? Wouldn't that be great if this would happen to them? We can find ourselves fascinated with these things. Not a right thing to do. Again, I look at our media and our news, you know, it's a lot of rejoicing and iniquity these days. I look at some of the things that are there and there's not all facts that are reported. There's a lot of rejoicing and iniquity. Wow, here's my opinion. If this could happen, wouldn't that be wonderful? Wouldn't that be wonderful if that would just be the case?

We could find ourselves doing the same type thing with spouses, children, each other, more co-workers, neighbors. Oh, if only this would happen. Oh, you know what? They said something. I'll bet that's what they mean. Don't rejoice in iniquity. Rejoice in the truth. Love rejoices in the truth. Find the truth. See, if you hear something and it doesn't sound right, and we know we have God's Spirit, we have the words of the Bible, find out what is the truth.

We don't take everything we listen to on TV and take the opinion. We don't read everything on the Internet and say, that's fact. Sometimes you need to go back and go to the source and say, is this true? What was really said here? What was really the case here?

Find the truth. Don't rejoice in iniquity. Rejoice in the truth. And if there is iniquity involved, as Christ says in Matthew 18, 15, take it to your brother. Take it to him or her. Talk it out.

And if you're both of the Holy Spirit, you'll be reconciled. You will have one your brother. That's what Jesus Christ wants. He knew that in life we are going to have personalities that interfere. We're going to do things. None of us are perfect. The only Jesus Christ was the only perfect person who has ever lived. Take it to him. Find the truth. Ask the question. Don't just run off on it. Run off on a thing and imagine this or imagine that. Find out what it is. And if it's wrong, get the parties involved and fix it. And if God's Spirit is there, it will be fixed. And the reconciliation will occur, which is what Jesus Christ wants. He didn't harbor iniquity.

He didn't rejoice in iniquity. He rejoiced in the truth. He didn't impugn motives. He found out what those motives were. He looked at the heart and he asked the questions and worked in things that way.

Verse 7, Love bears all things. Jesus Christ bears all things.

One day, God is going to look at you and say, so and so, bears all things.

In the course of his lifetime, he's developed that. He bears all things. If we're doing what God wants, he will say that one day about us.

The literal translation of bears all things is covers with silence. Covers with silence.

An interesting translation then bears all things. It means that you cover with people that you know what to say and know what not to say. That if you know something about someone, you're there to protect them, if you will. You might have to talk to some people about some things, but you're not running around gossiping about every weakness that everyone that you hear about.

Some things need to be known. Some things need to be addressed.

But most things we protect the people, just like Jesus Christ protected the people.

He didn't go around and announce to the crowd of 5,000, you know, the things that Peter said, the things that James and John's mother said.

But I suppose if anyone asked, he would have told them, bear all things. Cover it with silence. You don't have to bear everything about yourself to every single person. And we certainly don't go around and tell every single person every single thing that goes on. If there's an issue, it should be between the person and the ones that are involved always with the, always with the objective that we all end up reconciled and looking for the Kingdom and having our behavior, attitudes, actions, the whole nine yards in line with what God wants us to be, wants us to become.

Love believes all things.

Love believes all things. Jesus Christ believed all things. It doesn't mean He believed everything that everyone told Him, but He believed everything that God the Father said. He believed the plan of God. Love believes all things in that regard. I'm not going to tell you that you need to believe everything that everyone tells you. That would not be wise, right? But if we're doing the rest of it, if we're seeking the truth, if we're looking for the truth, if we're rejoicing in truth, Jesus Christ believed all things. You know, the story is we believe God and it changes who we are, the way we behave, the way we act, the way we react, the way we think, the way we respond in situations, the way we conduct our lives. Love always hopes.

Of course, in verse 13, he talks about the things that lead to love. Faith is a basis. You've got to have faith in order to ever have agape love. You've got to hope.

Hope in the kingdom, hope in the salvation of Jesus Christ. As we do those things and as God works with us, the fruit of the spirit, love, will be there with all these elements we've talked about today. But you know, Jesus Christ, the sense of the word here is more optimistic.

When he would see someone and he would work with them, he hoped. He really wanted them to be back where he wanted them to be. He wanted them to change. He wanted them to see what it was that they were doing. He wasn't willing. No, he said, God said, I'm not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and receive eternal life.

That's what he wanted. So he always hoped that. He was always optimistic. When they know this, when I tell this to them, or when I do this, or when they read in the Bible, or when I open their minds so that they'll do what I have to say, that's what he wanted. That's what grieved him back in Mark 3 verse 5. They just wouldn't do it. They wouldn't let go of their hardened hearts. They had their minds set up or their minds set, and they weren't going to let go of it. But Jesus Christ always hoped we should always be optimistic. We should always hope and pray for each other and vary into the in our heart. Want each other to be in the kingdom and realize that as a family, that God has put us in together, that we work together with one another. We learn one another and that we are all helping one another to become what God would want us to become as he leaves us.

Love endures all things. Jesus Christ endured all things, even to the very death.

Love just patiently goes through it. It keeps its eyes on the goal. Love endures all things. Jesus Christ endured all things.

We have to commit as God strengthens us to endure all things. Love never fails.

Jesus Christ didn't fail. He will never fail. The little translation is, it won't fall off. It won't fall away. Love will never fall away. If people fall away, they never had agape love. They weren't developing it. They didn't get it. They don't run. They run to God, but they don't fall. They may fall momentarily, but they get up and they get back with God. Love survives everything, is what one translation says. Love survives everything.

We could go on. There's other verses here, but those are what, 14 or 15 traits of love. We've talked about some others that Jesus Christ was. When we think about Jesus Christ and we study Him, we can say, oh, that's who He was. That's what He was like as a person.

That's what He wants to say about us as well. Whether we're introvert or extrovert, or the J or P, or the N or S, those letters in Meyersburg, whatever we are, He called us. He'll use us. It doesn't matter. Those things do use the personality, develop the heart, let God say one day, He is love. She is love. And you know what? Every single one of us can do it.

Every single one of us can do it if we yield to God's Spirit, if we follow it, and if we follow the principles, study the man of Jesus Christ, and ask God to help us to become like Him.