What Kind of a Person Was Jesus?

You know, variety, they say, is the spice of life. And God certainly built a lot of variety into our lives. You know, as we look around the world that we live in, it would be a pretty dull place if all we had was one type of tree that was everywhere. But there's a variety of things that we can look at and enjoy, the various colors of leaves, the various sizes of trees. Some are evergreen, some lose their leaves in the winter. You know, same thing with the flowers, the variety of flowers, the different smells that flowers have are kind of amazing that God took all that time, you know, just to beautify the world with the variety that He did.

We can look at the animals, you know, some animals, you know, we eat. Others, we don't eat. They're for other purposes. But God made a variety of those so that it's not just beef or not just chicken or not just one type of fish that we're eating, but a whole variety of things. Even when you look up in the sky, you know, God had just one moon up there or just the sun. That would be enough because the sky is beautiful. But when you take the time and lay down and look at the sky, especially at night, and you see the moon up there, you see the stars, and you realize there's billions of stars up there.

And they're all different sizes, different brightnesses, different... they're different. Some people say, or websites will say, no two stars or alike. I don't know how we know that exactly, but knowing God, everything is intricate, and He has a design for everything. But everywhere we look, you know, God built in variety, and we learn from all those varieties. We learn from a lot of things about God when we look at creation. We learn a lot about the earth that we live in when we look at all those things. But you know, God also made a lot of varieties of people as well.

You know, not all of us are the same. He's made people of different races, people of different sizes, gave different abilities to everyone. The abilities you have may be different than the abilities I have. Vice versa, not all of us are a carbon copy of each other, even in the spiritual gifts that He gives us. He doesn't give us all exactly the same gifts. He gives us the same Holy Spirit. But there's a variety of people, too. Now, we could have said, everyone I call into my work will be exactly the same.

But that would be kind of dull, wouldn't it? If every person you met was just like you, what would you learn? You know exactly what to do, right? You know exactly how to talk to them because, you know, whatever interests me interests them. Whatever affects me negatively in one way affects them negatively in one way. But for the variety of people and the variety of the backgrounds we have as well, you know, we learn a lot about each other. And each person has their own personality. You know, some are extroverts and they're the life of the party.

Wherever they go, that's the ones who's cracking the jokes and people are just drawn to them. Others are more introspective and they're a little bit more reserved. You know, there's probably most of you somewhere in your life who have taken one of the Myers-Briggs personality tests. And you remember, maybe if you've done that before initials, you're an INFJ or an INSJ, INSP, whatever those initials are. They all stand for something. And as you answered that questionnaire, you kind of learned something about yourself as well. You know, I'm more introspective.

I'm more perceptive. I feel things more than I understand things. And I don't understand, but feel. I'm trying to remember what the other part of that one is. But all those different things, because we're all made differently, doesn't mean that the one, one, you know, one four-letter Myers-Briggs is better than another. They're all good. God made us all. And sometimes people will try to peg a personality and say, ah, that's the best one, and usually it's the one they've got, right?

This is the personality that we should have. And you know, that isn't what God made. If He wanted us all to have the same personality, then everyone would have the same personality. But He did that because we learned from each other and we learned how to work with each other. And we learn a lot as we work with different types of people.

But God did want us to, God did want us to well learn those things. There are things that He wanted us to understand as well. You know, if you look even in the New Testament and you look at the apostles that God called to work with Jesus Christ, and then to start up the New Testament church, they all had different personalities.

Now, some of them we know their names, right? Peter. Peter is one of those outspoken ones. He was there. James and John, the sons of thunder, they were called. And sometimes we see them in the Bible. They seem to be prominent in a way because they're always saying something. But at the same time, we see that Christ would have to correct them from time to time. Because that personality sometimes can just have a way of what people and He had to say, Peter, stop.

You know, sometimes He said some harsh words to him like, get behind me, Satan. Or get me, you know, like Peter, you know what you're doing. And Peter, to his credit, learned. He's not dissing me. He's not trying to upset me. He's letting me know I've got to change. That personality has to be molded into who God wants. There's other apostles like Andrew and Matthias and, you know, that we don't read much about. They would have had more probably some of the people who have analyzed the Scripture or the Scriptures and the personalities.

They have the more calm personalities, not the ones that are there. But you don't see Christ saying anything, you know, to them. They would have just gone about their work and done what they needed to do. And, you know, but they were all important. God deliberately called all different personalities. And, you know, in Matthew, I think it's Matthew 19, it says all those twelve apostles, the outspoken ones, the extroverts, the introverts, whatever personality they had, He says they'll be kings over the twelve tribes in Israel.

Didn't say just this type is going to be a king in over that. All twelve are going to have that. And yet they had different personalities. Now, we look at even Jesus Christ as a person. And John the Baptist who prepared the way for Jesus Christ, they were just six months apart in their ages. And yet we see that they were two totally different personalities. Two totally different personalities. John was out preaching a gospel of repentance. And yet we're told in Matthew 3 that he would dress in camel hair and he'll eat locusts and wild honey. Now, nowhere in the Bible does it tell us what Christ wore or what He ate.

So someone tells me, you know, if someone comes in and they say, you know what, this person dresses differently. You notice that if it's different, right, if it's in line with everyone else, no one says, well, you'll know that person because he dresses in camel hair. Now, if someone came in today in camel hair, we would probably notice it because that would be different than the rest of us. So if the Bible says it, it may be well be that, you know, John was different. You know, he had a personality different than the mainstream of the day.

And he spent his time out on the outskirts of Judea baptizing people, doing the work that God called them to do. Jesus Christ, on the other hand, looked and acted more like the people of Judea. He just kind of fit into the crowd, so much so that when they were trying to arrest Him, they had to have Judas come and kiss Him. They wouldn't have had that, you know, they wouldn't have had to have that happen with John the Baptist because they would have known Him immediately.

Look for the guy that does this. Look what he's eating. Look what he's wearing. He's different. And Jesus Christ had a different personality that even confused John a little bit. So let's go back to Luke 7. Luke 7, because, you know, John was one way. He was doing exactly what God had done. The personality he had perfectly fit what God wanted him to do. But when Christ came, and when He was also preaching the gospel of repentance and preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, He handled things differently.

They were both doing God's work, but they had two different personalities. Let's look at verse 18 here in Luke 7. Now, leading up to verse 18, Christ has done some things. He's hiding some people. In fact, He's just brought back to life the son of a widow here in Nain. And in verse 18 in Luke 7, it says, The disciples of John reported to Him concerning all these things. This is what Jesus Christ...

Remember when He saw Christ coming to be baptized? He knew He was the Messiah. But they reported back to Him saying, look at what He's doing, you know? And John, calling to His disciples, to Him, sent them to Jesus, saying, Are you the coming one, or do we look for another?

Are you the Messiah? Now, that's a strange question to ask when He was so sure at the time He came to be baptized, that He knew it. He knew it from God. This is the Messiah. But now He's like, are you Him or not? It wouldn't be because of the message that He preached. But He was different than John. And John probably thought, well, the Messiah should be just like me. He should be doing things exactly the way I am. But He's not. He's not. He's in Jerusalem. He's in Maine.

He's in Capernaum. He's in the cities. He's among these people. He's not sitting up on the outskirts. He's not doing the things. In fact, Jesus wasn't even baptized. His disciples were baptized. But, you know, He was preaching the gospel.

It was different than John. And that might have confused Him for just a moment. And notice when they asked the question, in verse 21, it says, "...and at very hour Christ cheered many infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits, and to many blind He gave sight." He heard the question. And then at very hour He went out and He performed miracles. Healed sicknesses, gave sight to the blind, did these things that were good for people. That only God could do. Only the miracles that He could do. And so Jesus answered and said to them after that, "...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.

And blessed is He who is not offended because of me." Now, that's an interesting comment that Christ ends that discourse with. He says, John, look at the signs of the kingdom. The blind see, the deaf hear, the sick are healed. Even the dead are raised in the widow of Nain who had just in the few verses before. Those are acts of the kingdom. Those are acts of the kingdom. Look at what the acts are. Look at what the fruit of it is. And blessed is He who is not offended because of me.

Who can look at the hearts, who can look at the things that are done, but not be offended and doubt because I'm different than what you might have thought. I have a different personality than you might have thought. I enjoy going to dinner with people. John may not have enjoyed that. I talk to people that others call sinners. John may not have done that. Don't be offended because of me.

Don't be offended because I'm different than you. Look at the works. Listen to the message. Look at the heart. Don't look at the person and say, I don't like that personality. I don't like the fact that he does that. That's different than what I expected. Look at the message. It's what he's saying. And then he asks them, you know, the ensuing verses here, What did you go out when you went out to see John? What did you expect to see? Were you just looking for someone dressed in soft clothes?

No, but you went out to see a prophet. And Christ gives him, gives John a tremendous compliment in verse 28. He says, For I say to you, among those born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. He may dress differently than you.

He may eat differently than you. He may have a personality different than me or you. But there isn't a greater prophet that has been born to women. Isn't that a tremendous thing for Christ to say of him? And yet they were totally different personalities with God was working with both of them, or with John the Baptist, and Christ, of course, was the Messiah.

Down in verse 33, Christ, as he's drawing this comparison again, says, For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine. He wasn't the socialite. He wasn't the guy you were going to see in the streets in Jerusalem that was going to invite you to dinner or take you to dinner or even want to go to dinner with you. He didn't do any of that stuff. He was just kind of, this is what he ate, this is where he drank, and this is where he lived.

He just went about his business and he wasn't doing any of those things. And Christ said, look, you know, he didn't do any of those things and you say, he has a demon. Some people look back and say, you know what? We don't like the way he is. He has a demon. He can't be preparing the way for the Messiah. And then he says, I'm different. The Son of Man has come eating and drinking.

He's done those things. I eat dinner with you. I'm out in the bough. I talk with you. I'm part of you. And you say, look, a glutton and a wine-biver, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Not every personality is going to please every other personality. Christ is saying, there's a variety.

God works through different people, different personalities, and some of those different personalities are exactly what some people who are called need. Some people needed the personality of John. They related to that. Others, many, many, many, related to Christ's personality. Thousands would follow him. Thousands would gather to hear what he had to say. They saw who he was. They saw some of the elements and some of the characteristics that he had that gave him a pleasing personality that they wanted to follow.

You know, we in this room, there are so many different personalities. And yet, God's Spirit is in all of us. If we've been repented and baptized and followed His principles and living that way. And He's working through every single one of us. Every single one of us. Regardless of whether we're an extrovert or an introvert, whether we're an N or a J or a P or whatever those letters are on the malaise break, He's working through all of us. And He called us and He knew exactly who we were, just like He knew who John the Baptist was, exactly who Andrew and Matthias and Peter and John and James were, and the others, the personalities.

You know, they had to learn to work together, the twelve apostles, to do the work that they were called to do. And they did. They were united. They didn't let their personality types separate them. Peter might have tried. James and John at one time wanted to be called the preeminent ones, when their mother was there. But they didn't let that happen. They worked together.

And they worked out their differences, because you know when you have twelve men walking around with each other every day, you know some things occurred. But they learned how to get along with one another and to accomplish the mission that God wanted them to accomplish. And Jesus Christ had a personality, a pleasing personality, but it was different. It wasn't a carbon copy, or the apostles weren't a carbon copy of Him.

Now in Luke 6, we're here in Luke 7, let's look at Luke 6.

Luke 6 and verse 40, you know right before chapter 7, Christ is talking and He says, a disciple. When you remember what a disciple is, a disciple is more than just a student.

He's actually learning the person as well. He studies the teacher, He studies the words, He listens to what He has to say, and we know that we're supposed to be emulating Christ. You know, we listen to His words, we pay attention to that, but we need to know the man Christ as well. And Christ says, you know, a disciple is not above His teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like His teacher. Like His teacher. Doesn't mean that they'll have to be extroverts or introverts, if that's the other case.

Doesn't mean they have to be that personality, but there are things that they need to become like Him in. And as we look at the man Jesus Christ, and as we're His disciples, and we look at who He is, we can ask the question, who was the person Jesus Christ? What was He like? And we could go around the room, and we could probably come up with 40, 50 different things that you would say, Jesus Christ was like this.

We know He was the Son of God, we know He was inspired by God, we know He has the Holy Spirit, all those things, but what was He like as a person? Because we're told, become like Him in those areas. So we can look at the Bible, and we can kind of see some of the things that Christ was like. Let's go back to Luke 7, one chapter forward here. And we see the events in the city of Nain that we were talking about just a few minutes ago.

In chapter 7 and verse 11, it says, It happened the day after that Christ went into a city called Nain, and many of His disciples went with Him, and a large crowd following Him around. And when He came near the gate of the city, behold, the 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 Christ saw her, He had compassion on her, and said to her. Now, that's one of the things that we certainly would have said about Christ. He had compassion on people. When He saw someone in distress, He felt sorry for her. He didn't just pass by, you know, the way like the Levite and the priest, and He saw the Good Samaritan.

He had compassion. He felt sorry for her. He felt empathy for her and sympathy for her. And He could do something about it. And so He did. And He said to her, Don't weep. And He came and touched the open coffin, and those who carried Him stood still. And He said, Young man, I say to you, arise. And so when He saw the opportunity, when He had compassion on the woman, He actually raised her son from the dead.

She didn't ask Him to. It didn't even enter her mind that it could be done. He did it because He had compassion on her. And throughout His life, we see Christ's compassion. And you know when He's talking about Jerusalem and how Jerusalem treated Him. And in Matthew 23, verse 37, one of those verses that has so much feeling when He said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, all I wanted to do is gather you together as chicks, as a mother hen would look at them.

But you wouldn't have Me. You wouldn't do it. I wanted to give you everything. I just wanted to love you. I just wanted to provide for you. I just wanted to give you the truth, and you just rejected Me. It didn't anger Him, but it did sadden Him because He had compassion on them.

And He wanted them to have what He was willing to offer, but they just hardened their heart against Him. Back in Mark 3, we see another aspect. You know, just not feeling sorry, but Jesus Christ knew what He was there for. He knew He had eternity to offer people.

He had eternal life. He had the kingdom of God. But if they would just listen, and when they wouldn't listen, He had compassion on them, and it bothered them. And we see that again here in Mark 3. He says He entered the synagogue again. Now, this is... they've just come out of an occasion where He's been challenged on walking through the fields and keeping the... picking grain on the Sabbath. So, chapter 3, verse 1, it says, He entered the synagogue again, and a man who was there had a withered hand.

So they, all the people who were watching Him closely, whether to see whether He would heal on the Sabbath, so they might accuse Him. Not so they could glorify God, that this man who had to spend his life with a hand that wasn't working, but they were just looking to see what they could accuse Him of. That was their attitude. And He said to the man who with the withered hand stepped forward. And Christ said to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?

But they kept silent. They didn't want to answer that question. And when He looked around at them with anger, because He could see, you're not looking at this clearly. This is an opportunity to do good. What will happen to this man will be great if his hand is useful to Him again.

But what they were doing was fixated on, if we can nail you, if we can get you, if we can catch you in this act, then we can kind of accuse you of something and bring you down. And He knew it was in their hearts, and that was angering Him in the right type of way. But notice what it says right after that, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts.

He was angry when He saw the attitude that it was there, but inside He was just grieving, like, why do they do this? Why does it have to be this way? Can't they just see the good? Can't they just want the same thing? And so in a way, He had compassion on that crowd as well, because they just weren't getting it.

They just weren't getting it. And, of course, He went ahead and healed. And the people there that had the hardened hearts, they went off and they accused Him that they decided to start plotting to kill Him. Over in John 2, you see another aspect of the personality that Jesus Christ had. John 2 and verse 1. This is the first recorded miracle of Jesus Christ. It wasn't healings or it wasn't the great, magnificent things that He had done later on. But it says in chapter 2, verse 1, on the third day, there was a wedding in Cain of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there.

And both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. And when they ran out of wine, Jesus's mother said to Him, they have no wine. And He said to her, respectfully, woman, what does your concern have to do with me? My hour has not yet come. This isn't something that I had planned to do.

You're asking me to do that, but it's not yet time for me to start healing and doing these things. My hour has not yet come. His mother, having faith in Him, said to the servants, whatever He says to you, do it. And He did. They set apart the six water pots, and He turned the water to wine. Now, He could have just said, it's not time.

I'm not doing it. He could have hardened his heart to the occasion, because back in those days, if he ran out of wine at a wedding, it was seen as a pretty bad thing. So He knew that the wedding party was going to be embarrassed, the parents were going to be embarrassed, His mother saw what was coming on, and she was like, you know, you can stop this. You can make a bad situation right.

You've got the power to do it. Christ could have said and left it at, my hour has not yet come. I'm not doing it. That's their problem. They should have planned better, but I'm not going to do it. He did it anyway. He did it anyway. And He didn't go about boasting it or talking about it. He just did it. And it tells us something about Him.

He respected His mother. He respected those people. He saw an opportunity to do good, and He did it. He didn't say, I don't have to. It's not my problem. He just did it. He just did it. And we're told, when you see the opportunity to do good, do it. Don't pass on by and say, not my problem. It's their problem. I've got better things to do. Look out. Look out for others. Look at what's going on and see how it is with them.

And if it's in your power to do good, do it. Let that be part of your personality. We don't have to turn to Matthew 18, 19, and also in Mark and Lunuk, we see that Jesus Christ, He loved children.

When people were wanting to bring the little children to Christ, the disciple said, you don't have time for them. He said, no, no, no. Bring those children to Me. I love those little children. They are important. They are part of your fabric. They are part of who you are. They are part, and I want them to be who we are.

And so today, we would look at little children as blessings. We certainly do when they are in our family, what our grandkids are born. We look at them as blessing in the church. They are blessings to have with us. It's great to have little children with us. Jesus Christ had that aspect of His personality, and when they saw, the people saw that that day, it drew them even closer to Him when they saw that aspect of His personality. No one, no one is left out. Everyone is important. We could go right down the line. We could talk about obedience. Jesus Christ was obedient to God, the Father, and everything, even to the point of death. He was willing to suffer. He was a servant, you know, a greater servant than any of us have been, any of the servants that were there that day.

He was merciful. When He saw it, He was willing. Remember in John 8, a woman caught an adultery. He could have said, sorry, you were caught in adultery? Stoner. He had mercy. He tells us, you have mercy. Don't be so quick to judge. Don't be so quick to condemn. Show mercy. Show mercy. Pray that they repent. Pray that they sin no more, just as He told that woman, but show mercy. He wasn't a respecter of persons. Also, some of the people looked at Him and said, why would you sit down with sinners? Why would you sit down with tax collectors? Why would you sit down with Samaritans or even talk to a woman at the well who wasn't a Jew? Why would you talk to anyone other than a Jew? Because He was there for all people, regardless of background, regardless of what their heritage was, regardless of where they lived. Regardless of the sins they had committed, He was not a respecter of persons. He didn't look down on anyone. And the people saw that. And that was different than what it was at that time. And even sometimes we can look around our country today to be not a respecter of persons, to have God through His Spirit wipe out whatever biases we have. Or even biases that we may just have in our mind that we don't even know were there. So that we're not, in any sense, a way a respecter of persons. But humble. Humble like Jesus Christ was. You know, He wasn't ashamed of the truth. He was willing to speak it. He spoke it with authority. He was willing to die for it. And He accepted the fact that not everyone was going to like Him. He knew the therapy of those who would want to put Him to death, and He died for them anyway. On the cross as He looked out over the people who were, He knew, happy to see Him going through what He was going through. He said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. He had every reason to hate them and to condemn them. He didn't. He accepted that not everyone was going to love Him or like Him. And in this life, not everyone we meet and not everyone in the Church is going to like us. I hope we all love each other, right? But some people you like a lot more than other people, but it makes no difference. We love them anyway, just like Jesus Christ did. Let's go back to 1 John 4. All these things we talk about and many more we could talk about here about Jesus Christ. It's all wrapped up in one word when we look at the personality of Jesus Christ.

And it's here in 1 John 4 and verse 8. It says, He who does not love, and that's the Greek word agape, is different than the emotional love, different than the marital love, different than the brotherly love, different than the friendship love.

He who does not agape does not know God, for God is love. He is love. If you're going to talk about God and you have one word to describe Him, He equals love. He equals agape. Now Jesus Christ, the God the Father, are one and the same. Jesus Christ equals agape. Jesus Christ is love. You looked at His heart, you looked at His word, you saw where His heart was that matched what His words were. Preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and His heart followed the same thing that were there in the Scriptures.

Love all men. Be merciful. Be there. Help. Be a friend to everyone. Now you might remember from, I guess, elementary school math, right? There was something called a commutative property in math. Remember that? It said if A equals B and B equals C, then A equals C. So if God is love, it would be nice to have a list, wouldn't it? What is love? What is love? If God is love, where could we go to find a list of what love is? Because if we could find that, we could find a list of what Jesus Christ was like.

Because God is love. Jesus Christ is love. If He's love and love is this, then we have a pretty good set of what Jesus Christ was like when He was on earth. And something that, as His disciples, we can emulate.

We can work toward. We can kind of review ourselves and see if we are following in the same line. Oh, there is such a place. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13. We find a list of what love is. And if God is love, and in 1 Corinthians 13, in four verses here, we find 15 different things that love is. So if God is love, and Jesus Christ is love, and love is this, and we know exactly what Jesus Christ was like, what was in His heart, how He was with people. So let's look at verse 4. It says, Love suffers long and is kind.

Love suffers long and is kind. So if we could place verse 4 there, instead of the word love, which is agape, we could say, Jesus Christ suffered long and is kind. Jesus Christ suffers long and is kind. Now we know what it means to be, suffers long, as we would call that patience. Patience. And you know how patient He was. We could go back and we could look at all the examples of where He was patient with His disciples.

How many times did He tell them, do you still not understand that? Didn't you know that when I was talking about the loving of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, I wasn't talking about you forgot to bring bread. I'm more than capable of bringing bread and feeding the masses. I just wanted you to understand that, but He was patient with them. He didn't yell at them, scream at them, throw them across the parking lot.

He was patient with them. And God is patient with us because He loves us, because He chooses to be, because what He wants in His heart is for us to have what He offers. God wants the same thing in us. Be patient. You know, we say Jesus suffers long. And you know, as we go through this, we can put our own names in there and maybe ask the question, do I suffer long? Would that mark me? If people looked at me, would they say, He's a patient person.

He doesn't fly off the handle every time someone makes a mistake or says something out of line. He's patient. And I know in His heart that He is because He wants me to be in the Kingdom as much as He wants to be there. Jesus Christ was patient. And He was a model of patience.

Now patience doesn't have no ends, okay? Because we know when we look at Matthew 23, before Jesus Christ is arrested, He looks at the Pharisees and He really lets them have it in Matthew 23. He pretty much tells them like it is. Because there comes a time when you can be patient and you can pray and you can help people come to where they should be.

But there comes a time when you have to tell them what it's like. You want them to work it out, you want them to see it. But He tells the Pharisees in Matthew 23 and other times where He, you know, with the money changers in the temple, He would get angry and He would run out of patience with them. And so we run out of patience sometimes.

Hopefully not out of anger, but because it's time to do that. But love is patience. Jesus Christ is patience. The question for us is, can I put my name in there and say, I suffer long? Or is that something I need to work on because that's something that Jesus Christ had that I don't? Love suffers long and is kind. So the second one that's there is kind.

Now, it's interesting this word kind that's in verse 4. It's the only time in the New Testament that word is used. The rote is used in some other places, but the only time the word translated kind there is used is right there in verse 4. And what it means is you act benevolently. Tender-hearted, gentle, respectful. No, Jesus Christ went among the people. I think the people would have said, He's a kind man.

He doesn't have the rough edges. He's not rubbing me the wrong way. He's not sharp with his responses. He doesn't have a smart-alic answer when I answer him. He kind of goes about it and he treats us with respect. Whether we're a Samaritan, whether we're a tax collector, whether we're a harlot, or whether we're a member of the priesthood in Judah there, or one of his disciples. He was a kind man. He was approachable. And people felt comfortable around him.

You know, we can read about the crowds that would follow him. But when we would come into a city, there would be people who just crowded with him. Because they knew he was patient and he was kind. He wasn't going to, you know, whip around and slap him all and tell him, Get away from me. Don't touch me. He'd snow. He was that way. They knew him. And it was an appealing thing to them.

We can say, Jesus is kind. Are we kind? Am I kind? Is that something that people would say about me?

A kindness can be seen in our attitude, right? We might tolerate people and whatever, but in our attitude, the way we look, the way we respond, the way we listen, who we talk to, how we circulate, God, Jesus Christ was there. Part of the reason he did this, because you know what? He never thought of himself as more important than everyone else. He was the most important man who ever lived. Of all the people on earth at that time, there was no one more important than him. And yet he never cast off those errors. He was kind to them because he saw them as equal to him. And as it says in Philippians, maybe even better than them because he loved them. That was part of his agape.

He was kind. He was benevolent with them. And he wasn't a respecter of persons. He never let that enter his mind. And if that thought ever was there, he cast it out. He cast it out and kept it away.

Going on to verse 4, the third thing he says is, love. Jesus Christ did not envy. Jesus Christ did not envy. You know what envy is? It's jealousy. Now, in his day, there were priests in Judea there. And he could look at himself and he knew he was his son of God and thought, this is ridiculous. You know, Caiaphas is here. I should have that office. What I really need to do is I need to be seen as the preeminent one there. I need that title. I need that position. I need to be sitting in that seat. When I go into the tent of synagogue, people need to know who I am. And we would understand that, right? Because he was the son of God. He didn't do that at all. He didn't go about seeking office. He didn't go about envying what other people had. He wasn't looking at Caiaphas and saying, you know, I really, really, really want what he has. Or someone else, or the scribes, or anyone. Or any of the people that he came in contact with. He did not envy. He was satisfied, fulfilled to do what God had called him to do in the station that he was called to do it. You know, by contrast, envy is what killed Jesus Christ. Right? Because Caiaphas and the priest, when they saw the works, when they saw the heart, when they saw how the people responded to Jesus Christ, they wanted the people to respond to them the way they were responding to Christ. The thing is, they didn't have the heart. They didn't have the personality. They didn't have what it would take for people to do that. They saw Caiaphas and the priesthood as austere. People who would put burdens on them. People who would say, you walked too far on the Sabbath, you did this on the Sabbath. They weren't going to have that, and they envied it. And because they envied what Christ had, they put him to death.

Christ didn't envy. Love doesn't envy.

We can put our name in there. Do I envy? Agape doesn't envy.

Going on in verse 4, love does not parade itself. Does not boast, some translations have. And the Greek word that's there, have paraded itself, or boast, literally means braggart.

Literally means braggart. Someone who goes around telling everyone what they've done. Oh, I did this. Isn't it great that I did this? Shouldn't I? Don't you need to recognize me for that? Jesus Christ did not boast. And yet, look what he did.

Miracle after miracle after miracle. Raising people from the dead. Turning water to wine, just so that an occasion doesn't become a bust, but becomes something pleasant for the people.

And he never boasted. Even when he'd heal people, he would tell them, just don't tell anyone. Just accept it. Just glorify God. But you don't have to go out and tell anyone, that's not what I'm looking for.

On the contrast, you know, if someone is bragging about what they've done, that's not love. Because if you're bragging about what you've done, you're looking down on everyone else. You're elevating self. You can't elevate self and be practicing agape as well. You simply can't do it. Jesus Christ didn't do it. He didn't think see of himself as superior to everyone there, even though he was.

That's why he wasn't interested in people bragging about him or sending that out or telling them, go tell everyone you know what I did. Because agape doesn't do that. Jesus Christ doesn't do that. Love the way God wants it to be. Agape doesn't do that. That's not in the definition of who Jesus was.

Over time, not in the definition of who we are to become and who we're supposed to be coming like.

Going on. It says, Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up. Now, I should have said in verse 4, you know, parade itself or boast, that's the only time that word is used in the New Testament as well.

In contrast to puffed up. Puffed up means pride. Paul uses puffed up a lot in 1 Corinthians. The church there was puffed up. They thought they were superior to other churches. They even thought they were superior to some of the things that they had been taught by Paul, and they were doing their own things. Choosing their own teachers, doing the things in church that they wanted to do, segregating and looking at people and saying, oh, you've got a better gift, and I need that gift because I need to have that gift in order that you would look at me the same way that I look at you and all these things.

You might say that's one of the same things, but you can be proud. You can be puffed up with how boasting about it.

Sometimes, a lot of times when people are puffed up, they do talk about it. We see that a lot. We see that a lot even on the media today. When you look at someone and they'll say something and you think, there you go, bragging about it again.

But you'd be proud without saying anything because people can sell by the look on your face and the way you position yourself and how you deal with people, whether you're puffed up or not.

Frankly, when people see that you're puffed up, it's a put-off.

At work, in the office, if you find someone that's there, it always seems to be that's where the problem emanates. When someone is puffed up and they think they're the best thing that ever has happened to that company, the department or whatever, then you've got problems, and people just tend to shy away. Jesus Christ had none of that. He was humble, probably more than any man.

Love is not puffed up. Jesus Christ was not puffed up.

He tells us, get the leavening out. Don't be puffed up, be flat, be humble.

Because if you're not humble, you can't be. Love, it can't define you.

And those who are not humble will not be.

Will not be in His Kingdom, and where He wants us to be.

Verse 5 says, Love does not behave rudely.

But we can say, Jesus did not behave rudely.

Now, you know what rude means, and what the Greek word translated rudely there is really that.

He was pleasant to people. He wasn't rude to people. He didn't put them off, didn't cast them aside, didn't have a sharp answer, didn't discredit them.

No matter what their station in life, no matter what their background was or economic status was, He treated them the same.

He was attentive, He was kind, all these things we talked about, He was not rude.

Even when He was being called belt-fields above, because He healed someone, even when they were throwing out insults at Him, when someone called us the devil, it would be a little hard not to respond, right?

He didn't. He didn't sink to that level.

He wasn't rude. He didn't talk down. He didn't slight anyone, never threw a verbal jab, except when it was necessary, when patients had run out and they needed to know exactly what was going on.

He was not rude or crude in another manner as well. One of the things about Jesus Christ is He was gracious.

He was a dinner guest and people wanted to have Him over. You know why? Because He wasn't rude.

He wasn't going to stop the dinner party by some comment that He had, where everyone just stopped and looked at each other and thought, whoops, how do we deal with that?

How do we respond to that? There were no uncomfortable moments with Him. He knew when to speak. He knew how to speak. He knew what to say and what not to say. He had manners. When you look at Judean society, He was someone you would want to hang out with because He didn't have any of those things would be offensive.

You know, as we go about our lives, we, you know, could we say, are we rude? Are we rude to people? Either in the church or out of the church? Is it something we're practicing all the time? So we look down at the clerk from the grocery store, the clerk in whatever we're at, and say, you're not even worth my time to being kind to or even acknowledge.

Or do we just kind of mouth off because something didn't go right and be that type of person? Jesus Christ wasn't that way.

Do we have manners? Do we know how to handle ourselves? Do we have etiquette? Jesus Christ had all those things.

Love, agape, is not rude. Jesus Christ was not rude. If we put our names in there, can we say, I'm not rude? I don't behave rudely.

Going on to verse 5. Does not seek His own. Does not seek His own. Not self-seeking.

We look up in the commentaries and in the Strongs, what's translated there, it says it comes from a kyberu idiom, which means not putting your own desires before the desires of others.

So when it came a choice between what you wanted to do and what He wanted to do, you know what He's going to say, let's do what you want to do.

If it comes down to the last thing on the plate and you want it and He wants it, He's going to say, you take it.

Now, years ago I read a book, and I'm not even sure I'd recommend it. It had a lot of good things in it.

I was younger when I read it. It was called Fire in the Belly. It was about being a man.

Being a man, and it had some good points in it. A large part of it you can discount.

But one of the things that they said in that book that I kind of remembered from then forward is, there was a principle of I'm third.

I'm third. God is first, others are second, and I'm third.

Do what God says first. Put Him first above everything else. Put others' needs above yours, and then you're third.

When God's needs are met, when your other's needs are met, then take care of yourself.

And that's what Jesus Christ did. He wasn't self-seeking. He wasn't looking to see the best things for Himself.

He wasn't looking, we talked about envy, He wasn't looking for anything for Himself.

He was there to give. His life was all about what agape is, that outward directed love, where He would choose to do what needed to be done.

Even though His own human desires like ours might have been, I don't really want to do that, but I'm doing it anyway because agape is a choice.

We train ourselves over time that it becomes part of who we are. Jesus Christ did not seek His own.

And we can ask ourselves, do I seek my own? Do I put my needs above God's requirements?

Do I put my needs above someone else's needs?

Now going on. Love? Love is not provoked. Not easily provoked.

Not easily angered is what some of the newer versions say.

Jesus Christ was not easily provoked. When they were calling Him names, He didn't lash out at Him.

When He was arrested unjustly, and they were spitting on Him and doing all those things, He didn't revile at all.

He knew what His mission was. He knew that that was part of what God's plan for Him was.

And when He was persecuted, we'll talk about it a little bit later as well, He just accepted it. He wasn't easily provoked. He didn't let everything, everything, get under His skin and cause Him to react.

He understood that people are imperfect. Just like you and I are imperfect, every single one of us in this room is imperfect.

And there's things that you could get at and you could say, you know what, when Rick does that, it really irritates me.

And that's fun. That's human. I might say about some of the things about you, right? We all do that. Love does not get easily provoked. We don't hold those things to account. We don't come off at each other.

We don't do the things that are there just like Jesus Christ didn't.

And I'm not easily angered. Not provoked doesn't mean that there's never a time that we don't react.

Jesus Christ was not easily provoked. But in Matthew 23, He let the Pharisees have it.

He let them have it. When He went into the temple and He saw what they were doing and how they were abusing the house of God and the house of merchandise, He went over and He overturned those tables in righteous anger.

And there's nothing wrong with righteous anger. He wasn't doing it because of what He wanted to do, because He was angry about what they were doing to God and how they were affecting people's ideas of how they could worship God.

So we should not let things get to us.

And if comes the time, if it's a problem, God gives us the way to do it, right? Matthew 18, 15.

Go and talk to the person in private and say, why do you do this? Can you do this a different way?

I don't like when you use this term or that term or whatever it is.

And don't look at it as someone who's attacking you, because they're not attacking you.

Jesus Christ didn't put Matthew 18, 15 in there because He goes, you know, I kind of like these people to go and talk to each other.

You know what? They're all going to get mad at each other then. No, He did it because if we truly have agape, if we're looking out for each other and we want each other to be in the kingdom as He does, then those things are helpful because we all need to be molded into who He wants us to be.

We all have rough edges. That doesn't mean, once we're baptized, that we're never going to have anything negative said about us, so that no one is ever going to come to us and say, you should do this or, you know, maybe we could consider that.

It means, probably a few times in our life, that is going to happen.

By our spouses, by our friends, by fellow church members, if it's done in love, I mean, God, you know, Hebrews 12 says, no chasing yourself pleasure and if God's ever chastens us, it may mean that He just doesn't care enough about us.

So, don't be easily provoked. Jesus Christ was not easily provoked. You can put our name in there. Are we easily provoked?

Think snow-evil. Think snow-evil. Another translation says, keeps no record of wrongs.

You know, if Jesus Christ was walking around with His disciples as He watched the Judean society at that time, you know that He saw everything that they were doing that was in contrast to the law of God.

Every single thing. When He watched the disciples make some comment or use some word, He probably thought, you know, that's just not right.

But He didn't nail them on every single thing. He would caution them and He gave the sermon on the mountain. He would do that. But when He forgave or when He talked about it, you know, when Peter, for instance, when Peter, you know, was saying, no, we don't want this to happen to you. No, that'll never happen to you. No, I'll never do this and I'll never do that. And then He ran right ahead and denied Christ three times.

Jesus Christ didn't hold Him to account for that forever. He didn't say, you know, 50 years later, Peter, remember when you did this?

And therefore, you can't do this? No. Once Peter repented and once it was forgiven, it was over. It was over.

Christ wasn't the type of person that you sometimes hear about in movies we've experienced in life that something 10 years ago, you did this. And therefore, I'm going to hold you accountable. You know what? I know what I did wrong back then. I've grown since then. I'm not the same person I was back then. At least that's what we should be doing if we're really being led by God's Holy Spirit and changing and becoming more and more like Jesus Christ, more and more defined as we are in 1 Corinthians 13, as Jesus Christ is.

Now, we wouldn't go back to that. We would say, I'm not keeping any record of your wrongs. I'm looking at what you're doing today. I'm looking at your attitude today. Because, again, a love wants everyone to progress. Everyone to succeed. Love doesn't want to hold people back. Love isn't looking to hold any grudges. Peter didn't hold any grudges against Christ.

Even though Christ said some things to him that, you know, if it was said to us in public, we might, we might smirk a little bit and think, how dare they say that about me?

But Peter didn't hold any grudges. Christ doesn't hold any grudges with the number of things that we've done against him or that the people then did against him. Truly, truly forgive.

Forgive and reconcile. That's what God wants us to do.

Thinks no evil. Hope we already did that one. Does not rejoice in iniquity. Verse 6. Does not rejoice in iniquity. Jesus Christ did not rejoice in iniquity.

You know, he wasn't sitting back at one of the high priests of that day, later on, got theirs. He wasn't rejoicing. You know, I knew Caiaphas, I've been waiting for this day. I've been waiting for you to get yours. You deserved it.

Didn't rejoice in it. He wanted them to overcome. He wanted them to repent. But he didn't rejoice in iniquity. And, you know, it has another sense of the word, as you will.

You know, sometimes we can imagine things. Again, another thing that I see in the media that I, you know, in the last few years, I didn't see is impugning motives.

You know, it's like, what did that mean? And all of a sudden, there's a story that's like, really? Where did that come from? Is there proof of that? And we can do that in our hearts sometimes, too, right? Someone will say something to us, or we see something, and we all of a sudden can impugn motives. We're like, ah, this is what they're doing. This is what they meant. This is what they're up to.

And we can kind of rejoice in that iniquity and that fantasy that we might have, especially for someone that we don't really kind of like. And think, oh, you know, when they get caught on this, and when this comes out, this and that, and whatever.

You know, God says, seek the truth. When you hear a story, go back and look at the other side of it. Find the truth. Rejoice in truth. Don't rejoice in iniquity. Don't rejoice in the things that you hope will happen.

Don't impugn motives, and don't impugn what you think is going to happen. Find out if it's true.

Now, as many times I've told people, when someone asks a question, it's like, if you've got a question about something, ask. You know, if it's something that you heard on this, ask.

Emails work, you know, to every minister in the church these days. Ask.

If you think I've slated you as an ask, or if you see me doing something or whatever, ask. Don't assume ask. Rejoice in the truth, not iniquity. Jesus Christ is love.

Jesus Christ didn't rejoice in the iniquity, he rejoiced in the truth. Verse 7, bears all things. Bears all things. Literally means covers with silence.

Picking up on what the commentaries say that word means, and some of the dictionaries that says, knows how to not talk, if what he is going to say might hurt others unnecessarily, and doesn't unduly bring stress on others. And I paraphrase some of this stuff. Covers it with silence. Doesn't feel he has to say everything he knows. Doesn't have to gossip, if you will. Protects people. Doesn't look to discredit them.

Now, if indeed that turns out to be a problem, and the truth was there is this error or this sin that someone is committing, it would be approached and discussed.

But not, I saw him do this once, and therefore this must be what he or she is up to. Doesn't go around telling people that. Doesn't go around talking about those. Protects the reputation of others.

Jesus Christ didn't go around, you know, gossiping about everything that Caiaphas did, and the high priests and the scribes. He didn't run around telling everything that the apostles did that were wrong.

Now, they were all together a lot of times, so they saw what each other did was wrong, as he would talk to them. And they learned lessons from those things. They didn't hold it against each other. Or maybe they did initially.

But they learned. We're all learning. We're all growing.

Bears all things. Believes all things. And there's that Greek word for soil. Believes all things. Some translations say they always trust. They always have faith.

They always know that God is there, and that God will lead them to the right thing. And if it's someone in the church, you know, that's going through a problem. We don't impugn motives and say, oh, they must have been doing this, or they must have been doing that.

There must be something that God is doing that for. Sometimes at trial, we go through just so that God can perfect us and to see how we react to the stresses in life and if we continue to be with Him.

I was a word down here. Others in church, it's always trust that others in church are not out to get them or have suspicious motives.

The elders aren't out to get us. No one here is out to get anyone. You know, that comes with some of the other things that we've talked about.

If we think that there's motives and whatever, we're kind of thinking about us rather than what is good for the whole body. Jesus Christ didn't worry about those things.

Love hopes all things. Well, you know, hope is one of those foundational things that we read at the end of chapter 13.

Now abides faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. Before you can really love, you've got to have faith, you've got to have hope, you've got to believe.

Other than that, there's no basis for agape. But this hope that He's talking about here is that Jesus Christ always hoped. He was always optimistic. He always wanted people to succeed.

That was who He was. Are we that way? Do we hope people will turn to God? Do we hope people will continue to follow Him?

You know, we read in Mark 3 verse 5 where Jesus Christ, it grieved Him because they had a hardened heart. They just wouldn't listen.

They didn't want to hear what He had to say. They had their minds made up. We're going to nail Him and we're going to find an excuse to talk about Him to the high priests.

And it grieved Him. But He always hoped and He was always patient because He wanted them to repent. He wanted them to find God. He wanted them to know who He was.

Are we that way too? Are we encouraging to other people? Or do we write them off when we see something?

There will come a time when some may not follow what the Bible says and it's disappointing. But what is our attitude toward that?

Jesus Christ wasn't ready to condemn anyone. He died for everyone. He always hoped. And even in the future, He wanted to see that people would come, repent, and be part of His kingdom.

Do we have that as well? Can we put our name in there and say, I hope all things. I endure all things.

Will I persevere to the end? No matter what comes my way, no matter what persecution, whether it's from within the church that I may perceive or outside the church or wherever it is, will I endure?

Because if I have agape, I will endure. I will endure all things. I will keep my eyes on the kingdom of God. I will keep them focused on what I've been called to do.

But if I don't really love, if I really don't have agape, I'll fall.

Last thing there is love never fails. Literally means, love never falls. Jesus Christ never failed. He never fell off. He never fell by the wayside. He just kept going.

And he had more put on his road, in his obstacles, on his road than we can even imagine. And he just kept going because he loved the truth. He loved God.

And that agape was in him. He knew. He had faith. He believed. He knew who he was. And that's what God would ask us to do as well.

Will we survive everything? Will we grow? Will we? One day. And will God say, you know, yes, you suffer long and you're kind. Yes, you've endured to the end. Yes, you didn't fall.

When Jesus Christ returned, will we be there? No, Jesus Christ left us as an example. He had a personality. I don't know whether he was an extrovert or an introvert.

I don't know if he was an F or a P or an S or a J or whatever the numbers are, but you could see his heart. And no matter what our personality type, we all need to have a heart that people can see.

We need to one day be able to look at that or use these verses as our board and say, am I that way?

Am I becoming what God wants me to become? Am I becoming what love is? That one day God can look at us and say, God is love. Jesus Christ is love. Love is this and your name has become love as well. That's the standard he wants for us, and we can all achieve it. We just have to yield to him, follow him, and yield to his Holy Spirit and let it guide us.