God's Agape Love

By Pastor John Keating

Happy belated Valentines Day!

It goes without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway, “This is the time the whole world talks about love. This is the time in our society, when we look to give mementos of our love to our spouse or maybe future spouse. More red roses are being bought, more chocolate hearts are being consumed, and it’s a favorite time of the year for marriage proposals, if you are in that season in your life.”

It has already been said today, and it is true, “God really loves you!”  I am in on it too, God really loves me! He really does love us all. He has been kind to us and He knows everything. He sees everything.

This scripture has already been read but I believe you can hear it again: John 3:16,17 – “¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

He has already shown His love for us because Jesus came. Sin caused a separation between God and man. Sinful man cannot live in the presence of a Holy God, so God made that separation.    Moses wanted to see God, but God said that he could not live if he saw His face, so He put him in the cleft of the rock and he saw His Goodness pass by. God gave His son to take away the sin.

Now, through the supreme sacrifice that Jesus paid on the cross, we are in Christ, we are new creatures in Christ Jesus, we are in Christ and Christ is in us. We are individual temples of the Holy Spirit.

 As we become more God inside minded, we get to know and understand Him. This is a very intimate picture between each of us and Jesus. You know He did it when you were still sinners. He did it without any assurances, He did it because He loved us. Pastor Jerry, a few weeks ago preached about how high, how wide, how deep the love of God is. Also nothing, nothing can separate us from His love.

How are we responding to this love? You can probably remember in your teenage years when you had crushes on someone, but they did not respond to you. That didn’t make you feel very good did it? How are you responding to God’s love? People who do not know Him, respond by using His name as a curse word. Some of them believe He is the cause of all the strife in this world. Isn’t that a lie that the devil puts out for his people to believe.

Jesus said, in John 14:15-18, “If you love Me, ^[d]keep My commandments.” That’s very simple isn’t it? If you love me, obey what I am saying. We continuing with verse 16-“¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another ^[e]Helper, that He may abide with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

 God recognizes that we need help. We cannot do this on our own because we need the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit to guide us.

When asked what was the first or the most important commandment, Jesus answered in Mark 12:29-31, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ ^[l]This is the first commandment. ³¹ And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

We can see that loving God is the most important but loving each other is very important also.

There are many forms of love mentioned in the Bible, but the two mentioned here are “Phileo” and “Agape”. These are two Greek words. Both are translated to our English word “love” but they mean quite different.

Agape love, in the Bible, is love that comes from God. God’s love isn’t sentimental; it’s part of His character. God loves from an outpouring of who He is. As 1 John 4:8 states, “God is love [agapos],” meaning He is the source of agape love. His love is undeserved, gracious, and sacrificial.

We are to love God and others with agape love. Agape is a choice. We decide to love this way. It is not natural to us, it is a deliberate striving for another’s highest good, and is demonstrated through action. God set the standard for agape love in sending Jesus to die for us while we were still sinners.

Phileo is a friendship love or a brotherly love. Philadelphia in the US is the city of Brotherly love. We can go as far as having affection for.

In John 15, Jesus knew what was about to take place in a few days. He would be put on the cross to take away the sin of the world. He described His love for His disciples by saying this in verse 13:¹³ Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. 

Jesus showed us the highest form of agape love on the cross, and because He did that, we too can show agape love to everyone.

One of the last stories in John 21 tells us how Jesus restores Peter. Peter had denied Jesus, just like Jesus had told Him. Now Peter had to be restored. Here it is...

¹⁵ So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of ^[b]Jonah, do you love (agape)  Me more than these?”

He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I ^[c]love (phileo) You.”

He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”

¹⁶ He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of ^[d]Jonah, do you love (agape)  Me?”

He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I ^[e]love (phileo) You.”

He said to him, “Tend My sheep.”

¹⁷ He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of ^[f]Jonah, do you ^[g]love (phileo) Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?”

And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love (phileo) You.”

Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep. ¹⁸ Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish.” ¹⁹ This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God. And when He had spoken this, He said to him, “Follow Me.”

We are called to that sacrificial love for all, our brothers and sisters and also our community. I have tried to stay away from talking about the Sermon on the Mount because in a few days, the third video of the Life and Ministry of Jesus will be out, and it is on that. I do have to mention here that “agape” sacrificial love is preached throughout this sermon. Just a few from Matthew 5.

Matthew 5:11 – “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. ¹² Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Matthew 5:43 -  “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ^44 [o]But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷ And if you greet your ^[p]brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the ^[q]tax collectors do so? ⁴⁸ Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

Oh, that we would continue to seek Him! Oh, that we would yearn for His continued presence! Oh, that we would give Him the room in our lives that He wants. He wants all of us. Oh, that we would welcome the Holy Spirit and all of His gifts to be operating through all of us.  Oh, that we would stand against what the enemy is serving us, recognize its source and believe God to intervene on our behalf.

It is simple to know the origins of everything. What is good is from God, what is bad is from the devil. We serve a good God, Jesus is a Good Shepherd, He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We definitely need to know Jesus, and we need to make Him known to our community. This is a challenge for our Hope Centre family today. Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Are we weeping over New Minas, Wolfville and Kentville and all the surrounding areas today?  I pray that we would have a new revelation of who Jesus is and allow our teacher, the Holy Spirit to reveal Him to each of us personally. God Bless all of you.