The Greatest Love Story Ever Told
John 15:13

Introduction: Listen to these words spoken by Jesus Christ, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). This verse describes the greatest love story ever told! The back-drop for this great love story is found in the Bible, God’s Holy Word! The Bible reveals these two important facts:

1. FACT: God is Absolutely Holy! Heaven is pictured in Scripture as a place where the inhabitants there cry without ceasing, “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come.” (Isaiah 6:3, Rev. 4:8) This word “holy” hagios – means to be completely pure, blameless, sinless, and set apart… sacred…moral cleanness! We really don’t have the words in English to describe how pure God is! The Scriptures make it abundantly clear that our “God is a consuming fire” (Heb.12:29). As a matter of fact, the word “holy” can mean “an awful thing” – Strongs - that is, an awe-inspiring, dreadful sight!

Because God is absolutely holy, nothing impure or sinful can come into His presence without being “consumed”…destroyed. As a matter of fact, listen to what the Bible says about heaven…

“Nothing profane will ever enter it: no one who does what is vile or false, but only those written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Rev.21:27 HCSB)

2. FACT: Man is Absolutely Sinful! As holy and pure and righteous as God is…that is how sinful people are! Listen to how the absolutely pure, clean, Holy God describes all people:

 “There is none righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, together they have become useless, there is no one who does good, there is not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Viper’s venom is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and wretchedness are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Rom.3:10-18 HCSB)

David, king of Israel, said of himself, “Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5 HCSB)

Question: So the question of the ages…the greatest thought any philosopher ever contemplated or any theologian tried to answer is this: How can an absolutely holy God declare an absolutely sinful person innocent and still remain absolutely holy? How can a God whose holiness demands that a person’s sin be punished punish his sin and at the same time declare that sinner righteous…innocent…free and clear? That serves as the basis, the backdrop for…

Title: The Greatest Love Story Every Told

Text: John 15:13

Introduction: What I am about to describe to you is the “greatest love” man has ever known! It is the greatest love story ever told! It is good news! But what makes good news good is bad news! If there were no bad news there would be no good news…just news! So let me begin by giving you the bad news…then the good news…which is the greatest love story ever told!

1. The Bad News:

            (A) God’s Holiness Demands Justice! Simply stated, God must punish sin and the bad news is “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom.3:23). Because of sin, the Bible reveals that we are all under the wrath of God awaiting final judgment:

“For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” (Rom 1:18 HCSB)

This verse teaches that if left to travel the present course you are now on, it will end before the presence of Holy God only to have the full wrath of God against sin fall upon you for all eternity. This is what the Bible calls “Hell” (Rev.20:13)

            (B) You are Unable to do Anything about Your Condition: The Bible reveals that all people are born “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph.2:1b) This speaks of spiritual death. To be dead means to be unable to respond, to hear, or to move. Dead people cannot do anything! Spiritually dead people cannot repent, believe, have faith, or respond to God unless God does something radical in them to change their current course!

            (C) You Must be Made Alive by God: “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph.2:1,4) suzoŻopoieoŻ - means to make alive or “to reanimate” – Strongs. God in grace and love takes people who are dead in their sins and makes them alive. He wakes them up! He animates them! He causes them to be able to repent of their sin and place their faith in His Son and thus be forgiven of their sin!

2. The Good News: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told!

            (A) Jesus Christ Took God’s Wrath For You: Listen to this verse of Scripture:

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Cor. 5:21)

·        The Bible reveals that Jesus Christ is God’s only Son (John 3:16)

·        The Bible also reveals that Jesus Christ is God (Heb.1:8)

·        As God, Jesus, just like the Father, is absolutely holy (Heb.7:26-27)

·        Jesus Christ is the only one who can do something about your sin problem (John 14:6)

(B) Jesus Became your Substitute on the Cross: The Bible reveals that Jesus Christ died on a Roman cross and shed His blood as a sacrifice for the sins of the people. We call this the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. That simply means that on the cross Jesus took your place! He became your substitute.

When Jesus suffered and bled and died on the cross, the full wrath of God that was intended for you fell upon Him (Romans 15:3). God fully intended to destroy you! God fully intended to place His wrath upon you for all eternity. You were in God’s “cross-hairs”…His finger was on the trigger…tension was applied…the gun of His wrath was fired and the bullet of divine judgment was speeding toward your heart! Just before impact the sinless son of God stepped in between you and God and He absorbed that bullet of God’s wrath in your place!

On the cross, Jesus Christ became your sin, He paid the full price for every sin you ever committed! Listen again to the words of the song our choir sung this morning:

This the power of the cross.

Christ became sin for us.

Took the blame, bore the wrath

We stand forgiven at the cross!

ILL: I love the illustration of a Whipping Boy. The use of the Whipping Boy was an established position at the English court during the Tudor and Stuart monarchies of the 15th and 16th centuries. Because the royalty in England were believed to “sit on God’s throne” and even believed to be “gods” it was viewed as inappropriate to spank the prince.

So a Whipping Boy was chosen. The Whipping Boy was trained and educated side by side the prince. They often became the closest of friends and confidants. It was believed to be a form of punishment for the prince to see someone he deeply cared for be beaten in his place. And that is exactly what happened. When the prince misbehaved, the Whipping Boy was beaten in place of the prince. This taught the young prince that his wrong behavior could not go unpunished…that there were consequences for his actions.

Often, the Whipping Boy was called The Scapegoat which is derived from Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, when the high priest would symbolically transfer the sins of the Israelites on to the head of a goat so that the people would not have to bear them (Leviticus 16:7-10)

APP: On the cross, Jesus Christ became your whipping boy! Except here, the Prince took the beating for the servant! Jesus is the “Prince of life” (Acts 3:15) and He never sinned even once (1 Peter 2:22-23). Yet He, the Prince…God’s nobility… became the whipping boy for you…the guilty…the sinner…the one who deserved the punishment!

On the cross Jesus Christ literally poured out His blood as a sacrifice for your sin. He became you on that cross and took your guilt and your blame and your punishment. He perfectly paid the price for your sin (John 19:30) and completely satisfied the wrath of God against you forever! This is why Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Truly it is the greatest love story ever told!

Look to Jesus Christ on the cross today! See the nails driven into His hands and His feet. See Him bleeding. Hear Him crying out to His Father in pain. See Him struggle to breathe. Listen to the people mock Him, blaspheme Him, and spit in His face. And then watch as He bows his head and dies on that cross.

It was all meant for you and the sins you have committed! You were supposed to die! You were supposed to be beaten! You were supposed to suffer! But Jesus stepped in between you and the holiness of God and took your hell and punishment for you. What does it do to your heart as you stand by and watch a man be so brutally beaten and killed when it should be you suffering? What does it do to you today to learn that you are completely exonerated…that you get to go free…that you get to walk away untouched because another man, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ suffered and died in your place on the cross?

We sing a song in the Baptist Church entitled, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross. Listen to these words of the third and fourth stanzas:

“See from His head, His hands, His feet,

Sorrow and love flow mingled down;

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,

Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine

That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.”

Another hymn we sing says, “Amazing love, how can it be, that Thou my God shouldst die for me.”

These hymn writers agree with me that this is The Greatest Love Story Ever Told!

3. So How Can You Become One of Jesus’ Friends? Listen to the complete reading of our text:

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. 

Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.” (John 15:13-16)

Just like the Whipping Boy took the punishment only for the prince…Jesus died only for His friends.”  He bore the wrath only for “His friends.” Not everyone is a “friend” of Jesus Christ! How can we be His friends?

You must follow the “command of Christ” which is “repent ye and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:14) God has “chosen you” to do this! Jesus said,

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.” (John 10:27-30)

How can you, a sinner, be made right with a perfect, holy, and righteous God? How can you be a “friend of God?”

·        The Gospel must be preached (Rom.1:16; 10:14-17)

·        You will hear God call you by name! (Rom.8:30; John 10:27-30)

·        You will see yourself as a sinner (Rom.3:23)

·        You will be genuinely sorry over your sin  (2 Cor. 7:10)

·        God will give you the gift of repentance to turn away from your sin (Rom.2:4b)

·        God will give you the gift of faith to turn to Christ (Eph.2:8-9)

·        You will surrender your life to Jesus Christ as Lord (Rom.10:9-10)

Then, once saved…once converted, as His “friend” you will “do whatever He commands you” which begins with the following…

·        You will publicly confess Him as your Lord (Acts 2:41)

·        You will follow Him in believer’s baptism (Acts 2:41)

·        You will join and be faithful to God’s church (Acts 2:41)

·        You will begin to grow as a disciple of Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18)

Conclusion: Come join this love story of God’s amazing grace. Come be a part of the romance of redemption! Come to Jesus and cast all your sin and guilt and shame upon Him and let Him bear your awful guilt before the judgment bar of Holy God!