Love and the Cross


Sermon by James Baird on March 19, 1989 John 15:9-17

March 19, 1989


John 15:9-17
Love and the Cross

Dr. James M.
Baird

Let us continue our worship as we take God’s holy and
infallible Bible. Open to the Gospel of John, chapter 15 of the Gospel of
John. As you open your Bibles, it is in this week, almost 2000 years ago, a
week just like this one, that Christ on what we call “Good Friday” died on
Calvary’s cross. And so this congregation has been moving mentally towards the
cross, as has the Church across the world. Now as we have moved towards the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, I want to point out to you, as I have mentioned
in some previous sermons, the centrality of the cross. The Apostle Paul did not
say, ‘God forbid that I should glory except in the Sermon on the Mount or except
in faith.’ The Apostle Paul said, “God forbid that I should glory except in the
cross of Jesus Christ.” That’s how central to Christianity is the cross. The
cross has been chosen by the Church as the emblem of our faith. When you
approach this sanctuary, on top of that enormous steeple is a cross. The
sanctuary is laid out, architecturally, in the form of a cross. The deacons
have on their breast pocket a red badge with a yellow cross. The cross is the
emblem of Christianity.

Now the chief message of the
cross, called the gospel of Jesus Christ, is this: God made an atonement for
our sins in His own body on Calvary’s tree that our sins might be forgiven. You
see, the Bible teaches that it is your sin that has separated you from your
God. All of us in this place are sinners. Those who are seated and those who
are standing, we are sinners. We came into this worship service and there was a
prayer about the holiness of God. Now, how is sin going to be forgiven, because
sin will separate you from God both now and forever, will bring you not His
blessing but will bring you His curse? What do we do?

Not too long ago, in Chicago,
there was a major meeting of the religions represented across the United
States. And there was a presentation of what these religions offered the people
of the United States. Then there was a minister who stood and he brought a
woman forward and he says, “This woman, represents a woman that I am going to
see tomorrow; she is in a federal prison.” And he went through some of the
crimes that this woman had committed. “Now you tell me with your religions,
what do you say to this lady? Go ahead.” Absolute silence. “What can you
say?” And then the minister, Bill Cook was his name, raised his hand as though
to listen from heaven. “Do you have something from heaven?” And he heard the
voice of John and John said, “The blood of Jesus Christ my Son cleanses from all
sin.” That’s the meaning of the cross. There is no other way; there is no
other religion that even offers forgiveness of sins in the sight of a holy
God–only Christ. That’s why the cross is central.

Now there might be one who leaves
this congregation today and says, “Is that all that your religion offers? The
forgiveness of my sin before the eyes of a holy God? I go back home to the same
house or the same room’ I face the same problems, the same family conflict.
Tomorrow I get up; I go to the same job or I go to no job. I have the same
problems with people, and then I pick up the newspaper and I see what has gone
on in the world today. Is all that you offer from the cross the forgiveness of
sin?”

That’s crucial but that’s not
all. That’s not all. In the Upper Room on the night before He was taken and
then crucified the next day, the Lord Jesus is dealing with His apostles. And
as He deals with His apostles in this 15th chapter of John, He makes
an emphasis, He who is going to the cross, and He’s going to talk in this
passage about His death on the cross, and then He’s going to challenge His men.
And may the Church of Christ today hear the voice of God as it is in our text in
John chapter 15 beginning to read in verse 9.

John 15:9-15:

9 As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in My
love. 10 If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I
have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. 11 These
things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that
your joy might be full. 12 This is my commandment, That ye love one
another, as I have loved you. 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that
a man lay down his life for his friends. 14 Ye are My friends, if ye do
whatsoever I command you. 15 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. God give us
insight into His holy word
.

“Love one another as I have loved you.”
Step #1: Agape Love
Notice three times what
the emphasis is as Christ is dealing with His disciples in that upper room.
Three times He says, ‘I command you to love.’ “Love one another as I have loved
you.” We are not a church that follows what is called the liturgical calendar,
but there are many churches on this Thursday that will have what is called
“Maundy Thursday.” And as I understand it, that word maundy comes from
the Latin, and this is probably the idea, it comes from the Latin mandate.
Christ is mandating on Thursday; He is commanding on Thursday in
that upper room what? To love one another: that’s what He mandates. As He
thinks about the cross, “You are to love one another.”

Particularly in recent years, I
have preached more and more about the love of Christ. The older I get the more
I preach about the love of Christ. When I began, it was hell, fire, and
brimstone. I have been in congregations and in churches and particularly in
some churches as I have preached about the love of God; I have seen men in their
eye look upon me as a wimp and I have sensed that they believe the message is a
weak message. ‘Don’t be talking about the love of God. Talk about the judgment
and the righteousness and the holiness of God in this day.’

But I remind you that the central
theme of the Scriptures deals with the cross, and from the cross and in that
Upper Room the Lord Jesus Christ emphasizes love. “Love one another.” It is
commanded. You don’t have it as an option, Christian. You are commanded to
love one another. It is so strong that when the Old Testament is summed up by
Jesus Christ, when the question was asked, ‘What is the law all about?’ Jesus
said, ‘The law is summed up in two commandments: Love the Lord your God with all
your heart, soul, and mind; number two is like unto it: love your neighbor as
yourself.’ We are to love God and we are to love one another. That sums up all
of the statutes and the law that God has for His people in the Old Testament,
the moral law. The same is said in the New Testament, in the book of Romans it
says that the law is fulfilled in the love that we have for each other.

I would not say this but God is
so blunt in 1 John chapter 4. God says to those who say, “I love you, God,”
those of us who know the language of Zion who are able to talk about doctrine,
who pray, and who come to church and we speak about “I love you, God”–and God
says, “If a man sayeth that he love God and hates his brother,” God says “he is
a liar.” I didn’t say that: God said it. How blunt! We are commanded to love
one another.

I am going to make a suggestion
to you that most of us believe that we are lovers, not fighters but lovers. And
so when we hear a sermon that says we are to love one another and we are to love
the people of this world, we say, “Well, that’s me. I do. I do love people and
I want the love of God. I love people.” The problem is that there’s a great
confusion. We are not only commanded to love…there is a confusion about the
love of God, “What does that mean to love God?” There is such confusion that
many people won’t even approach it. The Encyclopedia Britannica has four
full pages on the word atom and it defines what an atom is. When it
comes to love, the Encyclopedia Britannica has no pages and
not a single word. They won’t even touch the subject because there is such
confusion.

Now almost everybody who has
heard preaching a lot these days has understood that the Greek language in which
the New Testament was written knows that there are numerous words for love. We
in the English language, we’ve got one word; that leads to a whole lot of the
confusion. In the Greek language there is the word eros which
translates into “erotic love.” There is phileo and there is storge.
But the Christians came and they took a remote word, and they coined it of
God and it is agape. And that kind of love, agape love, can be
described in our text in a very simple way. Jesus Christ said, “As the Father
has loved Me, so have I loved you.” “Love one another as I have loved you.”
Christ says, ‘I set the example. Do you want to know what love is? Look at Me,
in my relationship to you and in the relationship that God has with Me, the
Father.’ “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you.” “Love one another
as I have loved you.”

Step #2: Love sacrificially
Now how did God the
Father love you through Jesus Christ, and how did Jesus Christ love? What is
the example? The example goes like this: you give your best for the object of
your love. You give your best sacrificially. God so loved you that He gave His
only begotten Son. He didn’t give some fourth-rate. When Jesus Christ came,
here is the love of God: He gives His life. He says, ‘I lay down my life for
you, my friends.’ That’s what the love of God is.

Beloved, folks who have come and
want to get married, and they’ve got stars in their eyes–which is good; you
better have stars. There’s no relationship on this earth as difficult as
husband and wife. None. And I begin by saying, “Love each other”? “Oh yea, oh
yea. Maybe nobody has ever loved like we have loved.” And so then I begin to
tell them what love is like. God tells them in Genesis chapter 2, where it says
that they will leave all others and cleave unto each other and the two shall
become one. And I talk about leaving and I talk about cleaving and then I say,
“You also leave the single life.” And here’s what I mean by that. You see,
until we get married we rise up everyday and we say, “Well, here’s what I want
to do today. I want to go to school, or I want to go to my work, or I want to
go and do this, and I want…” That’s how you do. “And I work out my day. That’s
what I want to do. As I get up everyday, that’s what I am going to do.” But
when you get married, that all changes. If you get up everyday, and two people
in married life get up and say, “Here’s what I’m gonna do,” you’ve got a war on
your hands. I say, “The pronoun changes; it goes like this: From now on when
you get up every morning you say, ‘Here is what we are going to do.’”
There’s a big difference. Some people never make that loving transition. They
are always out for themselves, in every situation. And they are not out for
love. And they are out by power to manipulate and control and get people. But
when you rise up in married life and you say to yourself, “Here’s what we are
going to do,” then immediately there is another person.

I was off this week and I saw
The
Phil Donahue Show. I can only take so much of that everyday.
Every time I see it it looks like it’s aimed just at me. And the idea was,
don’t let anybody else get the best of you in marriage. Brother, that’s from
the pit. That’s how you’re gonna go through life…with the single mentality?
These folks could not come to an agreement on everything and so the woman was
told especially, “Don’t let that guy have his way.”

If you love your spouse, man and
wife, you get up everyday and you love them by saying, “Here is what I can do
sacrificially for you.” That’s agape love and that agape love
will never fail you.

You know why we’re having such
sexual problems in the United States? It’s because in the erotic situation,
even in marriage, we are out to say, “Here’s what I want you to do for me.”
This never works. You’re going to have problems in marriage. But when there’s
agape love and you are sexually involved with your mate you say, “What
can I do for you that will please you?” it makes all the difference in the
world.

Then there is phileo love,
from which we get the city of Philadelphia, brotherly love. How can we love
each other when I am going to use you for my sake and for what I think is good
and right? Agape love says, “For the community, for the community, how
may I help you at my sacrifice?” That’s what this world needs.

Storge is “family love,”
primarily family love. How can you live together in a family if children and
husband and wife, everybody is out for his own? “What can I do for you?” makes
all the difference in the world. Then add personal sacrifice. God gave His
best. Christ said to His disciples, “Love one another, as I have loved you.”

Step #3: Commitment of Love

This leads to the last step and that is
commitment. We are commanded to love. There should be no confusion about what
love is. Bertrand Russell–brilliant, agnostic, an opponent of
Christianity–said, “Whatever else you say, what this weary world needs is what
these Christians call ‘love.’” The love of God.

Let no man be here today and say,
“It’ll never work in my business.” You go back to your business tomorrow and
you keep other people in mind and how you may serve them, and you’ll see the
difference. Now there is a commitment of love, commitment of love. When we
speak about the commitment of our love, it is impossible without committing
ourselves to love to come to the cross of Jesus Christ. That’s what I’m asking
this whole congregation to do. Come to the foot of the cross. Come to the
Christ of the cross who is enthroned in Heaven. How can I look at Him and not
realize that He has commanded me to love from the cross? I commit myself. I
commit myself, first of all, in the church, in my home, and out in the world.
In the church…I have come from church after church in which it seems like the
commandment is, ‘See how much trouble you can stir up, one among another.’

It pleases me when I come from
other churches and come back to this church to see such a high degree of care
and concern from each other–not perfect, far from it. But I want to tell you,
I’m absolutely amazed at the way that the devil just has his way in church after
church in which he has people snarling at each other, rather than saying, “What
can I do that would benefit you at my expense?” in the church.

The Bible says, “The Lord Jesus
Christ loved the church and died for the Church.” Beloved, I want to tell you
it is amazing what the church can do if they love each other and if they are in
unity together. It is amazing what this church ‘can,’ ‘has,’ and ‘can and will’
do together for the kingdom of God and for the blessing; and it has to do with
loving each other. You won’t have to get out of the parking lot when you’ll be
given an opportunity to love one another sacrificially.

And then we are to love one
another in our homes. All Presbyterian preachers have read the memoirs of
Robert Murray McCheyne. He died in year 1843. He was the most popular
Presbyterian preacher in Scotland. When he was in his mid-twenties he was
pastor of the largest church in Edinburgh with over 4,000 members, and he died
at the age of 30, having totally expended his life in love for the brethren.
But what so often is not known is that when he grew up he was not like that, but
he had an older brother…the family had a problem; they called it in that day
“consumption.” The older brother whose name was David had consumption, and
David was a godly young man. He also had gifts, but he was sick and he turned
his life and his prayers to his younger brother and prayed. And Robert Murray
McCheyne said he came in one night and remembered saying to his brother, who he
heard call his name in prayer, “Am I that bad?” And brother David said, “We’re
all sinners and in need of the Lord.” Robert Murray went off to the university,
in a sense at the expense of the older brother David, who just didn’t have the
physical strength, but David remained home and prayed and McCheyne was converted
at the University of Edinburgh. David died when Robert was in the university.
And then McCheyne burst upon the spiritual scene as a young pastor, flaming for
Christ and for the love of Christ. How did it come about? He had a brother who
loved him in Christ. You got a brother? You got family members?

I have a Presbyterian minister in Pennsylvania who
tells the story of a grandfather with his little boy, years ago. His little
grandson, on vacation, was taken down by this stream. It rained; the little boy
(as they will do) put his foot on the rock. He slipped. He was into the
stream; grandfather jumped in after him; they were swept along; they were both
killed. But when they found that grandfather the next day, he had both hands
around that little 5-year-old grandson. No attempt to save himself. He never
let that little boy go, even when he drowned. That’s the love of God. Not just
in the moment of terror, but day after day.

You know what’s happening to our families? Do you
understand that as the family goes, the church goes, the nation goes? Do you
understand what’s happening to the family? And do you understand what the real
need is, to bring the families of the United States of America to the foot of
the cross of Jesus Christ and to have forgiveness of sin and to hear the Master
say, “Love one another, as I have loved you,” instead of tearing each other
apart?

Here is a beautiful little
story. Years ago, a little boy was carrying a younger boy on his back to school
for there was no public transportation in those days, and a stranger said,
“That’s quite a burden you have there on your back.” “He’s no burden; he’s my
brother.” “He’s no burden; he’s my brother.” And we are to love in the world,
not only in our homes, not only in our church, the love of the cross of Jesus
Christ to this world. DaVinci when he painting the great Lord’s Supper,
daVinci had a public argument with a fellow artist. And daVinci said (to
himself apparently), ‘Don’t get angry. Get even.’ Ever heard that one? That’s
what the world says and how it turns viciousness loose on this world. When
people are angry they seek to get even–no love of God in their hearts. We’ll
tear each other apart in this United States and that’s exactly what is being
done, even in our own city. So daVinci said, ‘I’ll get even.’ And he took the
Lord’s Supper, and the first of the apostles that he painted was Judas
and he painted this man’s face in unmistakably, and that man became the butt of
everybody’s jokes. And so daVinci, painted and he left Christ to last. And he
started to paint and Christ would not come. He couldn’t paint Christ, until
finally as the Lord dealt with him. he went back and he drew another face for
Judas, totally different; then Christ came. You can’t hate and be close to
Christ. You just can’t do it.

It pleases me to see that our
world missions offering for the last week or two is up to $430,000. There are
folk out here who have yet to make their faith promise for the year. For people
who live on the other side of the world, you don’t know them but do you love
them? As Christ died for the Church and as Christ died for the people of this
world, do you love them? Then we will give.

We had a missionary stand here a
Sunday or two ago and say he was going back to Zaire. He’d been there thirteen
years and out in the boondocks, in the heart of Africa. When asked, “What shall
we pray for?” he said, “That when we go back this summer, my eight-year-old
daughter we will send off to another country so that she will be able to go to
school for the first time, she’d be able to go to school in a missionary
school.” You send your eight-year-old daughter off. Why? Because you love
these people through Jesus Christ. That’s the love of Christ for this world.
When Christ was nailed to the cross, He looked down and said to those who were
crucifying in prayer, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
That is the Lord Jesus Christ.

We come to that cross. Come with
me now. Is there anybody here who is alienated from God, who doesn’t know if
his sins are forgiven, who has never placed his faith and trust in Jesus
Christ? I don’t know. If God is dealing with you today, right where you are at
the end of this service just bow your head when I bow my head and you pray,
“Lord, forgive me. Forgive me, and I’ll follow you.” Mind you Christ’s love is
not something that He commands of you unless He gives to you. Do you know how
this chapter begins? It is about the vine and the branches. Christ said, “I am
the vine; you are the branches.” Vine and the branches go together. Grace as a
result of the vine and the branches. Christ said, “Abide in Me and you will
produce much fruit.” Just come to Christ and this ole’ heart of mine that is
not a lover’s heart, something happens when I am with Him, when I pray, when I
read my Scripture, when I come and worship together, and when I go out. Christ
said, “Abide in me.” And then He commands, “Love one another, as I have loved
you.”

Let’s pray together. Beloved
heavenly Father, as we are here in the beauty, not only of this sanctuary but in
the beauty of our own sanctuary of heart, and as we come with Thee we remember
asking of You at the beginning of this worship service, come among us and deal
with us. Draw honor to Yourself. Glorify Yourself in this worship service and
bless Your people. We thank You for the love of God and may the love of God be
transmitted through me, through others, and across this congregation to the
glory of God. And may Thy benediction, the benediction of Jesus Christ, the
risen Savior who was crucified–may His benediction come from Heaven and may His
blessing and His benediction rest upon believing and loving hearts. For it is
now unto the Lord Jesus Christ who is able to keep you from falling, falling
into unloving attitudes; it is now unto the Lord Jesus Christ who is able at
your death to present you sinless, forgiven before His throne of grace in Heaven
with exceeding great joy. To the only wise God who is our Savior: unto Him in
our hearts, let there be glory, majesty. May He have dominion and power both
now and forevermore. Amen.

© 2024 First Presbyterian Church.

This transcribed message has been lightly edited and formatted for the Web site. No attempt has been made, however, to alter the basic extemporaneous delivery style, or to produce a grammatically accurate, publication-ready manuscript conforming to an established style template.

Should there be questions regarding grammar or theological content, the reader should presume any website error to be with the webmaster/transcriber/editor rather than with the original speaker. For full copyright, reproduction and permission information, please visit the First Presbyterian Church Copyright, Reproduction & Permission statement.

To view recordings of our entire services, visit our Facebook page.

caret-downclosedown-arrowenvelopefacebook-squarehamburgerinstagram-squarelinkedin-squarepausephoneplayprocesssearchtwitter-squarevimeo-square