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What is the greatest act of love you can think of?
On 2nd September 1918, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Annesley West of the North Irish Horse was sent to the Western Front in Belgium where there had been a recent infantry and heavy tank attack.
But when he arrived he found that the opposition was putting up a vigorous counter-attack.
Many officers had been killed and the Battalion was in serious danger.
But with complete disregard for his own safety, West rode his horse in front of the Battalion’s lines to rally the soldiers.
Despite heavy machine gun fire, he stayed at the front to encourage his men.
He was mortally wounded, but West’s selfless actions helped the Battalion to repel the counter attack.
He was posthumously awarded with the Victoria Cross.
West was 40 years old when he died.
If you were to visit his gravestone in Pas-de-Calais you would read these words: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
West put his own life at risk for the sake of those under his command.
With that in mind, we’re now ready to consider the greatest act of love this world has ever known.
It was Jesus Christ who spoke those words quoted on West’s grave.
He was speaking to his disciples, his closest friends, the night before his crucifixion.
From this one verse we are urged to do two things: receive the greatest love and believe the ultimate sacrifice.
By focusing our thoughts on God’s name, our Lord is teaching us that God’s name signifies much more than His titles; it represents all that He is—His character, plan, and will.
Certainly the Jews should have understood that, because in Old Testament times, names stood for more than just titles.
By focusing our thoughts on God’s name, our Lord is teaching us that God’s name signifies much more than His titles; it represents all that He is—His character, plan, and will.
Certainly the Jews should have understood that, because in Old Testament times, names stood for more than just titles.
Receive the Greatest Love
“Greater love has no one than this...”
Jesus is calling on his followers to obey him by loving one another as he has loved them.
He is helping them to imagine what such love looks like, what it involves.
He wants them to understand the difference between lesser types of love and greater types of love.
Indeed he wants them to know the greatest kind of love of all.
Countless songs have helped us understand love over the years, haven’t they?
“More than a feeling” (Boston)
“Love, love is a verb, love is a doing word” (Teardrop by Massive Attack)
“I could make you happy, make your dreams come true.
Nothing that I wouldn’t do.
Go to the ends of the earth for you to make you feel my love.”
(Make You Feel My Love - by Bob Dylan)
“Digging the garden, doing the weeds, who coul
(“You’d think that people would have had enough of silly love songs!”)
But what the writers of those particular songs understood is that love is not only something that needs to be felt, it is something that needs to be seen.
Demonstrated.
Acted upon.
That’s the kind of great love that Jesus has in mind when he urges his followers to love one another.
When great love is seen and experienced it is very powerful.
When Lieutenant West reached the front line that day, he was saw disorder and chaos.
The Battalion was in dire need, under great pressure and in danger of giving way.
West probably didn’t know many of the men.
He had no time to get to know them, to develop love for them.
And yet he rode to the front on his horse under enemy machine gun fire, organising, encouraging, inspiring and ultimately saving many. in the fog of war, the men saw West ride towards lethal danger.
They heard him speaking to them.
They were shown the greatest kind of love.
I wonder what became of the men of that Battalion, having witnessed such a great act of selfless love.
I like to think that they themselves became great lovers - not in the Hollywood sense - but in the Jesus sense.
Because when you experience the greatest kind of love, when you’re on the receiving end of that love, you are changed, and you can begin to live out the command Jesus gave to his disciples:
John 15:12-
As I have loved you.
That’s the key to great love.
How has Jesus shown his love to the world?
One of his closest friends wrote this:
So we must receive the greatest love, and...
John F. MacArthur Jr., Alone with God, MacArthur Study Series (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1995), 55.
Believe the Ultimate Sacrifice
Jesus defines what makes this love so great.
Broadly speaking, Jesus is getting his hearers to imagine a person giving up the thing that we all value the most - the breath of life.
The very thing that gives a body noise, shape, colour, speech and movement.
Without it this is just a shell, an empty vessel.
Literally, Jesus is describing someone demonstrating great love as going horizontal - laying down.
It’s not what we naturally think of when we imagine great love, is it?
We think of grand gestures, busy on our feet.
This time of year we’re pounding the shopping centre in search of the perfect gifts to show our love for others.
For some it’s the labour of caring for a loved one in need.
It’s using our life, energy, bodies, minds for the good of others.
But Jesus talks about laying down as the greatest love.
Laying down one’s life.
This is the ultimate sacrifice made by on an behalf of another.
It’s what those nearest Lieutenant West would have seen in his last moments, as he was no doubt hit with bullets and fell from his horse, laying down in the mud.
No doubt West was motivated by a strong sense of loyalty that all in the armed services feel towards those they serve alongside.
The scripture inscribed on his gravestone does indeed sum up his actions: he set aside life for the good of his friends.
What did Jesus mean when he used the word ‘friends’?
Who are his friends?
Rather than close acquaintances or life-long companions, Jesus uses the word friends to describe the ones on whom his great love rests, unconditionally.
You see, while we can go some way to understand West’s sacrifice for his Battalion, it is really quite remarkable when we think about Jesus’ sacrifice for us.
Why?
Because of what the apostle Paul wrote...
in other words, while we were enemies of God, Jesus went horizontal, laid down his life on the cross.
He did this to pay for our sins past, present and future, so that whoever believes in him might have eternal life.
The War to end all wars didn’t.
But Jesus’s death puts an end to death forever, for all those who believe in his ultimate sacrifice.
He has shown the greatest love, dying not merely for his friends but crucially for his enemies.
That’s you and me.
It is absolutely right that we remember and honour those who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom.
How much more, then, should honour the One who showed the greatest love and made the ultimate sacrifice by receiving and believing all that he died to win for us?
Jesus invites all of us to be reconciled to God by faith.
We have booklets available today for everyone which explain it means to become a Christian and how to do it.
Please take one and read it.
And if you’d like to make the decision to believe today, then you can do so by praying with me now.
Lord Jesus.
You have shown the greatest love in making the ultimate sacrifice.
We are sorry that it was our sin that needed to be paid for.
Thank you for loving us even though we were your enemies.
Please give us faith to receive your great love and believe that our sins are forgiven through your sacrifice.
Amen.
Read .
Explored the ‘vine’ imagery.
In what way should we relate to Jesus in light of this?
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