Jesus’s love for you (long version

Yesterday I spoke about our love for Jesus, but today I will speak about Jesus’s love for us. God’s love for us comes first, Jesus loved us first, even before the beginning of time.

Love is the reason for the gospel. It was the love of God the Father that made Him send His Only Son to earth to give His life. It was Jesus’s love for you and His love for the Father that made Him go to the cross. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Yes, the gospel is also about repentance, turning away from sin and living for Jesus, that’s true, and we have to preach that also, but the main reason for the gospel is God’s love.

In 2005 my life totally crashed, and I asked my mother what to do, and she said: seek Jesus. And I started to pray and seek and in October 2005 I got a first touch from Jesus, and I felt His love for me. The Spirit told my mother that I should go to Sankta Klara church in Stockholm, and there I saw something I had ever seen before. I saw the glory of the Lord upon these people .

Jesus said: Then the righteous, that means the saved, will shine forth like the sun in their Fathers Kingdom, and this is about Heaven, but they had very much of it already here on earth. There was a wonderful peace that rested upon them, and their eyes and faces were shining with joy, and I sensed and saw their love. Their faces were shining like the sun, because of Jesus Christ inside of them. Once in the beginning of a service I saw them hugging and kissing each other and I thought: Konrad, here they love each other, I would like to have what they have. And I knew it was because of Jesus.

And in April 2006 I also met Jesus, and I was filled with an indescribable love. It was amazing, a love I had never felt before. Jesus said in Luke 12: I came to send fire on earth. That fire is your heart set aflame by the love of Jesus Christ. When Jesus can enter into your heart and fill you with His amazing love, your heart will also be filled with love for Jesus, and for people. If you love Jesus you will also love people, because Jesus loves all people. But you can’t produce this love yourself, Jesus must first give His love to you.

And then Jesus goes on: and how I wish the fire was already kindled. Jesus is longing to give His love to us, to fill us and touch us. As I said in my short testimony, my first prayer to Jesus was that my heart would be burning with love for God and people, and Jesus was more than willing to answer my prayer.

there is a yearning and a longing in Jesus’s heart for sinners to come home. And when the prodigal son comes home, Jesus is so eager to give His love to you that He runs. When I started to turn back to Jesus, Jesus was running towards me.

Jesus is so happy when a sinner comes home, that He comes running. In the Bible God is never in a hurry. He gives prophecies, and sometimes it takes several hundred years before anything happens. And when Lazarus is sick, Jesus stays for two days, then walks for one day to wake him up. Jesus always walks, except when a sinner comes home, then Jesus runs. Jesus is so willing and eager to pour out His love upon us, to set our hearts aflame with His love.

And if you wonder: what should I do to have this, the answer is: you should do nothing. You just come to Jesus and ask Him to fill you with His love, and He will give it to you, sooner or later. Because Jesus has the same love for you as for me, He doesn’t love one more than the other. And Jesus wants to fill you with that love.

it’s written in Ephesians that Christ should dwell in our hearts through faith, and that we should be rooted and established in love, to grasp how wide and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Here we can’t fully receive the love of Jesus, but we can be more and more filled with it, and to get to know the love of Jesus Christ is one important part of our walk with Jesus.

Jesus has an amazing love for us. We should never doubt that Jesus loves us. Romans says that God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we we were still sinners, Jesus Christ died for us. Jesus came for the sinners. Jesus loved you even before you came to Him. If you are an unsaved sinner here today, Jesus is not mad at you. He wants you to come to Him, because He already loves you, and Jesus’s work on the cross is finished. Come to Jesus, and He will save you and give you His love.

But Even more, Jesus loved you even before you were born. Jeremiah 31:3 says: Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Jesus knew you and loved you even before the world began. Jesus’s love is of Eternity.

So what’s the love of Jesus like? It’s written in 1st Corinthians: Love is patient, love is kind. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Maybe you had parents as a child who were easily angered when you did something wrong, but Jesus is not like that. He is patient, kind. Yes, Jesus can correct us but He does it in love. Jesus is so patient in His love.

And when Jesus forgives, He also forgets. If you ask forgiveness you should trust that Jesus forgives you and He also forgets. My mother has a sin from many years back that sometimes comes back in her mind, and a few times she said: Jesus, forgive me! And Jesus answered: I don’t know what you are talking about! Jesus keeps no record of wrongs.

Jesus’s love is also a faithful love. One sign of Jesus’s faithfulness in love is shown in His parable of the Shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep, to find the one that is lost. Jesus’s love is a love that reaches out for the lost, that goes after sinners. And also those who believe in Jesus can start walking away from Him, but Jesus’s love for you is so strong, that if you walk away from Him, He will go after you and try to bring you back. I don’t recommend you to do that, because there is a risk of backsliding, but still, Jesus will love you and try to draw you back to Him. Jesus Himself has said: I will never leave you, nor forsake you. Jesus’s love is Faithful.

And the love of Jesus is strong, it’s a source of strength. Love bears all things, it hopes all things, it endures all things. There is nothing stronger in the Universe than Jesus’s love, and when Jesus lives inside of you, He will give you both love and strength each day. God’s grace and Jesus’s love is a love that supports, helps, strengthens and gives comfort. Those who have Jesus’s love inside of them, also have an inner strength that will help them in testing.

And Jesus’s love is also full of truth, it rejoices with the truth. Jesus was filled with Grace and truth. Jesus loves an honest and upright heart, that comes to Him and tells Him the way it is. The Words that Jesus spoke were full of love, but also truth. If I have a love that is not based upon truth, it’s just empty words. But it’s the love which is based upon truth that has true meaning and will last.

The love of Jesus is also a suffering love, willing to sacrifice, it to drove Him to the cross. What Jesus did on the cross is the ultimate Proof of love. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. Out of love, Jesus took our sins upon Himself. Jesus didn’t have to suffer, but His love for us made Him suffer for us. And when we have Jesus and His love inside of us, we are also willing to sacrifice for Jesus and for our brothers, out of love.

Jesus’s love is also an act of free will, a choice. Jesus didn’t have to go to the cross, He chose it. And our response to Jesus’s love is also a choice. Salvation is also a free choice, an act of free will. And we also choose to love Jesus.

A man I met had a wife that He loved very much. The Lord asked him: would you still love Me if I took your wife away from you? He cried out: no, Lord, please don’t! But if you do, I would still love you, I would choose to love You, but You would have to help me with my feelings. We choose to love Jesus, especially in hard times we have to remember that.

And Jesus’s love never fails. His Love can not be defeated. The Devil and the world tried to kill Him, but Jesus defeated them and conquered it in His love. The cross is a symbol of love defeating what’s evil. It’s a symbol of life conquering death. In Christ Life wins, and Love wins. Jesus’s love is a winning love.

And the cross of Jesus Christ changes everything. John says: but as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His Name. After Jesus’s death on the cross and His resurrection, the door to God’s Kingdom and Eternal life is open. Everyone who wants can come to Jesus and go to Heaven.

And that’s out of love. The Bible says: see what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. It’s because of God’s love, that we can be called children of God. And think about that: we have been given the grace to be God’s children. What a wonderful love from God that we can be called God’s children.

And when we have Jesus in our hearts, we begin to love Him. I didn’t love Jesus at first, but when I received Him, I started to love Him. 1 John says: we love God, that’s Jesus, because He first loved us. Don’t wait with coming to Jesus until you are free from sin or until you love Jesus, no, come to Jesus as you are, and Jesus will change you, cleanse you and fill Him with His love and you will also love Him.

And Jesus has an amazing love for His people and His church. If Jesus loved you when you were an unsaved sinner, if He loved you before you were born, how much more will He love you now that you belong to Him. Jesus loves His church with a passionate, overwhelming love. It’s His bride, and Jesus is longing to be with His bride, to pour out all of His love upon His bride.

Zephaniah 3:17 says that He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. If you are sad and feel not so loved by Jesus, then read these verses. We have feelings, but we live by faith, and what God’s Word says is true. Picture yourself that Jesus is singing rejoicing over you in Heaven, with a heart full of love for you, because that’s the truth.

And because of His love for His people and church, Jesus will be the good Shepherd. He will lead us, guide us and protect us. Jesus speaks about The false Shepherd, who is hired, he will flee when he sees the wolves come to hurt the sheep, but Jesus is the true Shepherd. He will warn His sheep and fight for them. Wolves are false preachers, false prophets, and if you are a pastor, you should be Christlike and protect your sheep. Acts 20:28 says: take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to Shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His Own Blood. For I know this that savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.

We should protect the flock since Jesus’s love is a protecting love. We should not be like Kain who did not take care of his brother, no, if we see a wolf coming, we try to help our brothers.

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. Be rich in love, and you are rich before God. Love is the greatest, and love will never end. There is a place called Heaven. Everyone can come to Heaven, but unfortunately some will be lost, because they didn’t receive Jesus. Here on earth we have a foretaste of Heaven through the Holy Spirit. The Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy and peace. And it’s lovely, but we are disturbed sometimes by testing, people that we love that leave us or die, and we don’t feel the love, joy and peace that God gives us. The Holy Spirit is a wonderful gift of God, but it’s not the full inheritance.

But In Heaven we receive it in full. For now we see in a mirror, but then face to Face. We will see Jesus Christ face to Face, and be filled with everlasting grace and peace, and with unspeakable heavenly joy, and above all, filled with the full measure of Jesus’s love for us. Jesus has an amazing love for us, and when we ask for it and seek it, He will give us more and more of it on earth.

And one day in Heaven, you will be totally filled with the full measure of Jesus’s love for you. Amen.