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MORE ABOUT JESUS
The Look of Love
It was early 1967 and Dusty Springfield released a hit song called, ‘The Look of Love’. It was all about that look you see in someone’s eyes that tells you that they love you. You know, I’m sure, that twinkle and sparkle in someone’s eye, that glimmer, that shine of affection you see as you gaze into someone’s eyes. A year after that song came out, I saw that look in my sweetheart’s eye, I recognized it right away even though my own eyes were sparking away. That look of love in your eyes you just can’t hide.
The lyrics go like this:
The look of love is in your eyes,The look your heart can't disguiseThe look of love,Is saying so much more thanJust words could every say,And what my heart has heardAnd my eyes have seen,Well, it takes my breath away
In Mark 10:21, we read; Jesus looked at him and loved him.
-the look of love, Jesus looked at him and loved him.
Here's the authentic story as recorded in Mark 10, before I read this story I want you to enter the story and be there and observe Jesus, learn more about Jesus, see everything happening, sense the emotion, hear the words, look and see the ‘look of love’ in Jesus’s eyes.
I would like to ask and answer 2 questions today.
Q -are you the young man whom Jesus looked at and loved?
Q -what will you do with the look of love from Jesus?
Mark 10
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Let me ask and answer that first question right away.
Q -are you the young man whom Jesus looked at and loved?
In fact, Jesus is looking at you now and He loves you. This is a common theme in the Bible and in Jesus’s heart -He LOVES you. When you enter this scene of the young man with Jesus, why don’t you gaze into the Saviour’s eyes. There you will see and sense that Jesus loves you. I have looked, I have seen and I am loved. Praise God.
There are several people in the Bible where it says Jesus loved someone
-in John 13:23 it says Jesus loved the Apostle John.
-in John 11:15 it says Jesus loved Martha, Mary and Lazarus.
-in Rev. 3:9 Jesus Himself speaks and says he loved the people in
the church at Sardis.
The love of Christ for us, and for you directly, is common in Scripture:
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church … (that us, that’s you in particular -you can’t escape His love)
Romans 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
(you can’t get separated from His Love)
Galatians 2:20 ... The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (agape love -sacrificial)
Ephesians 5:2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us
just as Christ loved you.
Please enter the dusty roads of Judea, where this scene happened and see Jesus loving YOU.
As you are in the scene, look into Jesus’s eyes, look into the eyes of the rich young ruler, see Mark observing these looks and expressions. These looks are intense and full of real life.
However, don’t be fooled, Jesus eyes looked at many things in His ministry and although His love never changed there were other things His eyes saw and expressed.
- in Luke 22:61 we see Peter denying Christ 3X, the rooster crows and the verse says that Jesus looked at Peter -what was seen in His eyes then -Love yes, disappointment, hurt?
Jesus looks at you too, even during your failures and sins and still loves you -such is the love Christ towards you.
-in John 1:42 Andrew brings Simon to Jesus and Jesus looks at him, what was in His eyes as Jesus renames him, Peter, rock, Cephas?
Jesus did love Peter and saw into Peter’s future and Jesus looks at you with love and knows your future. So, trust Jesus, the One who loves you so.
-in Luke 21:1 Jesus is at the temple and looks at the rich people giving loads of money and the He looks at the poor widow giving a tiny mite. Jesus eyes saw and judged these gifts according to God’s standard and His eyes praised her and His mouth proclaimed it.
Jesus’s loving eyes see all that you do and knows your heart.
-in Matthew 18:12 the Good Shepherd looks and sees that 1 sheep is missing and leaves the 99 and caringly looks for that 1 sheep
-consider that 1 sheep -YOU. He looks for you. Jesus loves you.
-In Matthew 3:5 men of evil intent bring to Jesus a man with a withered hand, it’s the Sabbath and they want to see if Jesus would heal on the Sabbath, His eyes look at these foolish men, His eyes were distressed and angry it says. Their hearts were hard -Jesus sees that and He will not play their religious/godless games.
Angry eyes at hardened hearts -Jesus sees you and I and when we play games with Him He is displeased -I think one can sense in their spirit God convicting displeasure if we’ll just look at Him and to Him.
-Jesus’s eyes looked at Zaccheus in the tree he had climbed and called him down,
-Jesus looked at the crowds and His eyes were filled with compassion, --He looked at His mother from the cross with care in His eyes,
-He looked at the temple activity and His eyes showed anger at the corruption
Jesus eyes saw many things, His eyes conveyed His heart, compassion, care, anger, disappointment but there was always love for His own.
Never forget -Jesus loves you, when He looks at you He has the look of love for you.
Let that fact of Jesus love for you -hold you, and hold you fast -His love for you will never stop, it will never diminish or fade away or change. It is our anchor that holds us forever. Look at Jesus now, look into His eyes and what do you see. LOVE. If that doesn’t convince you that you are loved then look at Jesus’s hand and feet. Nail driven hands bearing your sin punishment expressed ultimate love for you.
Let that fact of Jesus love for you -comfort you in your storms and the turbulence of life, Jesus loves you, cares for you, watches over you despite your circumstance His love is sure and comforting. The embrace of Jesus’s love for you is the greatest relief one can experience in Jesus. Feel the warmth in experiencing Jesus.
Let that fact of Jesus love for you move you to really live, live in His love, experience the freedom of not trying to earn His love but move into the soul knowledge that you have His love, and you have it forever. Unstick your feet from the frozen ground of human effort of trying to be loveable, good enough to be loved, to basking in the grace gift given to you of Jesus love. Jesus loves you. (period).
Experience Jesus and His unrelenting love for you, let your experience with Jesus direct your paths, shield your life, quench your fears, control the worries of life. Jesus loves you this you know.
In all of life, in your life right now, it is dependent on what you do with His love not on if Jesus loves you -you are loved -unchanging and constant.
Primarily and just like the disciples, especially Thomas, Jesus tells us to look, with our eyes, at His hands and feet -nail driven, pierced through and wounded for us.
-can you imagine the look in His eyes on the cross, to see His look of love for you from that wooden tree -love and pain mingled because Christ Jesus the Lord loves you. My name is written on His hands, it is written in red and red is spelled LOVE.
Q -what will you do with the look of love from Jesus?
John 3:16 agape AMP
“For God so [greatly] loved (agape love, perfect sure) and cherished the world (people, people with names like…) , that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish but have eternal life.
This verse describes the reason we don’t need to wallow in our mistakes and make excuses for our sins. It tells us why we can make a faith choice to live a life of freedom each and every day.
What do you do with the look of love from Jesus?
Believe in Jesus in your heart, believe that Jesus came for you in love and died for you because of His grand love for you. Believe and accept His death as paying the punishment for your sin and ask Him to now be in charge of your life.
This is the grandest thing we do, believe in Jesus and follow Him.
For many of you who have already believed in Jesus did you know that Jesus is still looking at you? His gaze and look of love still resides on you, He has not left your side nor have you passed from His sight
And the question for you is this. -What will you do with Jesus’s love, this look of love that is upon you every day, what about today?
It is easy not to look back at Jesus’s look of love daily. It is easy for us at times to not sense and experience His love daily. We become complacent, lazy, distracted, off-kilter and off-balance in daily living. But we must experience Jesus daily, experience His love daily as we go through our days.
Being a Christian is having a relationship with Jesus and your only job when you become a Christian is to stay close to Jesus. Daily.
I invite any person to come to Jesus, look into His love and believe in Jesus as your Saviour.
I invite all Christians to stay close to Him to come to Jesus daily and to experience Him, to experience His love for you and to experience His power in you.
More about Jesus would I know, More about Jesus’s love to grow.
