Why Jesus Wept - Love Your Neighbor

River Valley Church • Pastor Logan Ketterling •

Summary

In this powerful message concluding the 'Love Your Neighbor' series, Pastor Logan Ketterling explores the significance of Jesus weeping and what it teaches us about empathy, compassion, and loving others. Drawing from John 11 where Jesus wept at Lazarus's death, Luke 19 where he wept over Jerusalem, and his anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane, Logan challenges the congregation to develop a burden for the lost and hurting around them. He shares personal stories of loss and suffering, including his wife Mac's fourth miscarriage, to illustrate how God's love exceeds our anguish. The message emphasizes that we must feel something for those who are lost—not treating it like a sports game where some win and some lose, but understanding the eternal weight of souls. Logan calls believers to align with God's heart for all people to be saved, reminding us that Jesus wept not just for his friends but for those who reject him.

Key Takeaways

  • Jesus wept three times in scripture, teaching us about love, empathy, and the heart of God
  • We must receive God's love before we can love others - we love because he first loved us
  • God exceeded the depth of our anguish with the significance of his presence
  • Measure God's love not by health and wealth, but by how much of himself he shows you
  • Suffering sometimes allows us to turn from distractions and turn toward Jesus
  • Weeping is an antidote to pride - if your eyes leak, your head won't swell
  • When you weep for the lost, you align with the heart of the Father
  • Don't feel more for your sports team than for souls going to hell
  • The extent to which your heart is broken determines how much you'll sacrifice
  • The message to everyone: You don't have to go. You can choose Jesus.

Outline

Introduction and Campus Announcements

  • Addressing the 'Cross Town is the best campus' comment with humor
  • Personal background serving at multiple River Valley campuses
  • Recognizing that all campuses have different strengths

Understanding Empathy and Tears

  • Sharing StrengthsFinders results showing empathy as lowest score
  • Statistics on how often men and women cry
  • Humans are the only animals with emotional tears
  • The shortest verse in the Bible: 'Jesus wept' (John 11:35)

Why Did Jesus Weep at Lazarus's Death?

  • Jesus knew he would raise Lazarus, so why cry?
  • People questioned Jesus's love and timing
  • Jesus was frustrated that people questioned his love
  • The word used describes emotion like 'snorting like a horse'
  • Jesus sympathized with human sorrow while possessing divine strength

Loving Our Neighbors Requires Seeing Them

  • People don't care about our memorization or achievements
  • They want to know: Do you love me? Do you see me?
  • The story of Jonah who didn't want Nineveh to repent
  • God's character in both Old and New Testament is loving and forgiving
  • We can't love neighbors if we don't see them as Jesus sees them

Personal Story of Loss and God's Love

  • Mac's fourth miscarriage in 18 months
  • Watching his wife in physical and emotional agony
  • Crying because he couldn't do anything to help
  • This must be how Jesus felt for Lazarus and feels for us
  • God exceeded the depth of their anguish with the significance of his presence

Suffering and God's Glory

  • Not all suffering means God doesn't love us
  • Sometimes suffering is used so God can get glory
  • Sometimes we suffer because of our own mistakes
  • Suffering can turn us away from distractions toward Jesus
  • John Piper quote: Measure God's love by how much of himself he shows you

Jesus Wept Over Jerusalem

  • Luke 19 - Jesus wept over the city before his betrayal
  • People made religion about legalism and power
  • Jesus cleansed the temple because they made it a den of robbers
  • Rituals don't save us - only Jesus can save
  • None of us are immune to sin and pride

Weeping as an Antidote to Pride

  • Martha Tennyson quote: 'If your eyes leak, your head won't swell'
  • Praying for increased burden for people in our community
  • Prayer requests aligned with God's heart are granted
  • God desires all people to be saved (1 Timothy 2)
  • When we weep for the lost, we align with the Father's heart

We Should Feel More Than We Do

  • Don't treat lost people like they lost a sports game while we won
  • We should feel more for souls than for our sports teams
  • Apostle Paul's 'great sorrow and unceasing anguish' for the lost (Romans 9)
  • Paul wished he could trade places with those going to hell
  • The greatest communicator of the gospel was filled with anguish for the lost

Jesus Wept in Gethsemane

  • Matthew 26 and Hebrews 5 describe Jesus's anguish
  • Jesus prayed with loud cries and tears
  • Possibly sweating drops of blood
  • Jesus became sin for the first time on our behalf
  • This reveals how terrible sin truly is

The Love That Motivated the Cross

  • 2 Corinthians 5: Jesus became sin so we could become righteous
  • John 3:16 - God's love motivated him to send Jesus
  • Jesus's love motivated him to die on the cross
  • When was the last time we remembered and thanked him?
  • Evil in the world helps us realize we're missing God's good and love

Weeping for Those Who Choose Sin

  • Philippians 3 - Paul wept for enemies of the cross
  • Some people know what Jesus did but still choose sin and death
  • Some celebrate in their shame and rejection from God
  • Sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59)
  • Story of the mother who walked away despite her son's plea to stay

The Message: You Don't Have to Go

  • Like the 10-year-old boy pleading with his mom: 'You don't have to go'
  • People don't have to choose sin and separation from God
  • They can choose Jesus instead of hell
  • Prayer for Christians to weep for the lost
  • Prayer for those who don't know God's love to receive it

Scripture References

John 11:32-36
When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.' When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, 'Where have you laid him?' They said to him, 'Lord, come and see.' Jesus wept. So the Jews said, 'See how he loved him.'
Proverbs 3:11-12
My child, don't reject the Lord's discipline, and don't be upset when he corrects you, for the Lord corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights.
1 John 4:19-20
We love because he first loved us. If someone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
John 11:4-6
But when Jesus heard it, he said, 'This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the son of God may be glorified through it.' Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
Luke 19:41-46
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, 'Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.' And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold.
Jeremiah 7:11
Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes?
John 14:13-14
Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
1 Timothy 2:3-4
This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Romans 9:1-4
I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
Hebrews 5:7
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.
Matthew 26:38-41
Then he said to them, 'My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.' And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, 'My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.' And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, 'So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.'
2 Corinthians 5:21
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Philippians 3:18-19
For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their appetite, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
Isaiah 59:2
But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.