The former talk show host Phil Donahue wrote in his best selling autobiography, “If God the Father is so all-loving, why didn’t He come down and go to Calvary! Then Jesus could have said, “This is My Father in whom I am well pleased.” How could an all-knowing, all-loving, God allow His Son to be murdered on a cross in order that He might redeem sin?”
In 2008, Oprah speaking on her New Earth Ministry’s website stated;
• “I am holy, my salvation comes from me, do not cling to the ‘Old Rugged Cross’”.
• “God is a feeling experience not a believing experience. If it is believing, it is not God!”
Statements such as these though shocking are not new. In fact, they are just redressed and repackaged arguments that have been around for centuries. But statements such as these, make statements like the one I am about to tell you throb in our soul;
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16-17
This passage is familiar to all of us and perhaps it is the most well known passage of Scripture in all of history, and it has been called into question. And yet, it is this very passage that lies at the very core of Christianity. It has been called the Gospel in a nutshell, the very essence of who God is, what He has done and why He has done it.
In ever age and in every way biblical faith in Jesus Christ has come under attack. The Apostle Paul told young Timothy, For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 2 Tim. 4:3-4
In other words, don’t get sucked in. It has been said, “the only thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn anything from history”. Perhaps we as Christians are the most guilty. Throughout the years, Christians have continually found themselves getting pulled in to foolish arguments, but the Word of God is clear; don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. 24And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel; instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. 2 Tim. 2:23-24
We live in a day and age unlike any that most of us have every experienced. Christianity, our faith that we have held near and dear has come under attack. It no longer has the privileged place it had in our society just 25 years ago. Much of this has come from outside sources, while some of it unfortunately has come from within. According to Bill Hybels book, How to become a contagious Christian, a national survey which rated occupations placed TV evangelists below lawyers, politicians, car salesmen, prostitutes, and just slightly above organized crime bosses and drug dealers.
But again this is not new. Corruption from within and assault from without has always been the case. But Jesus calls us to a higher standard. That’s why we want you to grow as disciple and fully devoted followers of Christ and not just as a church goers. Jesus wants us to be learners and He expects us to not only follow, but to put into practice His teachings.
Now having a correct biblical theology is not only necessary, but essential. We need to know what God’s Word says. However, as Pastor Nate uncovered for us last week, we also need to have an attitude that is hungry and thirsty for the things of God. Disciples are learners who recognize their own poverty and the richness that comes from a growing relationship with Jesus Christ.
Jesus wants us to be learners who do not get sidetracked, or get sucked into foolish and stupid arguments that lead nowhere.
We have seen in this study of growing in your walk how the religious leaders were beginning to breathe hard on the neck of Jesus and His disciples. They were calling into question virtually everything He was doing. But instead of retaliating, striking back, being vengeful or getting even, Jesus told His disciples to
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. 30Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you. Luke 6:27-31
There are several words for love in the Greek language.
• Eros- romantic love
• Philia- brotherly love
• Agape- unmerited love
It is this third kind of love that God has for us. It is a deliberate love. It is a love that chooses to love despite the action or reaction from another person. It is the kind of love that would allow God to demonstrate his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
It is a supernatural love that supersedes our natural inclinations.
Folks, I don’t have this kind of love and you don’t have this kind of love either, for it is not a natural kind of love. It is much easier for us to want to get back at someone and to make them hurt as they have hurt us.
But as learners and disciples of Christ, He wants us not to do that. And the only way to not do that is to experience His supernatural kind of love.
And the only way to know that kind of love is to come into a personal relationship with Jesus and allow Him to love you, heal you, deliver you and make you whole. That’s why we spend so much time on this, because it’s so very important. Not just for you, but for others as well, especially those who don’t yet know Jesus.
You can try to explain Jesus’ kind of love. You can try to argue with someone about His kind of love. You can discuss, debate, and even demand that someone listen to you about Jesus’ kind of love. But the reality is that you can’t really explain it, you can’t really argue, discuss, debate or demand that someone understand it, because it’s a relationship. That’s why Paul says, don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments 2 Tim. 2:23
They only way for people too understand this supernatural love of God is to see it, feel it and experience it. And the way God has chosen to show and reveal Himself is through us. We are Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. 2 Cor. 5:20
Jesus said "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:34-35
That’s the plan! Good, bad or indifferent, that’s it!
Folks, Satan knows this and he does everything he can to pull us away from God’s plan and get us all caught up chasing rabbit trails that lead know where.
How easy is it for us to get pulled off course by every new teaching or deception that comes down the pike? Jesus knew that His disciples then and now would all too easily get caught up into foolish debates and miss that mark of what He’s calling them to do. So this is what He told them and tells us. Are you ready?
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
That’s the plan? That’s it? That’s how we are suppose to respond to those who tear Christ down and what we believe. But why? Why not fight? Why not take an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?
Why, because our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Eph. 6:12
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness, "made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 2 Cor. 4:4-6
The Lord tells us to do battle with different weapons, and those weapons consist of Loving your enemies, doing good to those who hate you, blessing those who curse you and praying for those who mistreat you
This is about as unnatural, unusual, and uncommon as it gets. But Jesus is calling us to exercise unnatural deeds, with unnatural words, with unnatural prayers through an unnatural kind of love. It’s so unnatural that it requires supernatural intervention. It’s a kind of supernatural love that does not react to people, circumstances or situations, but responses to God and to others through a supernatural kind of love that can only come through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
This kind of love is so radical, so revolutionary, and so unconventional that it has turned the world upside down when applied.
We need to know who we are in Christ. We need to stand on His Word and apply it to our lives each and everyday. But the reality is that more people have been brought to Christ’s Church by the kindness of real Christian love than by all the theological arguments in the world.
Conversely, more people have been driven from Christ’s Church by the hardness and ugliness of so-called Christianity than all the doubts and arguments in the world.
Jesus said, 32"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ love those who love them. 33And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ do that. 34And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ lend to ’sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. 35But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Luke 6:32-36
This supernatural agape love of Jesus reaches out to neighbors and opens up the family of God to the lonely, the hurting, and all who are seeking the genuine and tangible love of God. It reaches out to those from the Penthouse to the outhouse and all in between.
This supernatural love encircles enemies as well.
If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Rom. 12:20-21
William Barclay has said, “The Christian’s only method of destroying his enemies is to love them into his friends”.
The great question for us is a sound one, how can we live up to this and how can we love our enemies?
In ourselves it is not just difficult or hard, it is impossible. None of us regardless of how hard we try are capable of loving in this way. However, when we allow ourselves to enter into God’s presence on a regular and ongoing basis, something miraculous begins to take place. Through new birth in Christ, Scripture tells us that we actually become partakers of His divine nature and His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 2 Peter 1:3-4
Folks, being a disciple of Jesus is so much more than coming to church, it’s about knowing Christ and becoming more like Him. It’s learning and about permitting the Holy Spirit to change you from the inside out. It’s about loving the Lord in such a way that we are transformed by that love.
Last Saturday night brother Larry Schultz shared with us a wonderful truth. In essence he said that we need to fall in love with the Lord all over again.
He shared with us what happened to that wonderful church in Ephesus who forgot that. The Lord said to that church in Rev. 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Rev. 2:2-4
Folks, no matter how much our church grows or how many wonderful things God gives us to do, let’s never forget our primary purpose is to
love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19
The disciples at the church at Corinth likewise had great potential, but the Apostle Paul reminded them
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
