A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Judy Mandl reflects on Psalm 40:5 and reminds us that God is always working and that most of the time we are only aware of a small portion of what He is doing in our lives.
A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Pastor Rick reflects on Proverbs 6:27-28 and Galatians 6:7-8 and reminds us that if we ignore God’s Word, more often than not, we will become the cautionary tale that others are telling.
A message from the series “See Jonah Run.” Welcome Church Family. This weekend, we’re beginning a new teaching series going through the Old Testament Book of Jonah. We’ll be spending the next four weekends looking at each of the 4 chapters of this book, and so, if you have your Bible, or your Bible app, let me encourage you to turn right now to the Book of Jonah Chapter 1, which is where we’re spending our time today.
Jonah is a small book located in the midst of some other small books in the Old Testament. If you’re not sure where it is, or how to find it, the easiest way to find the book of Jonah, is if you go to the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) and work backward about eight books. While you’re turning there, let me mention that just about everybody knows the story of Jonah! Even people who aren’t Christians know this story. . .
Jonah was, of course, that little wooden boy who ended up in the belly of a whale, with his father Giapetto, and each time he would lie, his nose would grow longer. . . Oops, wrong story! That’s not Jonah, that’s Pinocchio. While there are some similarities between the stories of Jonah and Pinocchio, in-as-much-as someone gets swallowed by a fish and lives to tell the story. There are also some critical differences… There’s no singing cricket in the Book of Jonah, and there’s no wooden puppet going around saying, “I’m a real boy, I’m a real boy.”
The most important difference is that the story of Pinnochio is a Fairy Tale, and the story of Jonah really happened.
Each week, we’ll be looking at one chapter of Jonah’s story. There are 4 chapters in this book, so we’ll be spending four weekends looking at Jonah. Today Jonah, Chapter 1, beginning in verse 1, we read . . .
“The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.’ But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish. But the Lord hurled a powerful wind over the sea, causing a violent storm that threatened to break the ship apart.
“Fearing for their lives, the desperate sailors shouted to their gods for help and threw the cargo overboard to lighten the ship. But all this time Jonah was sound asleep down in the hold. So the captain went down after him. ‘How can you sleep at a time like this?’ he shouted. ‘Get up and pray to your god! Maybe he will pay attention to us and spare our lives.’ Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit. ‘Why has this awful storm come down on us?’ they demanded. ‘Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?’ Jonah answered,’ ‘I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.’ The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord.
‘Oh, why did you do it?’ they groaned. And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm?” ‘Throw me into the sea,’ Jonah said, ‘and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.’ Instead, the sailors rowed even harder to get the ship to the land. But the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it. Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God. ‘O Lord,’ they pleaded, ‘don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.’ Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him. Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.” AMEN!
A little bit of background about Jonah… Who was he? Jonah was one of the Minor Prophets, not minor because he didn’t have the skills to make it to the majors, and not minor because his message wasn’t important, but minor because of the length of the book that bears his name. The 39 books of the O.T. are grouped into categories, and two of those categories are the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets. The longer books are the Major Prophets, the shorter are the Minor. For example – – – Isaiah was a prophet and his books is numbered among the Major Prophets because the book that bears his name is 66 chapters long. Jonah is categorized among the Minor Prophets because his book is 4 chapters long.
This 4 chapter book is where we’re going to be spending our time this weekend and over the next 3 weekends, so I want to encourage you to accept the “Jonah Challenge”, and if you want to accept this challenge you can let us know by selecting this as one of the next steps on your connection card. What’s the Jonah Challenge? Just this, read the book of Jonah once a week for the four weeks. What? You want me to read a whole book of the Bible, and you want me to do that four times? Even though it’s 4 chapters long, the four chapters only total 48 verses, so it would take you about 10 minutes to read the book. Read it once a week. Do that and you’ll learn a lot about Jonah. You’ll discover some things about who he was.
As I said, he was one of the minor prophets. As a prophet he was someone to whom God spoke, and then he had the responsibility to take the message that God had given him and share it with others. Jonah was a real guy. He’s not just mentioned here – but in the book of 2 Kings we’re told that he was a well-known prophet among the people of Israel and everyone paid attention to his words. He’s also someone that Jesus referred to as a real guy who really did live.
In Matthew 12:40, Jesus speaks of his own time in the grave and he likens it to what happened to Jonah. Jesus said, “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Jonah was a real guy who really lived, and the word of the Lord came to Jonah, telling Him to go to Nineveh and preach, and Jonah didn’t want to do it. Which isn’t surprising, Nineveh wasn’t the kind of place you’d want to vacation. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. The Assyrian empire was at the height of its power from 700BC – 612BC and they were some of the most wicked and cruel people on the face of the earth. They attacked and conquered cities – – – raping all of the women and young girls and then killing them. They would take the men outside of the cities and skin them alive. Then they would bury them alive up to their necks in sand and then leave them in the sun to die.
And then, after they died, they would behead them, and take all of the heads of these people and stack them into a pyramid and that would be a monument to the fact that they had conquered that city.
Nineveh was a brutal, intimidating city, and God said Jonah – – – “I want you to go to Nineveh and tell them to repent.” And Jonah didn’t want to do it, and the reason that he didn’t want to do it was because he was AFRAID. Not afraid of the brutality of the Ninevites, but afraid of something else. Jonah knew something about what happens when prophets preach. Jonah knew that sometimes “when prophets preach — people repent.” And Jonah knew that God was gracious, and even though he was sending Jonah to preach a message of hell fire and brimstone, Jonah knew that if Nineveh repented, God would give those people a second chance. . .
He knew that if the people of Nineveh repented God would forgive them, and bless them and Jonah couldn’t stand the thought of that.
He couldn’t stand the thought of those heathen people being forgiven – and specially those heathen people who were Israel’s enemies. It’s an unusual reaction on the part of a prophet of God. Jonah wasn’t afraid of failure, he was afraid of success. How do we know that? We know it because of a prayer that he prayed to the Lord later on in this book when Nineveh did ultimately repent.
Later on, toward the end of this book, “Jonah complained to the Lord about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, Lord? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people..
Jonah says, “God, I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so, I knew you were the kind of God who would forgive those people, and then they would become believers and I’d have to be with them in eternity forever and God I didn’t want that cuz I hate those people and that’s why I ran”
“For God so loved the World? Yeah, well maybe so . . . But there are some people in this world that God may love but you don’t like because of the color of their skin, or their ethnicity, or some of the sins they are into… Think about that for a minute. . . .
Who is someone who is difficult for you to love?
For you, maybe it’s REPUBLICANS or DEMOCRATS. For Jonah, it was the people of Nineveh. And so, when the word of the Lord came to Jonah saying, “I want you to go to Nineveh,” Jonah didn’t just say “no” and just stay where he was. He literally turned tail and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction. It wasn’t just “No, God I’m not gonna make that 500 mile trip to the East to the place you’re calling me to go. I’m going west – 2000 miles in the opposite direction.”
God said “I want you to go to Nineveh”
Jonah said, “I think I’ll go to Tarshish”
Where was Tarshish? It doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that Tarshish, was as far from Nineveh as you could get in the known world. God said go East, Jonah bought a ticket hopped a boat and headed West, and as far West he could possibly go. Some scholars estimate that the trip from Joppa where Jonah boarded that boat, to Tarshish, where he was headed, may have taken a year to complete. That ought to give you some idea of how badly Jonah wanted to get away from God.
We’re going to spend these four weekends looking at Jonah because I believe that his story is our story too. I believe that there is a little bit of Jonah in all of us. Every one of us at some point in our life has run from God, every one of us has been at a point where God said “I want you to do this”, and we’ve said, “Sorry God, I’m not gonna do that.”
Let’s look at three Lessons We Can Learn From Jonah…
Any time you mention “Jonah” people immediately think about THE GREAT FISH, and that’s unfortunate because as we’re gonna see today and over the next three weekends, there’s a lot more to the story of Jonah than the lessons he learned at the bottom of the sea.
In fact, the Book of Jonah is not really about a fish. Only three verses in the book deal with the fish. The other 45 verses tell us the real message of Jonah’s story. The story of Jonah is a story about running, and most importantly it’s the story about the one who runs after us.
What are some of the Lessons We Can Learn From Jonah…
#1 – God’s Word is AS CLEAR to us AS IT WAS to Jonah
Often when we read Old Testament stories where God speaks to someone in a vision, or a dream or through an angel, the tendency is for us to think… Why? Why doesn’t God speak to me like that? Why doesn’t God just TELL ME what he wants me to do, cuz if he did, for sure I would do it?”
I understand that way of thinking, but I guarantee you, everyone of those guys who lived in Old Testament times, if you could talk to them, they would say “I wish God would just write things down in a letter to me so I’d know what to do. Instead I’ve got to follow some cloud by day to know where he wants me to go. Or, I’ve got to figure out what some dream meant? Was that God speaking to me through that dream? Or was it just that I ate some bad sushi before bedtime? It would be so much easier if he would just write things down and tell me what he wants me to do?”
Well the good news is he has! You and I have this book we call God’s Word, and the reason we call it God’s Word is because it’s God’s Word! It’s our OWNERS MANUAL. There is nothing you are going to face in life that isn’t covered by this book. If you’re Single – – – this book tells you how to live your life as a single person – – – it tells you what to do with your sexuality. Looking for Career guidance? It’s in this book! Trying to figure out how to do Marriage? How to treat your spouse? How to parent your kids? It’s in this book! This book tells you what to do with your Finances. You want to make sure that when it comes to finances, you’re not going it alone, but letting God lead the way?
This book tells you how you make Him Lord of that area. Whether it’s career direction, or relationships, or family advice, or figuring out your gifts and your purpose in life, everything you need is in here. And yet a lot of times we’re asking for God to speak to us, to give us direction. God says – — – “I’ve given you direction, I’ve written it out for you in black and white, and you’ve ignored it.”
He says, “If I can’t trust you with what I’ve plainly written, why would I ever tell you something more?” God’s Word is AS CLEAR to us AS IT WAS to Jonah, and yet sometimes we ignore it. So ask yourself, “Where am I acting like Jonah? Where in my life right now, am I not doing what God told me to do? Before I look at Jonah and say “What an idiot he was, I need to look at my life and say, “Where am I acting like him? Where in my life has God shown me what he wants me to do, and I’ve chosen to go the other way?”
God’s Word to you and me is as clear as it was to Jonah. A second lesson we can learn from this reluctant prophet is that…
#2 – Sin Splashes
What I mean by that YOUR SIN AFFECTS OTHERS. Think about it, it wasn’t just Jonah who was affected by his disobedience, but everybody else who was on that ship with him was affected. The Bible teaches that you never sin in isolation. We’d like to believe that our sin only affects us, but it doesn’t. It often affects those we love the most, and if it hasn’t yet, it may tomorrow. . .
Jonah couldn’t see it – – – he was oblivious to it – – – he was sound asleep, but these seasoned sailors… These men who had spent their lives on the sea. They saw what was happening, and they were SCARED FOR THEIR LIVES. They were TERRIFIED.
These men had been through lots of storms, but there was something about this one, that caused them to realize that this was no ordinary storm. This was something supernatural, and so they were terrified! Sooo frightened, that they begin throwing the cargo overboard. Now understand, the cargo was their livelihood! No cargo = no pay.
They are so scared that they are also doing something I’m sure they didn’t do often, and that is they’re praying, each to his own God.
Question – – – What had these sailors done to deserve having this calamity come upon them?
Answer – – – Nothing!!!
As far as we know they had done nothing wrong. Yet, in spite of doing nothing wrong they had lost their livelihoods and they’re in danger of losing their lives, all because they are in proximity to someone who is running from God.
Jonah’s disobedience was affecting everyone else in the boat. SIN SPLASHES!!! SIN SPLASHES!!!
PARENTS – – – your choices can affect generations after you. Some of you here today carrying around baggage – – – scars from your childhood, all because of the home you grew up in. You were hurt because of storms you went through, and yet you did nothing to cause those storms. Someone else’s disobedience affected you. Sin Splashes!!!!
Lesson #3 – It’s NEVER TOO LATE to TURN AROUND
Look again at verse 7, “Then the crew cast lots to see which of them had offended the gods and caused the terrible storm. When they did this, the lots identified Jonah as the culprit.”
“Why has this awful storm come down on us?’ they demanded. ‘Who are you? What is your line of work? What country are you from? What is your nationality?’ Jonah answered,’ ‘I am a Hebrew, and I WORSHIP the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land.’”
Time out! Let’s get this straight, you worship the God who made the SEA, you’re running away from HIM? What part of running away to SEA seemed like a good idea to you? And another question… “You say you WORSHIP this God – – – – the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land. You WORSHIP the Lord, then why are you running from Him? Why were you asleep? You WORSHIP???”
Yes, I worship! I go to church! I serve the Lord! I may be asleep, I may be disobedient, but I’m a worshipper. I go to church… I sing the hymns… I even say an occasional Amen! Now, my lifestyle may not be anywhere close to what God calls me to in His Word, but make no mistake, “I worship! I go to church!”
What we miss is that WORSHIP IS MORE than what happens here for an hour each weekend. Worship is about a LIFESTYLE that is seeking to reflect the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And yet we’ll still try to justify ourselves saying, “I worship! – – – I worship the Lord of heaven and earth. I may cuss like a sailor, but I worship! I’m not married, so of course I sleep around a little bit, but I worship! I know what God says about money and how I ought to handle it, and that I SHOULD return the first portion to him, but what’s mine is mine – – – but make no mistake I worship!”
Jonah told the sailors who he was, and who he was running from “The sailors were terrified when they heard this, for he had already told them he was running away from the Lord. ‘Oh, why did you do it?’ they groaned. And since the storm was getting worse all the time, they asked him, “What should we do to you to stop this storm? ‘Throw me into the sea,’ Jonah said, ‘and it will become calm again. I know that this terrible storm is all my fault.’”
Stop there for a moment, and think about something… How hard was Jonah’s heart? How badly did he not want to go to Nineveh? So badly that he would rather DIE than obey God. That’s why he said, Jonah said, “Throw me into the sea” But the sailors said, “We’re not gonna do it. We’re sailors, not pirates.”
Verse 13 tells us, “Instead, the sailors rowed even harder to get the ship to the land. But the stormy sea was too violent for them, and they couldn’t make it. Finally, as a last resort, these sailors did what Jonah said, but not before crying out to the Lord. “Then they cried out to the Lord, Jonah’s God. ‘O Lord,’ they pleaded, ‘don’t make us die for this man’s sin. And don’t hold us responsible for his death. O Lord, you have sent this storm upon him for your own good reasons.’ Then the sailors picked Jonah up and threw him into the raging sea, and the storm stopped at once! The sailors were awestruck by the Lord’s great power, and they offered him a sacrifice and vowed to serve him.”
Again, the lesson for us is that… It’s NEVER TOO LATE to TURN AROUND. No matter how far you’ve WANDERED, or even RUN from God. Our God is a God of the second chance, and the third chance, and the fourth chance, and more chances than you can count. One last blank for you to fill in on your notes. . . .
Surrender comes before Salvation.
What do I mean by that? Well think about it this way? When did things change for these sailors? Was it when they got scared and prayed? No. Was it when they cried out to God to save them? No!
In verse 5, they were scared, and each cried out to their own God, but the sea still got rougher and rougher. Did the sea grow calm when God (speaking through Jonah) told them what to do? No!
They were told by Jonah what God wanted them to do in verse 12… They chose to ignore that, and just try harder. Just row harder. And the storm just got worse and worse. They weren’t saved until they SURRENDERED, until they came to the end of their own resources and surrendered, to what God was telling them to do. That was when things changed.
Maybe you’re in a storm right now, and like those sailors, you are rowing harder and harder and harder. Maybe like them you’re even crying out to God, but you haven’t done the one thing that God is waiting for you to do, and that is SURRENDER.
If you’re crying out for God to SAVE you and for God to STOP something or for God to change something or for God to calm the storm, you might be talking to a silent God. If you are crying out to God because of a storm that has rocked your FINANCES, or your HEALTH, or your MARRIAGE and God isn’t doing anything. It may be that God is saying, “You have to SURRENDER before I’ll save you.”
Understand, God didn’t send the storm so that Jonah would DROWN, He sent the storm so that Jonah would TURN AROUND.
God can CALM THE STORMS, but sometimes he also SENDS THE STORMS as a way of getting us to turn around and surrender to Him. It happened to Jonah, it happens to us. I don’t want to leave this story by leaving you thinking that God left Jonah in the ocean to drown.
The last verse of this first chapter says, “Now the Lord had arranged for a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was inside the fish for three days and three nights.”
Come back next week and you’ll see that JONAH COMES OUT OF THAT FISH, and winds up on dry land, and if you read ahead into the second chapter you’ll SEE WHICH END OF THE FISH he comes out of, but trust me . . . and here’s the important thing. . . he comes out of the fish, ALIVE! He is SAVED… All because something happens inside the fish – When he’s inside the fish he SURRENDERS.
Let’s PRAY.
A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Judy Mandl reflects on Isaiah 40:8 and reminds us that God’s Word is not new but it will never grow old. It’s powerful, active, and unchanging and we can build our life on obeying its truth.
A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Pastor Rick reflects on the story of Jonah, a man who ran from God, and a God who ran after that man, and some lessons we can learn from this prodigal prophet.
A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Raquel looks at Matthew 5:8 and reflects on what it means to be pure in heart so that we will see God.
A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Pastor Andrew continues his look at the events of the day of Pentecost as they’re recorded in Acts 2
A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” Judy Mandl reflects on Matthew 5:16 and reminds us that a witness without words will eventually leave people confused.
A message from the series “Daily Devotional Videos.” In His Sermon on the Mount Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” From those words and many others, we realize that God places a high priority on the harmony of the relationships in which we’re involved. Is there anyone from who you’re estranged right now? How much have you done to be at peace with that person, and how recently did you do it? Pastor Rick looks at Romans 12:18 and the simple instruction that God gives us for pursuing peace.
A message from the series “Seven Words That Will Change Your Life.” We are wrapping up our series called Seven Words That Can Change Your Life. And in this series we’ve seen the power of one word. . . And how one simple little word like “NO” or “YES” or “ENOUGH” or “SORRY” or “HELP” can make a big, big difference.
We began with the word “NO” because if you’re going to be able to fulfill God’s plan for your life, then you have to continuously say no to those things that are standing between you and what God’s best is for you. Being able to say “NO” can be the thing that makes room for a bigger “YES”. We looked at the counter-cultural word “ENOUGH”. And we realized that we need to work hard to not just go along with what our culture is telling us, and instead, to live with the open hand, and say, “I’ve got enough,” “God, you are enough.” And that that requires a lot of work.
We saw that it’s God’s will, that those of us in Christ Jesus give THANKS in all circumstances. And so THANKS is a word that should be a frequent part of our vocabulary. And then last week, we learned that there will be times that we need “HELP” And part of help, is teaching us humility so that we can ask for the help that we need. The only way to experience God’s grace is by being willing to say “Help” and acknowledging our need for His grace. If we never see our need for His help, then we’re not going to be interested in the solution for our sin that he offers.
All of which brings us to the last word of the series, which is the word – WOW
Read through the record of our Lord’s birth, and his life and his death, and his resurrection, and you will see that there were people who over and over, saw who he was, and what he had done, and their reaction was. . . WOW.
You begin with the birth of our Lord and the first ones who received the announcement of that birth. Do you remember who they were? They were the shepherds who were out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night, when suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared to them with the announcement of this child’s birth. And the response of the shepherds was “WOW”. And they quickly hurried to the manger in Bethlehem. And arriving there, they told everyone what had happened and what the angel had told them about this child. And all who heard the shepherd’s story said, “WOW”. They were astonished!
When he began his ministry there were many times when others were WOWED by Jesus. They were WOWED by his teaching, because He spoke with authority. They were WOWED by his miracles. . . Turning water into wine, Healing the sick, Raising the dead. Do you remember the time that He was with his disciples out on the sea, and he was asleep in the boat? And a storm came upon them and they thought they were going to die. And they woke him up and he calmed the storm… And the reaction of his disciples was “WOW!” Who is this man that even the winds and the waves obey Him?
There are two times that I can think of when Jesus was WOWED, and both of those times had to do with the faith of different individuals. The first was a Roman officer, you can read about it in Luke 7. His servant was sick and near death, and he sent a request to Jesus for help. And Jesus was going to grant that request, and come to his home and heal his servant. But as he was on his way, that officer sent word to Jesus and said, “Lord you don’t need to come, but if you just say the word, my servant will be healed.” And we’re told that Jesus was WOWed – – that he was amazed by that man’s faith.
The second time we see him amazed was in his home town, in the Synagogue in Nazareth. He taught there, and some of those who heard him said “WOW”. Some were amazed. But others scoffed, they said “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas, and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” And upon hearing that Jesus said, “Wow” as he was amazed at their unbelief.
Today, as we think about this word WOW, I want us to think specifically about what it was about Jesus, what it still is about Jesus, that continues to WOW the world. If the movement that Jesus started, with the calling of His TWELVE disciples, was something that was simply of man, then by all rights it should have died out, not long after JESUS death. And yet the reality is, the movement that Jesus started grew from just a few people, to hundreds of people, to thousands of people, to a worldwide phenomenon in just 30 years. And the reason that I choose that number. . . just 30 years is because in the year 64 AD there was a fire that destroyed the city of Rome.
Historians tell us that in all likelihood, it was the Roman emperor Nero himself, who started that fire, so that he could use it as an excuse to rebuild the city, but Nero couldn’t admit that he started the fire.He needed someone to blame, and so he blamed the Christians, and as a result of that, a widespread persecution was unleashed against the followers of Jesus.
What’s interesting is, that in order for Nero, to use those Christians, as his scapegoat, there had to have been enough of them – – – Enough followers of Jesus, living in Rome 30 years after Jesus death, to be able to blame the destruction of an entire city on. Remember, Rome is about 1500 miles from Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified, and now 30 years later, there were enough Christians living in Rome to blame for the destruction of an entire city. Fast-forward, another 250 years, to about 300AD, and another Roman Emperor by the name of Constantine, declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire. You look at that and you wonder, how? How did Christianity go in just 300 years from a religion with zero followers, to the most well-known religion on the planet? I believe that you can find the answer to that by looking back to the way that this movement began. And it began in heaven, not on earth.
And you can read about that in Philippians chapter 2. Here is what the Apostle Paul writes beginning with verse 5 . . “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.”
What does Paul mean there? He means that although Jesus Christ possessed total equality with God, he didn’t regard that equality with God, as something to grasp tightly and cling to… “Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” Philippians 2:7-8
Paul is telling us that you and I need to be imitators, we need to have the same attitude as the one that he has just told us about in those words. We need to imitate Jesus. Clearly we can’t imitate his divinity, but we can imitate his humility. And Jesus modeled that humility again and again throughout his time among his disciples. On the night before he went to the cross, he gathered his disciples together for a final meal. We call it the Last Supper And at that meal, in an incredible act of humility he got up from the table and he washed their feet. And then he explained why . . . He told them . . “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you.” He continued and told them . . . “I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.”
Jesus told them, do these things and people will stop and say WOW! Jesus said if you want to experience my blessing and my power, that will happen when you do the things for others that I have done for you. Not when you BELIEVE them. Not when you TEACH about them. Not when you TALK about them. But when you actually DO them.
Jesus said when we love other people the way that he loved us, it’s then that they will see His love alive in us.
The Apostle John in his first letter described it this way. He wrote . . .“Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. No one has ever seen God???? Why? Because He’s invisible. But here’s the thing. . . John says . . “But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.”
Again. . . “his love is brought to full expression in us.”
When we love the way that Jesus loved, suddenly the invisible God becomes visible through us.
Let me give you what you might call the BIG IDEA for today. The Big Idea Is . .. BE LOVE So That Others Will BELIEVE.
There is a whole community . . A whole world around us who will never believe unless they first experience His love And I think we’ve got it backwards. . . We’re trying to drag people, shame people, guilt people in an attempt to bring them to God, but it doesn’t work that way. You need to BE LOVE. You need to BE JESUS to people, then they will believe.
When Jesus was once asked what the greatest commandment was, out of all the commandments in the O.T. he didn’t have to think long before giving an answer. He said that the greatest commandment was LOVE. ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.” And yet Jesus as he spoke to His disciples at that Last Supper, gave them another commandment, and it’s our MEMORY VERSE for this weekend . . .
After he had washed their feet, and had given them an example. After he told them . . . I have given you an example to follow… now do as I’ve done to you. After he told them “Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.” He then told them . . . “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
Jesus says, the standard is no longer to love others as you love yourself. He raised the bar and said it’s to love one another as I have loved you. He said, this is what is going to prove to the world that we are his followers. So, if that’s the standard, then it begs the question, of how did Jesus love. Let me suggest to you three ways.
First. . . Jesus Loved Those Who Could DO NOTHING FOR HIM
Toward the end of Matthew’s gospel, in Matthew 25, Jesus shared a parable to help us understand what the final judgment would be like. The picture that he paints, through that parable that he shared, is of a coming day when all the people of the earth would be gathered before Him, and he would separate them, like a shepherd separates his animals, with the sheep on one side and the goats on the other. In this parable. . . The shepherd is separating them, not on the basis of what they believed, but rather, on the basis of what they had done. Some people find the parable a little confusing. . . They read it and say, “Wait a second . . . is this saying you can earn your way into heaven?” The answer to that question is “No” The only way to get to heaven is to trust in what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross, to pay the penalty for our sins. That’s the ONLY way to get to heaven. There is no other way. We are saved by faith alone.
But as Martin Luther once said . . . “We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone” In other words . . . Genuine faith, real faith will always result in life-change And that life change brings with it corresponding actions. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said . . . “Anyone who listens to my teaching and Does what?? “Anyone who listens to my teaching and FOLLOWS IT is wise…”
He could have said, “Anyone who listens to my teaching and BELIEVES it… He could have said “Anyone who listens to my teaching and STUDIES it… But he didn’t And I believe the reason that he didn’t was because he knew that if we’re not FOLLOWING what he taught, then we don’t really BELIEVE it, no matter HOW MUCH WE SAY we believe it or HOW LONG WE STUDY IT.
In this parable, look at what Jesus said to those on his right He said . . .“‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’”
You look at those he talks about in that parable. The hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned. What do they all share in common? What they all share in common is their desperate need, and the fact that they have no way to do anything in return for the kindness that you show toward them. They were the least of the least. They were the most vulnerable. And Jesus said, as you love them, you are loving me.
It’s easy to love those who love us. Jesus said . . . “If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? . . . If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else?” The love that Jesus showed that WOWED the world, was the love that was directed toward those who do nothing for Him.
In addition to that, Jesus loved those Who Others HAD WRITTEN OFF
Whether you’re talking about . . . the woman caught in adultery… Or the the woman who had five failed marriages and was living with someone else… Or the tax collector named Matthew. . . These were all people whom others had written off.
In Matthew 9 we read about the day that Jesus called Matthew to follow Him and Matthew threw a party And we’re told that . . . “Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with such scum?’”
Jesus critics could not understand WHY Jesus would hang around with people like that. I mean, THEY wouldn’t waste their time with people like that, so why would Jesus? He told them why. . . “When Jesus heard this, he said, ‘Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.’ …For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”
Have you ever thought about the fact that Jesus may have come for that person who you like the least? That person who doesn’t share your values? Who doesn’t share your lifestyle? Who doesn’t share your political persuasion? Who doesn’t watch the same cable news network as you? What if Jesus came for them? And what if Jesus is saying to you, the person that you love the least – whoever that is, that just came into your mind. That is the person I love the most? If we’re gonna love like Jesus, If we’re going to BE LOVE so others will BELIEVE then WE NEED TO LOVE THEM because those were the ones that Jesus loved.
The third thing we see about those who Jesus loved is that . . . Jesus loved perfectly those Who Loved Him IMPERFECTEDLY
And when it comes to those who loved Jesus imperfectly. . . I don’t believe you can find a better example of someone who loved Jesus imperfectly, than his disciple, Simon Peter. You remember Simon Peter. He was the first one of Jesus disciples to guarantee that he would stand with Jesus till the very end. He said . . .“Even if I have to die with you, I will never deny you!” I say he was the first, because as soon as he said that, all the other disciples made the same promise. And you know what happened. When push came to shove When it came to crunch time. . . Peter bailed. . . He swore that he didn’t even know who Jesus was. And he deserted him.
Fast-forward. . .to a point following the resurrection of Jesus. Simon Peter and the other disciples had gone fishing. They had fished all night and caught nothing. Then Jesus appears on the shore, but they don’t know that it’s Jesus. He tells them to give it one more try. He tells them to “Throw their net out on the right-hand side of the boat,” And they did, and they caught a catch so big they couldn’t haul it in. And suddenly they recognize that it is Jesus. And Simon Peter is so anxious to see him, that he jumps out of the boat and swims to shore. And when he arrived there, he found that Jesus had prepared breakfast. And Jesus engaged Peter in a conversation.
We’re told that . . .“After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ Peter replied, ‘you know I love you.’ ‘Then feed my lambs,’ Jesus told him. “Jesus repeated the question: ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Yes, Lord,’ Peter said, ‘you know I love you.’ ‘Then take care of my sheep,’ Jesus said.” “A third time he asked him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, ‘Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Then feed my sheep’”
What was Jesus doing here? Some refer to this as the re-commissioning of Peter
I’m not sure that’s the best way to think of it because I don’t know that Jesus ever de-commissioned Peter. I don’t think he ever said to Peter, “I had a plan for you, but you blew it, so I’m done with you.” You’re history.
This wasn’t Jesus recommissioning Peter, this was Jesus REMINDING Peter. “Yeah, you blew it. You blew it big-time. But I knew that was going to happen when I called you, and what you need to know right now is that I love you anyway. I love you in spite of your failure.”
Maybe you’re here today, or maybe you’re watching online and you need to hear this message. You need to hear the message that you will never be able to out-sin God’s grace. If you’re new to church. . . I know it can be kind of intimidating. You see these church people, and you think “I could never be like them.”
Two things I want to remind you of. Two things. When it comes to the people you see, remember. . . .
#1 – Every saint has a past
You may not see it, but trust me it’s there. Every saint has a past. And the second thing to remember is that…
#2 – Every sinner has a future.
If you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, you need to know that every time you fail, Jesus will give you – just like He did Peter – an opportunity to reaffirm your love for him. An opportunity to turn back to Him and say, “Lord you know all things, you know that I love you.” And because that’s the way that He loves us, that is the way that He calls us to love others. It’s to those people we need to BE LOVE so that they can BELIEVE.
Would you pray with me toward that end. . .
