Sermon Archive

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. . .

More Messages from Dr. Rick Mandl

From Series: "Seven Words That Will Change Your Life"

Words have power. Even the simplest words can change the trajectory of your life. Words like Help can set an addict toward recovery. Yes can open doors to new dreams. Sorry and Thanks can heal families. When you use these small words, God can do big things in your life.

Sermon Notes