In the last post, we talked about the shocking statement of Jesus in Luke 9:23, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, daily, and follow me.” But does Jesus really demand our death? No, not necessarily, not in the sense that He wants us to all die as martyrs. But, Yes! He wants each of our lives in exchange for His own life. Then He will live through us.
And the result? Jesus will love through us. Romans 5:5 says, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
The slant I want you to see is clear in the Old King James which translates the verse like this: “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
Think of it this way: Your life is like a cup. The Holy Spirit pours love into your life in abundance, so much so, your cup runneth over. Where does all that love go? It is “shed abroad” to those you meet.
You can’t help obey the command of 1st John 3:16, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” A truly surrendered life will be a life that loves because Christ will love people through you. Agape love will flow from you to all those around you. And that, claims John, is proof of our salvation. 1st John 3:14 says, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.”
My friend, no sacrifice is too great where love is concerned. And Christ gave us our example by dying for us. The cross is the greatest proof of His love and the greatest example of love. It is not unreasonable for Him to expect that same kind of sacrifice from us.
Showing posts with label sacrifice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sacrifice. Show all posts
Friday, October 26, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
The Sacrifice of Love
Nobody that understands the cross doubts God love. That was the topic of the last post. But the topic today is the forgotten part of 1st John 3:16 – “. . . And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Ah, most of us know and love John 3:16, but most of us would rather forget 1st John 3:16. But if we do that, we miss out on life’s greatest blessing - the blessing of showing love to others. It’s wonderful to experience God’s love, but it’s even more wonderful to participate with Christ as He shares love; to be the instrument by which Christ’s love.
This really does turn the natural laws on their head. The first law of physical life is self preservation, but the first law of spiritual life is self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice is required even to the point of giving up our dearest possession – our very lives.
To illustrate, I’d like you to turn to a hymn in our hymnbook that expresses this kind of self-sacrifice – When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” It goes like this:
“When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.”
And the final stanza reads:
“Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.”
Amen! How true!
That kind of sacrifice will be our attitude when we truly understand the cross. It will break our hearts. Nothing we could ever do for God would be enough, could ever be enough. To respond to God’s love by loving others could be our only response. 1st John 4:19 says: “We love Him because He first loved us.”
To what extent do we love? 1st John 3:16 tells us, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” This is simple cause and effect. Because Christ loved us that much, we naturally would want to reciprocate. And since we show love to Christ by loving those He loves, we love each other. And, we love to the point of laying down our own lives for one another.
That is the essence of being a follower of Jesus Christ - total, unreserved surrender to Christ. Luke 9:23 says: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” The call, the invitation, is to come, to follow Christ. That invitation is open to all. But the condition (the “if”) is this: “let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
At the foot of the cross, there is no room for self-will. We come to God as utterly broken people. We have nothing to offer Him – we are empty handed. We stand naked and alone and totally condemned for our sins before the only one who can save us, who can heal our lost spirits, who can mend our brokenness. And what does He ask for? That we deny ourselves.
Deny, in Greek, means to utterly forsake. Luke 9:24 continues: “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.” “Well, Pastor, Jesus isn’t talking about actual death here, is He?” Oh, yes! He said, “Take up your cross” didn’t He? And He didn’t mean, wear a lapel pin, or put a bumper sticker on your car. I don’t think they had them back in Jesus day.
Back then, they didn’t look at the cross as a pretty piece of jewelry, but an ugly instrument of death. The cross symbolized extremes of both excruciating pain, heartless cruelty, and, above all, death!
And Jesus knew He was going to the cross. Repeatedly, He had told His disciples, like just a few verses back in Luke 9:22, that He was going to the cross. He said: “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.”
The cross was common in that day. Just a few years earlier, a man name Judas had led a bunch of zealots in revolt against Rome. In response, the Roman General Varus took immediate action, and he ordered over 2,000 crucifixions to teach the upstart Jews a lesson. Crosses lined the roads of Galilee from one end to the other, each bearing a writhing man in excruciating pain, each man dying a long and merciless death. Each of the apostles, with the possible exception of John himself, was also martyred.
Certainly, the apostles knew what Jesus talked about. It was obvious – the cross meant death. Jesus asks us to abandon ourselves to Him with no reservations, with no consideration of the cost - not even of life itself.
But, in giving up, we gain. When we give our lives over to Jesus, we receive His life in return. He lives in and through us. Galatians 2:20 assures us: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Christ gave His life for you. It is only reasonable that you, in return, give your life to Him.
And by doing so, you gain Christ’s life, lived out inside you, through you. What more could you want?
This really does turn the natural laws on their head. The first law of physical life is self preservation, but the first law of spiritual life is self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice is required even to the point of giving up our dearest possession – our very lives.
To illustrate, I’d like you to turn to a hymn in our hymnbook that expresses this kind of self-sacrifice – When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” It goes like this:
“When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.”
And the final stanza reads:
“Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.”
Amen! How true!
That kind of sacrifice will be our attitude when we truly understand the cross. It will break our hearts. Nothing we could ever do for God would be enough, could ever be enough. To respond to God’s love by loving others could be our only response. 1st John 4:19 says: “We love Him because He first loved us.”
To what extent do we love? 1st John 3:16 tells us, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” This is simple cause and effect. Because Christ loved us that much, we naturally would want to reciprocate. And since we show love to Christ by loving those He loves, we love each other. And, we love to the point of laying down our own lives for one another.
That is the essence of being a follower of Jesus Christ - total, unreserved surrender to Christ. Luke 9:23 says: “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” The call, the invitation, is to come, to follow Christ. That invitation is open to all. But the condition (the “if”) is this: “let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”
At the foot of the cross, there is no room for self-will. We come to God as utterly broken people. We have nothing to offer Him – we are empty handed. We stand naked and alone and totally condemned for our sins before the only one who can save us, who can heal our lost spirits, who can mend our brokenness. And what does He ask for? That we deny ourselves.
Deny, in Greek, means to utterly forsake. Luke 9:24 continues: “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.” “Well, Pastor, Jesus isn’t talking about actual death here, is He?” Oh, yes! He said, “Take up your cross” didn’t He? And He didn’t mean, wear a lapel pin, or put a bumper sticker on your car. I don’t think they had them back in Jesus day.
Back then, they didn’t look at the cross as a pretty piece of jewelry, but an ugly instrument of death. The cross symbolized extremes of both excruciating pain, heartless cruelty, and, above all, death!
And Jesus knew He was going to the cross. Repeatedly, He had told His disciples, like just a few verses back in Luke 9:22, that He was going to the cross. He said: “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.”
The cross was common in that day. Just a few years earlier, a man name Judas had led a bunch of zealots in revolt against Rome. In response, the Roman General Varus took immediate action, and he ordered over 2,000 crucifixions to teach the upstart Jews a lesson. Crosses lined the roads of Galilee from one end to the other, each bearing a writhing man in excruciating pain, each man dying a long and merciless death. Each of the apostles, with the possible exception of John himself, was also martyred.
Certainly, the apostles knew what Jesus talked about. It was obvious – the cross meant death. Jesus asks us to abandon ourselves to Him with no reservations, with no consideration of the cost - not even of life itself.
But, in giving up, we gain. When we give our lives over to Jesus, we receive His life in return. He lives in and through us. Galatians 2:20 assures us: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Christ gave His life for you. It is only reasonable that you, in return, give your life to Him.
And by doing so, you gain Christ’s life, lived out inside you, through you. What more could you want?
Thursday, October 18, 2012
No Greater Love
Back in John 13:35, we found another test of love. Jesus said: “By this (by love) all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Our love for one another can be used by the world to evaluate our salvation.
But, what kind of love is Jesus talking about? That’s pretty clear from John 13:34 – it’s Christ’s own love for you. John 13:34 says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” So how did Jesus love you?
Was it with eros love, the erotic love that dominates our movies? Nope! That kind of love is never used in the New Testament. This isn’t lust driven, based on how physically attractive the one loved is. That’s not how Christ loved us.
Nor is it phileo love – brotherly love motivated by strong emotional feelings. The kind of love bonds us into friendships. But Christ’s love isn’t based on the pleasing character of the one loved either.
Rather, this is agape love – the love that characterizes God. But, what is agape love? Agape love is sacrificial love. It is a love that gives and gives and gives, even though it might never receive anything in return. It’s a love that’s not motivated by the loveliness of the one loved, or how pleasing they are, but it loves in spite of it. It is a love that loves because we choose to love. We aren’t carried along by our eyes or our emotions. It’s not falling in love at first sight. Often, agape love acts in spite of our eyes and emotions.
Agape love is a volitional love. We will to act in loving ways regardless of how we feel.
This is how we can love humans that are deformed and far less than perfect physically. And this is how we can love people who are cantankerous and obnoxious. We choose to love.
That’s the kind of love that God both demands from us, and the kind of love that the world judges our salvation by whether it is present or absent in us. And God can demand that kind of love from us because that’s the kind of love God showed toward us
Christ, of course, set the example. Did you know that there is hardly a verse in the New Testament that speaks of God’s love that doesn’t also speak of the cross of Calvary? The cross is the proof, and the greatest example of God’s love.
The example of that is right here in 1st John 3:16, which says, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” How do we know what love is? Because Christ lay down His life for us. That’s the greatest example there ever could be.
And who did Jesus die for? Some worthy, respectable, beautiful person? No! Not on your life! He died for you. He made that ultimate, extreme sacrifice for someone like you.
Just so you don’t miss the point, here’s what Romans 5:6-10 says:
“For when we were still without strength (we were totally unable to save ourselves), in due time Christ died for the ungodly (That’s what we were, ungodly – we were without God). For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die (That’s how we humans usually operate – we sacrifice only for those who are worthy). But God (God is different) demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners (Still doing our own thing, still violating all God’s laws), Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies (Not even neutral, but set against God and His will) we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
That’s not very complimentary of us, but it’s true. Christ died for us while we were very unlovable, very much set against God. But He chose to love us, nonetheless, and proved it by dying for us.
Paul’s testimony is recorded in Galatians 2:20. He says, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Can you say that same thing? Do you know that Christ loves you and died for you?
1st John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The word, Propitiation, means to satisfy God’s holy wrath against sin. God poured that wrath out against His own dear Son rather than require we be punished for our sin. That is how much He loved us.
And of course there is John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Do you see? Every time we talk about God’s love, it is always in connection with Christ’s sacrifice. God loved us so much, He gave, and what He gave was His own Son. What sacrifice could be greater? What love could be greater? Can you imagine someone rejecting that great a love? Yet, so many do - I hope it’s not any of you.
But, what kind of love is Jesus talking about? That’s pretty clear from John 13:34 – it’s Christ’s own love for you. John 13:34 says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” So how did Jesus love you?
Was it with eros love, the erotic love that dominates our movies? Nope! That kind of love is never used in the New Testament. This isn’t lust driven, based on how physically attractive the one loved is. That’s not how Christ loved us.
Nor is it phileo love – brotherly love motivated by strong emotional feelings. The kind of love bonds us into friendships. But Christ’s love isn’t based on the pleasing character of the one loved either.
Rather, this is agape love – the love that characterizes God. But, what is agape love? Agape love is sacrificial love. It is a love that gives and gives and gives, even though it might never receive anything in return. It’s a love that’s not motivated by the loveliness of the one loved, or how pleasing they are, but it loves in spite of it. It is a love that loves because we choose to love. We aren’t carried along by our eyes or our emotions. It’s not falling in love at first sight. Often, agape love acts in spite of our eyes and emotions.
Agape love is a volitional love. We will to act in loving ways regardless of how we feel.
This is how we can love humans that are deformed and far less than perfect physically. And this is how we can love people who are cantankerous and obnoxious. We choose to love.
That’s the kind of love that God both demands from us, and the kind of love that the world judges our salvation by whether it is present or absent in us. And God can demand that kind of love from us because that’s the kind of love God showed toward us
Christ, of course, set the example. Did you know that there is hardly a verse in the New Testament that speaks of God’s love that doesn’t also speak of the cross of Calvary? The cross is the proof, and the greatest example of God’s love.
The example of that is right here in 1st John 3:16, which says, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” How do we know what love is? Because Christ lay down His life for us. That’s the greatest example there ever could be.
And who did Jesus die for? Some worthy, respectable, beautiful person? No! Not on your life! He died for you. He made that ultimate, extreme sacrifice for someone like you.
Just so you don’t miss the point, here’s what Romans 5:6-10 says:
“For when we were still without strength (we were totally unable to save ourselves), in due time Christ died for the ungodly (That’s what we were, ungodly – we were without God). For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die (That’s how we humans usually operate – we sacrifice only for those who are worthy). But God (God is different) demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners (Still doing our own thing, still violating all God’s laws), Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies (Not even neutral, but set against God and His will) we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
That’s not very complimentary of us, but it’s true. Christ died for us while we were very unlovable, very much set against God. But He chose to love us, nonetheless, and proved it by dying for us.
Paul’s testimony is recorded in Galatians 2:20. He says, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Can you say that same thing? Do you know that Christ loves you and died for you?
1st John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The word, Propitiation, means to satisfy God’s holy wrath against sin. God poured that wrath out against His own dear Son rather than require we be punished for our sin. That is how much He loved us.
And of course there is John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Do you see? Every time we talk about God’s love, it is always in connection with Christ’s sacrifice. God loved us so much, He gave, and what He gave was His own Son. What sacrifice could be greater? What love could be greater? Can you imagine someone rejecting that great a love? Yet, so many do - I hope it’s not any of you.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Sacrifice
Last time, by way of illustrating Paul's statement, "For me to live is Christ," in Philippians 1:21, I told the story of St. Francis of Assisi. After he was converted, he began to love those things he once loathed, even lepers, and went out of his way to show them love for Christ's sake. What would cause him to do that? Christ living through him.
What else could explain the heroic acts of service and sacrifice that characterize Christians? What else can explain the myriad of martyrs for Christ down through history? In our flesh, how could we face the excruciating pain and degradation that this world's hatred piles upon us? We can't. We're too weak and sinful. But Christ can through us. Christ can empower us through His Holy spirit living within us so that we can do "all things through Christ who strengthens me"(Philippians 4:13).
Listen to the story of Perpetua. She was a noble woman, wealthy, well born, and a young mother in North Africa; but her Christian faith was outlawed in the third century Roman Empire. Emperor Septimus Severus had forbidden conversion to Christianity and required all citizens to offer sacrifices to him as a god. But she refused. Perpetua's father argued with her to abandon her Christian faith. He begged her not to throw away her life.
"Was it really such a bid deal," he asked, "to make such a small ceremonial sacrifice to the emperor?"
Perpetua pointed to a ceramic pitcher and asked, "Father, do you see this pitcher?"
"Yes, of course I see it," he replied.
"Can it really be called by any other name than what it is?" she asked.
"No," he answered.
"So I also cannot be called anything else than what I am, which is a Christian."
In her own diary, she wrote, "Enraged by my words, my father came at me as though to tear my eyes out."
On March 7, 203 AD, Perpetua and her servant were stripped naked and led into the amphitheater to face gruesome death. But even the bloodthirsty crowds couldn't stomach the sight. A medieval source book records the crowd's reaction:
The officials then sent the gladiators in to behead the women. But as they approached, these hard-hearted killers began to tremble. The first strike again did not kill, and it again sickened the crowds. Perpetua showed all of them mercy by clutching the gladiator's hand and guiding the sword to her neck for a killing blow.
What could give her and so many others such courage? What would allow them to make such a costly stand? It certainly isn't our own strength. But we can show that kind of courage if Christ lives through us. Those who simply play at their faith would never do that. For those Christian's who are content to simply go through some rituals.....they would never take a stand. For those who are content with tame religion, this kind of faith and sacrifice seem beyond imagining. For them almost any sacrifice is too much.
Way too many people see Christianity as no more than having to give up listening to certain music they like or having to wear ugly clothes. And they rebel at those sacrifices. But that isn't the Christianity that fired the heart of a Francis of Assisi or a Perpetua. A Christianity that worries about giving up a few sins isn't the Christianity that will sacrifice their lives for Christ. Only Christians who are transformed by Christ's indwelling presence do.
What else could explain the heroic acts of service and sacrifice that characterize Christians? What else can explain the myriad of martyrs for Christ down through history? In our flesh, how could we face the excruciating pain and degradation that this world's hatred piles upon us? We can't. We're too weak and sinful. But Christ can through us. Christ can empower us through His Holy spirit living within us so that we can do "all things through Christ who strengthens me"(Philippians 4:13).
Listen to the story of Perpetua. She was a noble woman, wealthy, well born, and a young mother in North Africa; but her Christian faith was outlawed in the third century Roman Empire. Emperor Septimus Severus had forbidden conversion to Christianity and required all citizens to offer sacrifices to him as a god. But she refused. Perpetua's father argued with her to abandon her Christian faith. He begged her not to throw away her life.
"Was it really such a bid deal," he asked, "to make such a small ceremonial sacrifice to the emperor?"
Perpetua pointed to a ceramic pitcher and asked, "Father, do you see this pitcher?"
"Yes, of course I see it," he replied.
"Can it really be called by any other name than what it is?" she asked.
"No," he answered.
"So I also cannot be called anything else than what I am, which is a Christian."
In her own diary, she wrote, "Enraged by my words, my father came at me as though to tear my eyes out."
On March 7, 203 AD, Perpetua and her servant were stripped naked and led into the amphitheater to face gruesome death. But even the bloodthirsty crowds couldn't stomach the sight. A medieval source book records the crowd's reaction:
"The people shuddered seeing one a tender girl, the other her breasts yet dropping from her late childbearing. So they were called back and clothed with loose robes."The officials chose a bull for the execution. A bear kills too quickly, but a bull would gore repeatedly. Yet after a bloody mauling, the young women were torn, but not dead. The crowds cried, "Enough!"
The officials then sent the gladiators in to behead the women. But as they approached, these hard-hearted killers began to tremble. The first strike again did not kill, and it again sickened the crowds. Perpetua showed all of them mercy by clutching the gladiator's hand and guiding the sword to her neck for a killing blow.
What could give her and so many others such courage? What would allow them to make such a costly stand? It certainly isn't our own strength. But we can show that kind of courage if Christ lives through us. Those who simply play at their faith would never do that. For those Christian's who are content to simply go through some rituals.....they would never take a stand. For those who are content with tame religion, this kind of faith and sacrifice seem beyond imagining. For them almost any sacrifice is too much.
Way too many people see Christianity as no more than having to give up listening to certain music they like or having to wear ugly clothes. And they rebel at those sacrifices. But that isn't the Christianity that fired the heart of a Francis of Assisi or a Perpetua. A Christianity that worries about giving up a few sins isn't the Christianity that will sacrifice their lives for Christ. Only Christians who are transformed by Christ's indwelling presence do.
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