Brave Love

Today I thought I would post a sermon I preached yesterday.  I'm not exactly sure what prompted me to post this one, but I am assuming that maybe God would like to use it somehow on this blog like He used it yesterday.  May He speak to you today.

John 19:1-18

Point 1:  Making the Right Call

Pilate was put in a difficult situation.  History shows us the Pilate had no respect for the Jewish law and customs.  On at least two separate occasions, Pilate took action that violated the law.  During the night, he had his soldiers bring in the standards of Rome bearing the image of Caesar into the city.  What does the 2^nd Commandment say?  “You shall not make for yourself a carved image…  You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God” (Exodus 20:4-5a).  The Law of God is to be taken seriously, and this led to no images at all being allowed within the city of Jerusalem.  When the populous of Jerusalem woke to see the image of Caesar all over Jerusalem, there was public outcry!  People even came running in from the country to beseech Pilate to take the Roman standards out of the city.  When Pilate denied their request, they fell prostrate on the ground, and they stayed there for five days.  Pilate tried to remove them by threat of violence, but the Jews exposed their necks and cried out that they would rather die than have their law continue to be broken.  Pilate relented, and the standards with the images of Caesar were carried out of the city.  After this, he raised another disturbance by using the sacred money dedicated to God in the temple treasury to build aqueducts.  When Pilate came to Jerusalem, the people protested it.  He had his soldiers hidden in the crowd, and he had those that protested beaten so badly that many died, and others were trampled by the crowd.  Fear held the tongues of the rest.  The fallout from these events made Caesar unhappy about the unrest and bloodshed going on in Judea, and had made it clear that if there were any more incidents, that Pilate would be paying for it with his blood.

So Pilate is there watching the Jews get angry and upset and about to riot because of they want Jesus crucified.  That is why he was afraid and also why he did eventually hand Jesus over to be crucified.

Application:  This can happen to us if we aren’t careful.  Our culture, the world, our flesh often tries to deceive us.  It looks good, but it really isn’t.

Example:  Take a look at this lake.  It looks good, right?  I came across this picture online, and the first thing I thought was I could use a vacation there.  It’s a good thing I didn’t book the tickets because even though Lake Karachey looks pristine, it is one of the most polluted lakes in the world.  Enough radioactive material has been dumped in it to kill a person with just an hour of exposure.

Pilate tries to appease.  He tries to go along with the crowd, with the world.  He does what a lot of people would consider the smart move to advance his career, and make sure he is in good favor with his superiors.  His wife even tries to warn him that he should let Jesus go, but he chose to go along with the people.  It even seemed to work.  Yet the world never has our best in mind.  God does.  Some people will tell us nice sounding philosophies, but only God is truth.  My eyes told me that lake would be a great vacation spot, but it would have killed me.

It is the Word of God that keeps us on the correct path.  We cannot even fully trust ourselves and how we feel to make the right call on things, but we can trust Him!  The next time you have a decision to make, don’t be like Pilate.  Look to God’s Word and to the Holy Spirit to help you make the right call.

Point 2:  Making the Hard Call

While Pilate was busy not listening to wise council and making the wrong call, Jesus was in the middle of making the hard call.  You see our hope as Christians is based not on law or ritual.  It is based on one person, Jesus Christ, who is God and humbled Himself to come down to us… but He didn’t have to.  God is perfectly good, perfectly pure, perfectly just, perfectly powerful, and perfectly complete.  When mankind sinned, we removed ourselves from a relationship with God in the same way a person removes themselves from their spouse when they commit adultery and have sex with someone else.  Divorce!  It is not the person’s fault who was cheated on.  It is the person’s fault who did the cheating, and we cheated!  We went to something else rather than to our first love!  “What a filthy wretch I am” that I would throw

away the love of the Father of Lights!  Yet, here comes this child in a manger, and the Magi are guided by a star rising in the east.

Now, here is this child, ~30 years later, on His knees sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, and He says, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with Me.”  And going a little farther He fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me!” (Matthew 26:38b-39a).  Jesus is there knowing what is going to happen in all of its pain and misery and horror!  He knows what it will take to bring this relationship between God and man back together, and to call it unpleasant is the most profound understatement or all time!  Then, he makes the hard call, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39b).  Father, I don’t want to do this, but I submit Myself to you as the Son.  I will do as you command!  I will!

After this, God the Son is resolute.  He may not like what He must do, but He knows it is right!  He has made the call to love in a way that passes our understanding of the word, and when Judas kisses Him, He says, “Friend, do what you came to do.”

Think about the how it was for Jesus to stand before Pilate and the Jews hatefully and wrongly accused.

Think about His walk to Calvary, carrying the cross as the wood scraped across the wounds on His back.  Think about the difficulty in each step...  the mocking...  the scorn.

Think about the crucifixion.  Tetelestai!  It is accomplished!

The Divorce is no longer valid.

We are reconciled to God.

Brave Love.

Jesus said, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you.  These things I command you, so that you will love one another” (John 13:12-17)

Jesus didn’t just command us.  He showed us.  Every step of the way, every drop of blood, every lash of the whip, every bit of agony, Christ bore in love for us.

Application:  It now comes to us.  We will have choices in life to make the easy call or the hard call.  The easy call may be fine.  Maybe there isn’t anything against it in Scripture.  Maybe they did sin against you, but remember that we sinned against a holy God who decided to make the hard call and love us more.  He would have been completely right in allowing the divorce, the separation between Himself and us to be there.  He was wronged, but it was love that moved Him to come down to earth.  It was love that caused Him to walk the steps to Calvary.  It was love that bled Him on the cross for us.  Brave Love.  Your call.

 

Observing Love

What do you look at in a pastor?

Maybe doctrine is the first thing you look for.  Do they subscribe to Biblical inerrancy?  Are they pre-millenial, amillenial, or post-millenial?  What do they think about this?  What do they say about that?

How about their preaching?  Most people want some engaging, passionate sermons.  For others, they need to have some theological thought, or they won't be satisfied.


A pastor needs to understand what it means to be a shepherd of people.  A shepherd is a person charged with looking after the sheep put under their care, and the same is the true for a pastor.  A pastor is not merely a preacher.  Given a bit of training and some confidence, anyone can get up on front of a group of people and speak.  Add some solid Biblical knowledge, and you have a preacher.  A pastor needs to be called by God to lead, but that particular part is for another post at another time.

What a pastor needs to have is revealed in Scripture as Paul writes, "And if I have prophetic (preaching) powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge... but have not love, I am nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:2).  A pastor, that does not have love is worthless.  It doesn't matter if they can preach the tie off a televangelist.  The central job qualification of a pastor is not public speaking.  If you hold the job title of pastor, and love for those in your charge is not foremost, you need to evaluate your heart.  You are likely doing more harm than good.  If you cannot bring yourself to love those in your care, you need to stop.

What is the top complaint against Christians in America today?
They're hypocrits!  They say one thing and do another.  While a sinless life has and will only be lived by one man, Jesus Christ, who is also God, the lives of His followers should be marked by humility, faith, courage, and love.  One who is called to lead His followers, the pastor, should have a life that actively shows these qualities.

Now we come back to the original question.
What do you look at in a pastor?

I can tell you as a pastor what I believe a person should look at first in the one they chose to submit to as a spiritual shepherd.  This person should be able to say as Paul did, "Follow me as I follow Christ."  That means their life should be a life of action.  Their actions should back up what they say. 

• He preaches passionately about sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the lost.  Have you seen him do it?  Has he or anyone else talked about times when he has?  
• He preaches about loving people like God loves them.  Does he?  Have you seen him caring for and loving people?  
• He preaches that you need to have an active prayer life with the goal given in Scripture to "pray without ceasing."  Does he take the opportunity to pray?  Does the prayer come from his heart? 
•  He preaches about not neglecting fellowship.  Do you know him enough to know whether those other things are true?

Take care in choosing the person who will pastor you.  Make sure that is what they are doing.

Conviction

I was watching the Avenger's today.  After Loki stabs in the back, Agent Phil Coulson looks at him and says, "You're going to lose."  His reasoning is given in his next statement, "Because you lack conviction."

I think that some Christians are more concerned with maintaining the status quo or being comfortable or safe or concerned with how well they do in this world.
They lack conviction... or they're afraid.  You cannot win that way.

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" (Isaiah 43:18-19).

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9).

"You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4).

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it" (1 Cor 9:24).

"I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:14).

It is time to we get some conviction and remember that God is serious about what He says...  and He is not mocked.  We will reap what we sow. 

Hand to the Plow

"As they were going along the road, someone said to him, 'I will follow you wherever you go.' And Jesus said to him, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.' To another he said, 'Follow me.' But he said, 'Lord, let me first go and bury my father.'
And Jesus said to him, 'Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.' Yet another said, 'I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.' Jesus said to him, 'No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.'" (Luke 9:57-62).

There are some morning when I wake up that I just cannot shut my brain off.  Sometimes, my thoughts are focused on one particular thing, even one particular Scripture.  It is at these times, I know God is speaking, even shouting, to me about it.

This morning that Scripture is, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."  My first fear is, "Have I taken my hand off the plow?"  That is surely a frightening thought.  At his point, laid off almost two months ago, I have felt a whirlwind of emotions.  Desperation, fear, anger, pain, betrayal, etc. have come and gone.  Some of the emotions I have felt are valid.  Others are just the ripples of the shock I felt when I was first told.  I remember coming home that day after getting the news.  I was literally in shock, and everything felt surreal for the first day or so.  I never thought I would have such a reaction, but you can never understand unless you are laid off from the job that is supporting your family, the one you cannot pay the bills without.  However, in this time, I have learned more about trusting God to provide, and He certainly is.  I don't have a job, yet, but I do have some good prospects.  I try to remember that God often enjoys delivering us from falling at the very last second.  I think it reveals to us (He already knows) how much we are really trusting Him.

The question then comes, have I taken my hand off the plow?  I'm now involved and active in a different church, and I am leading a small group.  It certainly does not look like I have on the outside.  What about the inside?  You have to ask this question.  Where is your heart?  Think about all those pastors that Satan or the world as gotten a hold on.  On the outside, they probably looked just fine, or at least they didn't look like they were having affairs or embezzling money or whatever.  It was long before that when their hearts ran away from God.  No, I don't think that my heart has run away like that, but it is a reminder and a warning to me, and I hope by writing this it will be a reminder and a warning to you as well not to "forsake your first love."  If you look at your heart and realize that you have, the blood of Jesus was shed for that sin, too.  Turn back to God now!

Maybe that verse goes deeper still.  What if the very slightest appetite of the heart turns us from the work of God in this world.  Laziness wants to watch the game as opposed to doing some real beneficial Kingdom work.  I watched a documentary this morning on the Hundred Years War.  Yes, I'm a medieval history nerd.  A decree by Edward III forbade the watching of "idle games" in which football made the list because these things detracted from the more important business to do.  For Edward III and his son, The Black Prince, this was the Second Scottish War of Independence and the Hundred Years' War with France.  Today, while we do need our times to relax, do we take too much?  Do we focus on other things so much that we forget the work that is really important?  Edward III said that watching idle games made unworthy of the Kingdom of England, but Jesus said that turning back after you begin working for Him makes you unworthy of the Kingdom of God.

Press on, saints.  Do not be idle and lazy.  You are working for the King of Kings, the Great I AM, the One True and Living God!  Be renewed in Him and soldier on.

Bad Chocolates

I became a Christian in my last year of high school, but it was not until college that I really began to understand what it meant to follow Jesus.  I had a wonderful church family with a number of strong believers that encouraged me.  During college, my mom cheated on and left my dad for the other guy.  It was a whirlwind for me, and I assume it was similar for my brother.  We really didn't have any idea that she would do this.  She came back to him for a little while, but then she left again for good.  Later on, when I became engaged to woman I thought I would spend the rest of my life with.  We went became missionaries in Alaska for a short time.  After about five months, I came back to Texas to search for a job that would support us as we began our life together.  I took so time, but I managed to find a beginning, a part-time youth pastor position in Paris, TX.  The night before I left, we talked on Skype.  She ended it.  I was going through some pain at that point so I might have blocked it out, but I don't even remember an explanation, just, "I can't be your fiance anymore."  It was a long drive to Paris the next morning.

I have heard it said that we are all either just out of trouble, in trouble, or about to get slammed by some trouble.  I can testify that whoever said that dropped some wisdom on us with that particular phrase.  Peter said, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you" (1 Peter 4:12).  John told us, "
Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you" (1 John 3:13).  These guys spoke from experience.  All you have to do to know that is read the Book of Acts, and even that doesn't tell you everything they went through.  It stands to reason that if these guys are warning us that things will gets hard, we really shouldn't be taken off guard when our life feels like it is getting flushed.  If fact, we should probably expect it.

Satan takes advantage of the fact that we don't keep a firm grasp on God's Word, and he tries to use problems in our personal life to push us away from what God wants us to do.  Sometimes it is a number of little problems, and sometimes it's a big one.  Either way, he begins hammering wedge between us and God because we believe the lie that says once we become a Christian, everything in this life will go well with us.  That's a lie!  Jesus never once promised us that.  If fact, He was very clear that the opposite would be true, and if anyone tries to tell you this life is going to be wonderful because you are a Christian, you'd better run from that false teacher like he set your pants on fire.  Our hope is not in this world.  Our hope is in Jesus Christ, and the salvation He bought us in Eternity.

Yet I have seen Christian, strong Christians, who have had legitimate personal tragedies, and they began to retreat within themselves.  They pulled back from God, the ministries He had called them to, the church family He put around them, and sometimes they even blamed Him for it.  Why?  Well, sometimes emotions can make us do things we look back on later and shake our heads, but far too often it is because they have bought into that lie that for Christians, this life is bed of roses.  It's not!  It's really like a box of chocolates, and sometimes you get that horrible, nasty, toxic sewage waste wrapped in chocolate that as far as I can tell the company puts in there to keep us guessing!

Jesus got a lot of those during His life here.  He got the religious leader trying to trap Him.  He was rejected by multitudes.  He was spit on, hit, despised, tortured, and murdered.  Those are some bad chocolates, and He told us, "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.'  If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept my word, they will also keep yours" (John 15:18-20).

I don't know what bad chocolates you have had in your life.  It is likely that you have taken some from people inside the church as well as outside the church.  Jesus did.  He took it from the Jewish religious leaders and got stabbed in the back by both Peter and Judas.  Do you know what He did?  He leaned on His Father more, and He kept ministering.  I find it very troubling when I see Christians going through some hard time, and they let that pull them away from the ministry God has assigned them.  It's like taking a wound in combat only to lay down your weapon and walk away.  Did you expect it to be easy?

When my mom left my dad, I could have gotten angry at God, but that would have been stupid.  It wasn't God's fault that my mom was wrong.  He didn't tell her to commit adultery.  No, I ministered to her.  I told her that this is not what God wanted her to do.  She did it anyway, and I think she is still paying for that wrong.  When my ex-fiance left me, I could have gotten mad at God, but that would have been dumb, too.  She made the choice, and now I'm glad she did.  I'm married to a wonderful woman now.

If we follow the example Jesus gives us, not only will we continue pushing on with any ministry God has called us to in the hard times, we will lean on God all the more while pushing harder against the Enemy. That is called being faithful.  When we are faithful to His calling on us, then we can trust that God will take care of us and the hardships going on in our lives.