Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:06 When there was a quite a number of us went to Israel a few weeks ago, there was one location we got taken to, It's a location that is referred to in the narrative of Jesus with some of his disciples where the place was called the gates of hell. The gates of hell, you might be surprised, defined is not a gate and it wasn't burning with fire. It. Now if you go there, it has got a big cliff face with a bit of a cave sunk into it and some markings on this cliff face. And at the time when Jesus took his disciples there, took his village, um, fishermen that weren't used to big cities. This place the gates of hell was in a big city. And this particular location that he took him to wasn't earmarked on Google maps as the gates of hell. It just had a bad reputation.
Speaker 1 00:01:16 And so people knew it as the gates of hell because of its reputation, because of its bad reputation. And it had a bad reputation for a very justified reason because what we see now as a cliff face at the time would've been a temple. And this temple wasn't dedicated to good things. This temple had all sorts of obscenities take place in the temple on a daily basis. I won't describe or go into some of the things that took place there, but some of the most sexually immoral things that you could imagine would regularly happen in this temple and be called acts of worship. And it was ugly. It was offensive to the Jews of the day because it wasn't a Jewish temple, it was from one of the occupiers from the previous occupation. And so Jesus is like taking a group of people from a small secluded space and taking them to the red like district in Amsterdam or to the streets of Soho.
Speaker 1 00:02:18 And as he's walking them there he is, just had a conversation and asked Peter, Do you love me? Three times Peter said, Yes, you know, I love you. Do you love me? Yes or no? I love you. Do you love me? Yes, you know I love you. And then he said, Peter, I'm gonna build my church upon this revelation that you know who I am. You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, Peter set. And on this revelation, I'm gonna build my church. And not even the darkest parts of our world, the most evil environments, not even those are going to stand against my purposes. You know, if you work in an environment that's full of immorality, if is full of, of cursing environments, if you are in the most dark of factories where you're working or the most challenging, the most immoral university lecture hall, I want you to know that the message that you carry is more powerful and the life that you carry in your life is greater than the darkness that surrounds you and in our nation right now where there's such a sense of chaos.
Speaker 1 00:03:33 There's such a sense of, uh, a lack of order that even in the midst of a nation that's gone away from the Lord, Jesus is building his church and not even the darkest of darkness can stand against it. And that revelation is in you. It's in the people who know that Jesus Christ is Lord. And as we come to second week of our series compelled and compelling, we began last week by looking at how can we be anything other than compelled to follow one who loves us like Jesus loves us? We're gonna pick up this theme a bit further for these next few minutes and we're gonna use our text from two Corinthians chapter five. And it says, these words for Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all day. And he died for all that Those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again because of his love, we are compelled and because we are compelled, we die to ourselves and allow him to live his life through us.
Speaker 1 00:05:05 That's the message of the gospel. That's the good news. That is what overcomes every darkness in this world, that revelation. But the world talks a lot about freedoms. The world is convinced that it is pursuing a, an agenda of freedoms. We hear freedom of rights being mentioned on a regular basis. But it seems to me as I watch the world, as I live among these stories, these narratives, these pursuits, these philosophies that I see that people are finding that freedom is really a fallacy. Many people surrounded in our world, despite all our advances of technology, all of our conversations around freedom, all our legislation about freedom. And it seems that, that you can be free to say what you want as long as you don't disagree with someone who doesn't like what you say. But that's another thing. But many people complain in today's world that they can't do what they want.
Speaker 1 00:06:08 They can't live as they want, they can't spend as they want, they can't use their time as they want, and they feel frustrated by that. And on top of that sense of frustration, we find that there is much addiction in this world. Of course there's the, the common ones, the addiction to alcohol, the addiction to drugs. But there are addiction to compulsive work habits. There's addiction to obsessive patterns of behavior. There's addictions to a long in for approval by getting other people to tell you that you are great. And it feels like all of these things provide the mechanisms not for freedom, but for enslavement. And we live in a world today where it abolition of slavery took place, praise God many generations ago. But we actually live in a time where there's more people caught up in human trafficking than there has been through at any point of history.
Speaker 1 00:07:01 There are lots of people who are getting their passports confiscated and made to work and made to serve, have served you towards others that restrict their freedoms. It's probably not you in that situation, but there probably is some narrative or some boss or some ideology that's trying to control what you do. And in our quest for freedom, it seems to me that many people are indeed enslaved. The well known pastor and writer, Eugene Peterson, who wrote a paraphrase of the Bible. The word paraphrase means that it's not a direct translation. Um, it's not. Most bibles have had boards of people that sit down and they look at their original language and they look at the context and they debate and discuss together. Um, a paraphrase means that someone's gone to one of those English translations or in another language and they have interpreted that they try to give some meaning to it.
Speaker 1 00:08:02 So paraphrase is are really good, but they shouldn't replace your main Bible. Um, because they um, they are an addition that they're not, um, they, they don't have the rigor that some of the other translations have. But Eugene Peterson wrote a brilliant paraphrase called The Message, I'm gonna quote from it in just a moment, A very famous Bible verse. But before I get to that quote from the message, let me give you another thing that he once said and that is this. The Christian is a person who recognizes that our real problem is not in achieving freedom, but in learning service under a better master. That it is impossible in this world to not serve something or someone. And the Christian is not someone who says, Now I'm independent, I'm free. That doesn't exist. Everybody serves something or someone. But the Christian is someone who recognizes the best person they can serve, they can be compelled by is Jesus.
Speaker 1 00:09:15 And in these next few moments, I'm gonna continue to expand to you why that is the case. But in Romans 12 verse one, in the message paraphrase, it says these words, So here's what I want you to do. God helping you take your every day ordinary life, You're sleeping who didn't get much sleep last night, by the way, with a thunder wowses. That was quite something. The thunder woke us up and then we didn't realize there was a power cut. So we managed to sort of get back to sleep. An hour later, the power came back on, on the doorbell, started ringing in our home, <laugh> four 30 in the morning, I'm putting my dressing gown on, going to the front door thinking who's ringing the doorbell This time of the morning, ordinary life. You're sleeping, you're eating, you're going to work. You walk in around life every day, ordinary stuff and place all of this ordinary stuff before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing that you can do for him.
Speaker 1 00:10:36 That original verse that we looked at in two Corinthians, it said, God's love compels us. It's his love. So let's continue to look at what we understand when we talk about God's love. Cuz God didn't just create love. God is love. It's his nature. I wonder what someone would describe you as if they were limited to use one word. Would they say organized, chaotic, Would they say kind, generous? I wonder what one word people would choose to use to try and describe you. There's no better word. One word to describe God than love. Yes, but not the sort of love that Hollywood would try to convince us that gets misconstrued. But there's a love that God describes in his word. And one of the most famous passages of scripture is found in one Corinthians 13, verse four to seven and it says this, Love is patient, love is kind.
Speaker 1 00:11:54 Love does not envy. It is not boastful, it is not arrogant, it's not rude, it's not self-seeking, it's not irritable and it does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy and unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. We looked at the first four of those last week. Let's spend a few moments now looking at the second four, starting off with love is not arrogant. It is not puffed up, it is not proud. Love that God initiated, that God is formed by is not conceited or puffed up in any way whatsoever. Love doesn't put on. Hes that. Try to supersede your brilliance in comparison to everyone else. Love doesn't do that. Pride does that love doesn't cherish the inflated ideas that you have about yourself or your own importance. Love is not proud.
Speaker 1 00:13:14 There's a terminology that I saw described it. Um, James and Ellie got married recently and in their wedding reception there were a few peacocks walking around the grounds. And every now and again these peacocks caught the attention of everybody because they suddenly opened up their feathers. I understand that there are people that on on occasions they feel like they've gotta open up their capabilities, their brilliance, their skills, their cvs and people call it peacocking. Look at me. Look at how wonderful I am. Look at how skilled and clever, look at how I deserve the attention of others. And Jesus who is the best example and exhibit A of God that we have in the scriptures. It's Jesus who is God, part of the triune God of the Father, of the Son and the Spirit and Jesus. We see in him a demonstration of this love in action. Jesus didn't peacock himself. We see that in fact he often cloaked his brilliance and his wonder wrapped in humility. Philippians two says these words about Jesus who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used or grasp to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness.
Speaker 1 00:15:18 I wonder what feathers you like to peacock with. Look at me. Look at what I can do. Look at how clever I am. And some of those things might be the gift of God that's on you. They may be things that God has placed in your life, but we can use things that God has placed on our life to draw the attention to us rather than to God. And love doesn't do that. Pride does that. Love is not looking for that attention. Love is not puffed up or proud. Secondly, love is not rude or it doesn't behave itself unseemly or it does not dishonor others. Love is never rude or unmanly with other people. Love doesn't evaluate people's worth according to their position. Do you have a propensity to lean towards those who can add something into your life through your conversation? Let's be really practical after church today, who will you gravitate to? Where will your eyes and your feet take you? Will it be to the people that you know have got a humor just like yours and so you gravitate to them and you have a bit of a laugh and you go, you might add something into it but you get something in return. Is it someone who has got some experience in life that if you spend a few moments over a coffee with them that you might glean something from them? Praise God that there are people we can glean from and we can learn experiences from them and get help and wisdom
Speaker 1 00:17:27 Or other people that you feel add value into your life because you hang out with a
Speaker 1 00:17:35 That just by being with them. It says that you are important. If those are your motives for the people that you choose to go and talk to, you can't fully justify that as love because love doesn't seek, love gives and it doesn't evaluate people about according to what you can get from them. It values people by who they are in God and how you can add into their lives. Yeah. So on a really practical level, I see in Jesus someone who hung out with people on the margins. He didn't dine and court the rulers and the leaders. In fact he seemed to have some of his toughest words for those. But he did call down Zach as hiding in a tree that everybody hated. The Romans thought he was absolutely fraudulently behaving. The Jews thought he was fraudulently behaving and he was fraudulently behaving and he was justified to not be in loved by people.
Speaker 1 00:18:54 And that's why he was hiding. And Jesus said, Yo Zach is, I'm coming to your home. That's what Jesus does with people. He had nothing to gain from Zach is he had everything to give. Love does that. We have a savior that gives and gives and gives. We've got people seeking political office in this country and I don't know what's in their hearts. I don't know what their motive is, but I do know that within the heart of mankind there is a desire and an ambition to make a legacy. There's a desire and ambition to be known and to make a difference and to offer something that we've become famous for. And people will write books about you in years to come and history will remember you. But Jesus, he didn't do any of that stuff. Jesus gave himself because he loves us because he pours out. There's nothing selfish in him. And that's why I'm compelled by him above any political leader among any historical figure. I'm compelled by his love cuz there's no one loves like him. And we see that, that Jesus lifted sinners up, failures out costs.
Speaker 1 00:20:16 I mentioned that when we were over in Israel and I'm sure I won't be telling these stories so much longer, so excuse me while they're still fresh in our mind. But one of the locations we went to was Bethlehem. Oh, little town of Bethlehem Complete with Kentucky Fried Chicken and all those sort of places. <laugh> or Kentucky Fried Camel somebody mentioned. And there was um, a church that had been built over a location that they claim was where Jesus was possibly born. There's a cave underground of this church and they've built this Christmas church over the top. And it's what a mankind sort of likes to do. Make shrines of places. Remember the transfiguration. Shall we build a shrine here? Jesus. No, no, no, no. That's all we do. But mankind tends to build shrines. Yeah. So we go and revisit this place that's rumored area where Jesus was born.
Speaker 1 00:21:14 And as we queue up in this church for an hour to get down, a few steps to go underground in this cave, in this crypt, there's just two staircases. One going in and one leading out. When you're in there, they tell you, don't be too long cuz the, there's not a lot of oxygen down there. It's very welcoming. Sort of like message to could be given on the way in somewhere. And uh, we cue for an hour to get in and then we start going on the steps carefully down these steps and we get to the bottom of the steps to see this area that rumored to be the cave. But there's another group and they've gone in through the exit, they've avoided the queue and they're in there and they were determined to get prime position for this man to a point where they began to elbow people out of the way. In fact, our tour leader encouraged a few of our team to lock together and make a scrum. Listen, Nita was one of the people in charge of that Scrum <laugh>. Who do you think one man,
Speaker 3 00:22:33 <laugh>,
Speaker 1 00:22:37 Nita could get into the exo of chief's TV if she wanted to
Speaker 3 00:22:40 <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:22:44 And this scene that whether it was the right place or not, that was about the most transcendent story of someone who gave up the riches of heaven to give, to love, to Bless is now full of people of ambition, said, I'm gonna get to the front. And as I saw it, I thought, what a picture of church that is. I want the best ministry. I want the most profile when someone gonna recognize me. People history has shown people stepping on the toes of others to get ministry positions in church. And I think Jesus is weeping. Yeah, he's not clapping, he's weeping because love gives love pours out. Lord help us. Love is not self seeking. It doesn't insist on having its own way. Just as I'm bringing this to a close, if we can only say to someone or something, I love you because of what I get from you. I love this church because I love the worship. Take the worship and away. I no longer love this church. I love this church because my kids love the Sunday school. Take your Sunday school away. I no longer love this church. That's not love.
Speaker 1 00:24:22 You've got it wrong. That's you adopting the principles of Hollywood, not the principles of God. That's not love. Love is not self-seeking. It seeks not our own benefit. It forfeits our own rights for the sake of the Lord. And we've got that in Jesus. Jesus loves you that way, not because of what he gets from you, but he loves you. How can we be anything but compelled by him? And finally, love isn't irritable, love is not easily provoked. Love is not easily angered and it keeps no records of wrongs. It's not touchy, it's not quick to take offense that's not love it. This doesn't mean there's a Christian that you won't feel hurt and you won't feel some criticism or rejection impact you in some way. But it does mean that as a Christian you will resist the urge to get even. That's what it does mean.
Speaker 1 00:25:53 And in today's world that says freedom and rights and justice. And as God's people, we should be seeking to turn the tables of injustice over in our world and in our land. But also we need to remember that the very nature of our faith is based on someone who loves us to the point where he keeps no records of wrongs, no records of wrongs. And if we're gonna be his people, we have to adopt his ways. We have to be filled with his love. You can't be compelled by his love and then live like his love doesn't exist. And the church is not unattractive to people because we've, we haven't learned how to communicate the gospel. The church is unattractive to people in society because we are quick to receive his love, but we're slow to give it. Yeah, I've heard people say over the years, I'm okay with Jesus. It's his misses. I have a problem with the church, the bright. And that should not be the case. Of course we are human, we make mistakes, we get things wrong, but we are supposed to be compelled and compelling. His love enables a person to remain kind and sweet even when wronged.
Speaker 1 00:27:11 We see Jesus so keen to forgive sins so quick to be moved with compassion. Jesus, didn't we? We don't read a moment where Jesus sat down with Peter after his resurrection said, Peter, you denied me. Let's talk us through now. Let's have a few sessions together. Let's get someone to help us process this in my biggest hour of need. You left me. Jesus didn't say that. Why? Because he's quick to forgive. Because he's quick to keep no records of wrongs. Our spiritual maturity and fruitfulness can be evidenced by our ability to forgive in the months ahead. There's gonna be a lot of people stepping into a lot of freedoms, things, habits, bondages that have held you back. And it starts with a place for so many people of releasing others with forgiveness. Yes. And there's no way of avoiding that reality because we have been forgiven so much. And it doesn't minimize the hurt. It doesn't minimize the pain you've experienced from the offenses of others, but it means that you are compelled by his love.
Speaker 2 00:28:41 Yes.
Speaker 1 00:28:43 And therefore you are compelling. Let's pray together. It's quite a heavy bit to land on right there, forgiving other people, but the love of God demonstrated in the Son of God, Jesus is real and is compelling and you will never find anyone on this earth who will be able to make as compelling a cause for you to orientate your life in service to them as you will Jesus. And as you just reflect now, maybe there are people you need to let go.
Speaker 1 00:29:36 There are people you need to invite the love and the grace of God to flow through you and toward them. There are offenses that you've been carrying pain, that you have been daily rehearsing because of someone doing or saying something to you that was not right. And Lord, I pray that the compelling love of Christ would fill each of our hearts. Lord, that your love would flow in us and your love would flow through us. That we would not just be a people who celebrate, that you have forgiven and forgotten us sin, but we would be a people who will forgive and forget the offenses of others. Help us. Oh Lord, we pray.
Speaker 1 00:30:32 Just before we conclude, if anyone in this room or online has never given your life to Christ, that is you saying, I'm gonna follow him. He is my benchmark of love. He is my hero. He's the one I wanna spend the rest of my life following. It requires you to come to a recognition that you haven't done that this far in your life, and therefore you need to do a U-turn. You need to, the Bible calls it repent. Ask for his forgiveness for the wrong direction. You've been traveling in every part of your life and he will be quick to forgive and then to say, Fill me or God with your spirit that I might follow you daily in the everyday ordinary part of my life. If you'd like to pray a prayer to receive Jesus as your savior, to follow him with the rest of your days.
Speaker 1 00:31:31 Let me leave you in a short prayer and invite you to pray this. You can pray quietly in your heart or your mind after me. And it goes like this. Jesus, I thank you that you love me so much and it was evidenced in the fact that you gave your life on the cross for me, but you did not stay there. You rose from the dead and you made it possible for me to have every chain broken on my life and have all sin forgiven. I'm sorry for the mess of my life. Please forgive me for doing my own thing. And I want to follow you. Now I turn around to follow you. Fill me with your love that I might be compelled and compelling in Jesus' name. Just while you remain praying. If you pray that prayer, would you just lift your hand where you are when I've seen it, I'll acknowledge it and you can put it back down and I'll know to include you in a prayer. If you're online, you can put it in the chat. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else this morning in the compelling nature of the love of God.
Speaker 1 00:32:48 If you're online, please, Phil, just to put in the chat. If you prayed that prayer, someone would love to talk with you online. Father, we thank you for these two precious people that are responded to you word this morning. And we pray that they will know not just of the love of God, but they will know the love of God. Yes. Amen. And it will change everything. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
