Not My Will, But Yours

Lord,

I am no longer my own, but Yours.

Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will.

Let me be employed by You or laid aside for You, exalted for You or brought low by You.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing, I freely and heartily yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are mine and I am Yours. 

So be it.

Amen.                                                                        

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                John Wesley

I found this prayer in a collection of John Wesley's writings on prayer.  What a radical prayer this is.  In our society, where rank and position and wealth are deemed to be indicators of success and influence, the words of this prayer seem extreme and are summed up in the opening sentence:  "I am no longer my own, but Yours."  It is a challenge to each of us as Christians.  Are we willing to say with Christ, "Not my will, but Yours"?  That is essentially what Wesley is saying here: Whatever You want to do with me, Lord, do it. 

I am going to make this my prayer because I believe it is something that God is teaching me at this moment in my life.  What does it mean to be surrendered to God?  What does it mean to be willing to do whatever He asks?  What does it mean to say, “Not my will, but Yours, Lord?”  What is God’s will?  Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians to “[b]e joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thess. 5:16-18, emphasis mine)  When we do these three things, we find ourselves in the center of God’s will.  Am I there yet?  Nope, can’t say that I am, but I’m trying. 

The Christian life is not to be one of complacency.  It is a radical lifestyle.  Wesley knew this.  He knew that a radical God had shown him, and all of humanity, radical grace and love.  That’s what drove him to the fields and hills of England, preaching and teaching.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 20^th century German theologian, warned against “cheap grace,” grace which cost nothing to those receiving it.  If grace cost God everything, why should it cost us nothing? 

I’m not saying that we should all be like the rich young ruler who Jesus told to sell everything, give it to the poor and then follow Him.  I’m saying that we need to ask ourselves, "Am I willing to do whatever Jesus asks of me, even if it means giving up everything that I have to go where He wants me to go and to do what He wants me to do?"  It is not an easy thing to take up our cross, especially daily, but it is what Jesus asks us to do.  He doesn’t demand it; in fact, He says, “If anyone would come after me…” (Luke 9:23, emphasis mine)  Jesus is placing the choice in my hands; what will I say?    

And so I’m going to try to make this prayer of Wesley’s my own prayer:  “I am no longer my own, but Yours.” 

In other words, “…not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42b)

May God Be Glorified

On Monday, a horrific earthquake ripped through the tiny country of Haiti. The capital city of Port-au-Prince is all but destroyed, tens of thousands are dead, relief is rushing in from every corner of the world. Yet through it all, many are asking why. Why does a nation the physical size of Maryland and a population just slightly larger than New York City seem to be on the receiving end of so much tragedy? Earthquakes, hurricanes, political instability all seem to be commonplace in this tiny country. Why?

There are those in the Christian community who claim God is punishing Haiti for selling its soul to the Devil. Hmm. My response to these people is this: if God was punishing the people of Haiti, why then would He have arranged so many mission groups to be there just before and just following this great tragedy? It sounds more to me like He is arranging a great display of His power and mercy, rather than His wrath.

Throughout the Bible, God shows His great mercy. It is not His desire that anyone should perish. Every time that the Israelites turned away from Him to pagan gods, He warned them through the prophets of His wrath and what would happen if they did not repent. If they would repent and return to Him, He would forgive and the manifestation of His wrath would be withheld. Refuse to repent and God's wrath would be felt. So many times the Israelites were warned. This is seen, too, in the New Testament. John the Baptist preached repentance so that people would not live in fear of facing God's judgment seat. My question to those who baldly claim that Haiti is being punished by God is this: if God was wanting to punish/discipline them, where are those who warned Haiti that it was going to happen? In His mercy and grace, God never changes. He consistently tells His people, sometimes decades beforehand, "If you don't repent, this will happen. If you do repent, My wrath will be appeased."

In the gospel of John, chapter 9, Jesus and the disciples come upon a beggar, blind from birth. Upon seeing him, the disciples assume that he is being punished for some sin, whether his parents' or his own. All too often we do the same. We assume that because tragedy strikes, someone is being punished for something. Jesus refutes this thinking with His answer to the disciples' question: "It was not because of his sins or his parents' sins. He was born blind so that the power of God might be seen in him."(Jn 9:3 NLT) I think it would do us good to remember that when we or someone else is going through trials or suffering. Perhaps God is disciplining that person, but we, who don't live inside that person's skin, don't know for certain.  Ours is not to judge, but to extend God's mercy, so that in all tragedy, He may be glorified.

I think this is the message for us in the tragedy of Haiti.  God set it up so that when tragedy struck, there were those in position to extend His hands and feet in that devastated country.  Christian organizations were already in place in Haiti, helping those in that country.  Mission teams arrived there either hours before or just after the earthquake struck.  Coincidence?  I don't think so.  I think that God has arranged for those who can help to be there so that in the midst of devastation, He might be glorified, just as the blind man healed by Jesus in John 9. 

Let us not offer condemnation, but love.  Let us not offer judgment, but mercy.  That is what Jesus called us to do.  Judgment belongs in God's hands alone.  It is because sin is in the world that our world is imperfect, that it suffers so many tragedies.  As Joseph said to his brothers in Genesis, what is meant for evil, God uses for good.  All of life, whether triumphs or tragedies, God uses to His glory, to demonstrate that He alone is God. 

May God be glorified.

Jesus' Healing Ministry

A friend of mine from college, back in December, introduced the idea to his friends on Facebook, of starting with the new year and committing to reading four chapters of the Bible a day. Each day he posts his observations on the four chapters on a blog. Needing a form of accountability for my Bible reading, I joined his group on Facebook and visit his blog daily to read his, and others', observations (and maybe make some of my own).

The gospel we're currently reading is my favorite, the gospel of Luke. Today we read about the beginnings of Jesus' ministry, starting with his visit to the synagogue in Nazareth, where he caused quite a stir with his teaching on a passage of Isaiah. From Nazareth he went to Capernaum, where he healed the mother-in-law of a local fisherman. When I got to verse 41 of Luke 4, I was struck with some thoughts on both that verse and Jesus' teaching in Nazareth. What follows is the post I made on my friend's website.


As posted on www.bibletogether.com:

On Luke 4:14-44

Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ. (Lk. 4:41)

The Bible study group that I lead just recently finished up a study on the gospel of Mark. One thing we noticed over and over was that when Jesus performed a healing or cast out a demon, he gave strict orders for the healed person not to tell others about their healing. Since this came up time and again, we discussed it at length. We finally decided that being known only as a miracle worker would have defeated Jesus’ purpose in coming to earth. Miracles are showy and draw attention to the one performing them, but that was not Jesus’ primary purpose in coming to earth. He wanted the people to listen to what he had to say, to be healed from the more deadly sickness of sin. He wanted them to realize that the deliverance from sin was the greatest miracle of all, and being seen as merely a healer of bodies would have sensationalized his ministry.

I have Isaiah 61:1, 2, the portion of Isaiah from which Jesus quoted in the Nazareth synagogue, highlighted in my Bible. I don’t know why the passage in Luke and the original in Isaiah differ, but if you take a look at verse one of Isaiah 61, you find something interesting between “to preach good news to the poor” and “to proclaim freedom for the captives.” It reads, “He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.” I think that this is implied in the Luke passage, but it’s very explicit in Isaiah.

To bind up a wound is to bring about healing, for it is only through the initial binding up that healing can begin. That healing may take time or it may be instantaneous, but one thing is certain. Healing will come. For the brokenhearted, an umbrella under which we all fall, no matter what our lives have been like, it may seem as though healing will never come. As one recently acquainted with heartache and grief, I know what this is like. I am being healed from my brokenheartedness, a healing that is taking time. Yet, if the wound of my heart had not been bound up by Jesus at the time of the wound, then I doubt healing would be taking place. Thanks be to the One who binds up the brokenhearted, who uttered the words, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matt. 5:4)

Praise In The Midst of Suffering

Recently the sound people at my church put together a CD upon which they put special music numbers as done by the church's band or various members of the band. At the end of the CD, they included a couple of Christmas songs. On the last track of the CD, I listened to myself, accompanied by our worship pastor on guitar, sing "What Child Is This?". What struck me as I listened was that I knew exactly when that track had been recorded. I'd only sung that song once at my church: December 24, 2007. Why is the date significant? Because I had said goodbye to my father just three days earlier, when he went to be with the Lord very unexpectedly. My father had been a very significant person in my life. I was his little girl and he was my Superman. We were very close and loved each other very much. So losing him so unexpectedly threatened to tear me to shreds.

As I listened to the song, I realized that I didn't remember much from that week between my father's death and his memorial service. But I do remember insisting that I needed to sing at our church's Christmas Eve service, as the worship pastor and I had planned a few weeks earlier. Listening to the song again, I realized the message of the song I sang. It was the Gospel message, that the baby in the manger would grow up to die for all of us.

Looking back on that time in my life, I realize only one thing kept me from falling completely apart. At one of the lowest times in my life, my Savior stretched out His loving arms and wrapped them around me, holding me close to His heart. Without His strength, I would have fallen into despair, a despair from which I'm not certain I would have emerged, especially on my own.

David was familiar with suffering. Some of it was brought upon him by outside forces; some was of his own making. Yet he knew Who it was who held the universe in in His hand. David trusted in God's goodness and His ultimate sovereignty, that God was ultimately in control. David might not have been able to see what good would come of his suffering, but he understood that God had a plan. It was only this trust in God that could allow David to pen these words: "You have turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever."(Ps 30:11, 12 NIV)

Being able to praise God in the midst of suffering is not easy. It's easier to focus on the problem before us, let it close in around us until we can't see anything but the problem and God seems a distant person, unreachable. The truth is nothing could be further from the truth. Many of us are familiar with the short work, "Footprints," in which a man has a dream about he and Jesus walking along a shore. Looking behind him as the scenes of his life flash across the sky, he noticed that at the darkest times of his life, there is only one set of footprints in the sand. When he questions the Lord about this, wondering where He was in the midst of the man's suffering, Jesus replies, "My child, it was during those times that I carried you." It may seem like we're going through our suffering, our struggles, alone, but it is during those times that Jesus picks us up and holds us close to Him. When His children hurt, He hurts. When Mary and Martha wept over the loss of their brother, so did Jesus. He wept that they hurt, that because sin was in the world they had to suffer.

It is only by God's strength that I made it through the darkest parts of my life. When I felt I was alone, I only had to reach out my hand and realize that I wasn't. He is there, especially in my darkest times. Because I have this knowledge I can say with King David, "But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you."(Ps 39:4 NIV)


The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Psalm 34:18 NIV

More Than Conquerors

Romans 8:28-39

As this is being written, it’s November. The year is nearly done and the time is nearing when we reflect over the past year, looking at our triumphs and our trials, our victories and our struggles, our blessings and our heartaches. Some of us will sit down to write Christmas letters soon and stare at the paper. We’ll be wondering what to write, how to shape the events of the last year in such a way that we don’t depress those who read the letter. We’ll wonder how to make the good things sound more mundane so we don’t sound like we’re bragging about how good life has been for us. Let’s face it. Some years are just better than others, and some years there are more tears than joy.

One of the things the last year has taught me is that so much depends on your perspective, how you look at the situations in your life. Do you look at them from God’s perspective or your own? Looking at the situations in your life from your own perspective is dangerous. The biggest danger is that, as humans, we’re limited in how we see the world around us. Our perspective is limited to what we can see and feel and experience. We are simply incapable of seeing the big picture, because it is so much bigger than we are.

And because the big picture is so much bigger than we, it is much safer to place our trust in God and look at things from His perspective. Sometimes we won’t know why certain things happened in our lives until much later in our lives, and sometimes we may not know the reason certain things happened until we’re with Him in eternity. My parents found a poem many years ago that wonderfully describes our perspective versus God’s perspective:

My life is but a weaving
Between my Lord and me,
I cannot choose the colors
He worketh steadily.

Oft times he weaveth sorrow
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper
And I, the underside.

Not till the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful
In the Weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.

Benjamin Malachi Franklin, the author of this poem, was obviously familiar with the passage in Romans we’re taking a look at today. This passage is all about looking at life from God’s perspective and when looking at life that way, seeing how much He loves us. This passage is full of encouragement to do just that. Paul shows in these verses that because He loves us, no matter what, God is in control, God is on our side and God is always with us. It may sometimes seem hard to believe all of that, but Paul presents us a great case for believing it, not only with his words here but also in his own life. By the time that the book of Romans was written, Paul had been threatened with death, run out of town, stoned and left for dead, beaten, and thrown in jail. I think if anyone had a case for being discouraged, it was Paul. Yet, he was able to see things a little from God’s perspective as he wrote the words that we’re studying today. So let’s take a look at the points that Paul makes in this passage.

Because He loves us, no matter what situations come our way, God is in control. The ten dollar word for this idea is sovereignty. According to the dictionary, sovereignty means “the exercise of, or right to exercise, supreme power; dominion; sway; supremacy; independence.” When it refers to God, it means “his absolute right to do all things according to his own good pleasure.” Really, what it all boils down to is that God is in control and that He knows what He’s doing.
Faith in God’s sovereignty caused Paul to write, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”(v 28) These words have gotten thousands and perhaps millions through some of the toughest times of their lives. For so many of us, we want to control what’s going on in our lives, even down to the minutest detail. Those who want to control the details we call “control freaks.” These also tend to be the first to freak when things in their lives get out of control.
However, Paul gives a gentle reminder in verse 28 that though we think we’re in control, we really aren’t. God is. He takes the beautiful and the ugly in our lives and uses it not only to bring glory to Himself, but also to shape us in the image of Christ. Paul tells in verse 29 that God not only called us, He chose us to be like Christ. The circumstances of our lives are like a chisel and hammer in the hands of God. Like a sculptor, God chisels away at us with the stuff that happens to form us into the image of Jesus. It’s not an easy process. It’s not a fast process. But it is a process that is worth the effort. It took seventeen years for God to shape a young braggart and dreamer named Joseph into a man who had the wisdom to lead a nation in a time of crisis. Sold into slavery by his brothers out of jealousy, accused of rape by his master’s wife, thrown in prison for that same accusation, forgotten by someone who promised to remember him, Joseph had every reason to be bitter when his brothers came to Egypt in search of food during the famine. All the years that Joseph was in Egypt, God was chiseling away, until Joseph could stand in front of his brothers and say, “As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil.”(Genesis 50:20)

One word that jumps out in these few verses in Romans is the word “everything.” Paul doesn’t say that God uses only the good things in our lives to shape us. He doesn’t say that God uses just the bad things in our lives to shape us. He says that God uses every thing that happens to us, whether it is an illness or the birth of a child. God even uses what we call chance encounters to mold us. Some have referred to these as divine appointments. These may take many forms. They may come in the form of a doctor who administers exactly the right treatment needed at exactly the right moment. They may come in the form of a book that opens your eyes to the relationship with God that He means for you to have. Or they may be a person who is need of something that only you can give them, which may turn into an opportunity for them to see that God is on their side.

Because He loves us, no matter what accusations are thrown at us, God is on our side. Paul practically shouts this truth in verse 31: “If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” Eugene Peterson in The Message translation puts it this way: “With God on our side like this, how can we lose?” Paul is telling us that whatever happens to us, God wants the best for us. Sometimes what we think is the best for us isn’t what is best for us. Remember, we’re trying, in our limited humanness, to see things from God’s perspective. This may mean that what we want God to do isn’t always what He will do. This means that we’ll go through things that aren’t pleasant, that hurt, and that may tempt us to walk away from God. When we experience that temptation, we need to remember what Paul tells us in verse 34 about Jesus: “[H]e . . . is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us.”

Did you catch that last phrase? Let me read it to you again: “pleading for us.” This means that Jesus isn’t just sitting up in heaven enjoying listening to the angels sing. He is our high priest, pleading for us, interceding for us, standing between us and the accuser. In the Old Testament, the high priest was the one priest who went, once a year, into the Holy of Holies in the temple, where he interceded for the people before God and offered the sacrifice for the people’s sins. When Jesus offered Himself on the cross, He became that sacrifice. When the temple curtain in front of the Holy of Holies was torn in two at His death, our High Priest entered the ultimate Holy of Holies, offering the sacrifice to God. And after His resurrection and ascension, He came into the Father’s presence and pleads our case before the Father, like a lawyer at a trial.

Because Jesus stands in that place, Paul asks the question, “Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? Will God? No! He is the one who has given us right standing with himself.” Because we’ve been given right standing with God, we have nothing to fear from the accusations that Satan throws at us and that he throws up to God about us. It is as if Jesus stands between us and God and says, “This one believes in me. This one is covered by the blood I shed on the cross. This one’s sin is forgiven by my sacrifice. I do not condemn or accuse this one, for they belong to me.” This is undoubtedly what Paul was trying to convey to the Romans when he wrote, “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”(Rom. 8:1) Because of Jesus’ sacrifice and our faith in Him, no one can tell us that our sins are not forgiven, that we can never be forgiven when we slip back into our old ways. Jesus has already covered all of your life with His blood, so that when you stand before the Father, He no longer sees your sin, but someone who is pure and righteous – in right standing with Him. Because of Jesus, the Father looks at us and declares, “Not guilty.”

Though hearing the words “not guilty” from God should be cause enough for anyone to praise Him, God takes His love one step further: no matter what, God is always with us. Jesus promised that fact Himself when He told the disciples on the night before His crucifixion, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.”(John 14:15, 16a) This is not the first place in Scripture that God promises His continual presence with us. In Deuteronomy 31, Moses told Joshua, “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”(Deut. 31:8 NIV) David cries out in Psalm 139: “I can never escape from your spirit! I can never get away from your presence!”(Ps 139:7)

He never leaves us. He is always with us. No matter what we’re going through, God is right there, holding our hand. After Horatio Spafford lost his four daughters in an accident at sea, he penned these immortal words:

When peace like a river attendeth my way
When sorrow like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well with my soul.

What causes such a sentiment? How does a person move past the grief of such a loss to be able to say, “It is well with my soul?” By remembering that Jesus, though He was God, was also human. By remembering that Jesus doesn’t downplay our losses and our trials. He’s been there, too. He knows our limitations, both bodily and spiritually. He stands with us and grieves with us and strengthens us. Because He is with us. Because He loves us.

It was the confidence that Paul had in this truth that caused him to write: “Can anything separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death?” Too many people believe that if these things come along, if bad things happen, that they are being punished, that God is not in control, that He no longer loves them for whatever reason. Not true. Trouble, calamity, persecution, hunger, cold, danger and death happen because we live in a sinful world, not because God no longer loves us. This goes back to God’s sovereignty and what I said earlier. God loves us so much that He will allow troubles and struggles and trials to help shape us. Someone the other night at small groups used the analogy of sandpaper on a block of wood. Our trials and troubles are the sandpaper that God uses to smooth the rough places and knots out of us.

Paul emphasizes his point when he tells us, “No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”(v 37) The New International Version translates that same verse this way: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” With those three words, Paul paints the picture of a soldier in armor at the end of a battle who is not just elated that they won the battle, but has their sword raised in victory, shouting their joy to the heavens that the enemy is defeated.

The next verse in our passage has another word that jumps out at us: nothing. Normally, when you think of the word nothing, it’s in a negative way. But Paul doesn’t see it that way. He uses it to tell us what can separate us from God’s love. Nothing. Not death or life. Not a bad economy or a good economy. Not our trials or our blessings. Not a spouse dealing with an illness or the birth of your first grandchild. Not anything bad or anything good. Nothing can separate us from God’s love. Not even the bonds of humanity. He broke down that barrier when He became one of us in the person of Jesus. Not even our sin. He broke down that barrier when He went to the cross as our sacrifice. And not even eternity. He broke down that barrier when He rose from the dead.

Paul knew this. He was convinced of it. He spent most of his life trying to convince others of it. In our passage today, it was the Roman church he was initially trying to convince. Because we have Bibles in our hands, his words are there in black and white to try to convince us. “And I am convinced,” he tells us, “that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”(vv 38, 39)[i]

Paul has offered us the evidence. Because God loves us, He is in control. Because He loves us, He is on our side. Because He loves us, He is always with us. What comfort is there in knowing this, that no matter what situations we find ourselves in, no matter what accusations are thrown at us, no matter what trials we go through, God loves us. Paul believed it. Millions since have read his words and believed it. Do you believe it?


[i] Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois, 60189. All rights reserved.

FREEDOM!

John 8:31-36

Saturday, July 4, 2009 we celebrated the 233rd birthday of the United States of America. Two hundred and thirty-three years ago, a group of men signed a document declaring their independence from the tyranny of England. For the next several years, scrappy colonists and well-trained soldiers would fight for that independence. The fighting was hard, the conditions for the colonists sometimes at their harshest, but in the end, England surrendered and the United States of America declared itself a free country.

That freedom came at a price. An estimated 25,000 Americans died in active military service, while as many as another 25,000 were seriously wounded or disabled. As a youngling country with a population of about 2.5 million, this came to about 2 percent of the population who died, were wounded or became disabled. Yet, to this new, free, independent country, it was considered worth the cost.

The idea of paying a price for freedom isn’t a new idea. Whenever there have been slaves, there has always been a cost for their freedom. For the freedom of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, it cost the Egyptians their livestock, their crops, their health and eventually their firstborn. For the freedom of the black slaves in the southern United States, it cost the division of a nation, millions of lives and one president.

In our passage today, Jesus refers to a different kind of freedom, one that He considered worth the cost. He tells his new disciples that there is a different kind of slavery, a slavery that doesn’t shackle a person with physical chains, a slavery that doesn’t bind the body, a slavery that doesn’t leave physical wounds. He speaks of a slavery that shackles the mind, binds the spirit and wounds the heart. It is a slavery that affects all of humanity, not a select group of people. It is a slavery that we are all born into. No one is exempt from it, not you, not me. The slavery to which Jesus refers is the slavery of the human race to sin.

Just what is sin? Well, that’s a touchy subject in today’s day and age of anything goes. Basically, sin is anything we do, whether knowingly or unknowingly, that violates God’s will and separates us from God. Whether we like it or not, we are sinful people. We like having our own way and it doesn’t generally match up with what God wants for us. We turn our backs on the wonderful life that God has for us and dig ourselves deeper into the slavery of sin. Have you been there? Are you there? Have you ever thought, “There’s got to be more to life than this?”

Well, have I got good news for you. There is more to life than our slavery to sin. There is more to life than being stuck in the pit of despair, tied to a rack, having the life sucked out of us. Yeah, yeah, I meant that “Princess Bride” reference. Think about it, though. For those who know Jesus, isn’t that a good image of our life without Him? Just waiting around for our lives to be sucked out of us, without hope of rescue.

Jesus tells us in this passage that though we are in slavery, we can be free. Truly free to enjoy a life with peace, with joy, a life that is as God intended it. Yet, true freedom doesn’t end with this life. It extends to the next. Too many people believe that their lives end with their death. I’m here to tell you that that’s not true. Death is merely a stopping point along our eternal journey, and what we have done prior to that is what determines our destination after death.

So, what is true freedom? Quite simply put, it is the freedom from the bondage of sin. Jesus states in verse 34 of our passage, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin.” He doesn’t say, “Everyone who isn’t a Jew is a slave to sin.” He doesn’t say, “Everyone who doesn’t have a certain skin color is a slave to sin.” He doesn’t say, “Everyone who isn’t a political conservative is a slave to sin.” He says that everyone, without qualification, is a slave to sin. This makes our situation pretty hopeless.

Yet, Jesus gives us hope. He goes on to say, “So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.” (v. 36) We don’t have to be stuck in our pit. We can be pulled free of it. Hundreds of years before Jesus, King David of Israel knew this truth. In Psalm 40:2, David tells us about God: “He lifted me out of the pit of despair,/out of the mud and the mire./He set my feet on solid ground/and steadied me as I walked along.”

Let me point out something here. Freedom does not equal independence. Independence, while it is similar to freedom, implies that it stands alone, that no one had to make us independent. We did it ourselves. Out of curiosity, I looked up the word independence in my exhaustive concordance. Care to guess how many times the word independence appears in the Bible? In the NLT, it occurs just once, referring to Israel’s abandonment of God. Not once is it used for the word freedom.

Freedom causes us to be dependent on someone or something else to set us free. Being set free implies that someone had to pay a price for our freedom. Whether it’s the slave whose freedom was purchased with money or the addict whose freedom was purchased with hours put in by a loving friend, freedom costs someone other than ourselves something. Our freedom costs someone else something.

The same is true of our freedom from sin. Jesus tells us that if we know the truth, then the truth will set us free. Later on in John’s gospel, Jesus tells his disciples, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14:6) So, if Jesus tells us that the truth will set us free, then tells us that He is the truth, it doesn’t take much to conclude that Jesus is the one who sets us free from the bondage of sin.

But at what cost? What price did Jesus pay so that we could be free from the bondage of sin? The apostle Paul tells us that “[H]e …died a criminal’s death on a cross.” (Phil. 2:8) What does that mean, exactly?

I’ll spare you the gory details, because they are very gory. Crucifixion, death on a cross, was the most excruciating, horrific method of execution. It was used with the most common criminals or used to disgrace those being executed. It was painful – the one being executed was usually scourged before being forced to carry the crossbeam of their cross to the place of execution. It could take hours or days for the one being executed to die, and often the condemned’s legs were broken to hasten death. It was also humiliating. The condemned was usually stripped naked, forcing them to the degradation hurled on them by passers-by. In other words, think of the worst, most painful way for you to die and multiply it by ten. This is what Jesus endured on the cross.

By now you’re wondering why someone would go through such an agonizing, humiliating death. Jesus put it very simply in the most famous verse in the Bible. Speaking to the Sanhedrin member Nicodemus, “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (Jn 3:16) Love motivated God to become human in order to be a perfect sacrifice for our sins. In the Old Testament, the people were to offer for sacrifice the most perfect animal they could afford, from a spotless bull to two doves or pigeons, as an atonement for their sins. The priest then sacrificed the animal and placed it to be burned on the altar in the temple. Yet God knew that the system of animal sacrifice would be manipulated and violated, so He provided a permanent solution: Jesus.

You see, God knew us humans so well. He knew that we could never fully enjoy the intimacy we once had with Him through the animal sacrifices. He knew that for us to be able to communicate with Him, to enjoy a relationship with Him without hindrance required our full repentance. He knew in our imperfect state we were incapable of repenting fully. Christian author C.S. Lewis puts it this way in the classic Mere Christianity: “[Repentance] means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death. In fact, it needs a good man to repent. And here comes the catch. Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are the more you need it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person – and he would not need it.” Lewis concludes that the only way humanity could repent was if God became man and did it for us. And that is exactly what He did.
Maybe you’re still asking yourself why. Why would the God of the universe want anything to do with a flawed race like humanity? That answer is actually very simple and is found in Genesis 1:26, 27: “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, to be like ourselves. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.’ So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
God loves each and every one of His creations. Consider the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:29: “What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.” When we were created, we were perfect, just like God is perfect. But we messed up. We listened to lies that God was holding out on us and tried to become God ourselves. I’m telling you, that didn’t work out so well. In trying to become God ourselves, we separated ourselves from God and from the relationship we once had with Him.
God knew that drastic measures were needed to bring His fallen creations back to Him. Only a powerful, amazing, incomprehensible, crazy love would do something as drastic as giving up One’s only Child to save the creation. Yet Jesus was willing to count the cost, determining that each and every one of us was worth it, because He loved us.

Because He loved us, Jesus considered our freedom from sin was worth His death on the cross. Freedom from the bondage of sin is available to each and every person on earth. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done. All that matters is that you want to be free.
So how do you get free? This is actually very simple. The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 10:9, 10: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.” The apostle Peter in his very first sermon told the crowd before him, “Each of you must repent of your sins, turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ to show that you have received forgiveness for your sins.” (Acts 2:38)[i]

Here’s the deal: if you believe in your heart that Jesus died to free you from sin and that He rose again, tell somebody. Acknowledge that Jesus is Lord of your life. Have someone pray with you. Then, as Peter told the crowd in Jerusalem on Pentecost, repent. All this really means is turning your back on sin and turning to God. I’ve heard it described as doing a 180, as if you’re headed south and you turn around and go north. Repenting is not an easy task. C.S. Lewis describes it this way: “It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means killing yourself, undergoing a kind of death.” But repenting is not something you have to do on your own. God will be with you every step of the way.
You can be free from the bondage to sin right here, right now. You don’t have to do anything special. Just tell Jesus, “Jesus, I screwed up. I’m in bondage. But I believe You died to set me free. Be my Savior. Be my Lord. Set me free.” Your prayer to Him doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be out loud. It doesn’t even have to be done right here, right now. But once you’ve prayed it, tell somebody who already knows His freedom. They can walk alongside you as you start this incredible new journey.

If you asked Jesus to set you free just now, tell me. I want to pray with you and for you. If you asked Jesus to set you free just now, fabulous! Welcome to your freedom and your new life.

[i] Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois, 60189. All rights reserved.

Do You Love Me?

John 21:15-17

“Do you love me?”

This is the third time I’ve started this message. Each time something different has come out of my head and down through my fingers and out into this document on my computer. Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that this is the third time. God is big on threes: the three persons of the Trinity, the three nails in the cross, the three denials of Peter, the three times that Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me?”

The first time I sat down to write this, I focused on what Jesus told Peter to do. “Feed my lambs.” “Take care of my sheep.” “Feed my sheep.” The second time I tried to do an analysis of the two Greek words used in these three (there’s three again) verses. But this third time, I told God I wanted to get to the heart of the question that Jesus was asking. After all, God doesn’t repeat Himself without reason, without meaning, and over the years I’ve discovered that when God says something once, you should listen and do as He says. When He says something twice, He really wants you to pay attention, but when He says something three times, He really wants you to know that what He’s saying is serious.

In recent weeks, we’ve heard messages on the questions Jesus asked throughout the book of John. We’ve heard Jesus ask us what we wanted, if we knew what grace was, if we wanted to be whole, if we believed in the Son of Man, if we would die with Him. Yet I think that this last question of Jesus in the book of John is the most difficult. Jesus peers into our souls, into our hearts and minds and asks, “Do you love me?”

It is a question that should pierce our hearts. It is a question that should cause us to step back and think. It is a question that we need to answer, not to others, but to God Himself. It is a question that requires an answer, an honest, real answer. For this is the only time in the entire Bible when God asks this question of anyone. Other places in the Bible He tells us to love Him. Deuteronomy 6:4, 5 says, “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all you heart, all your soul, and all your strength.” Jesus later stated that this was the greatest commandment God had given (Mt 22:37, Mk 12:30, Lk 10:27). In Deuteronomy 11:1, Moses tells the people, “You must love the Lord your God and obey all his requirements, laws, regulations, and commands.” Jesus reiterates this in John 14:15: “If you love me, obey my commandments.” But in this short passage, we find the only time in all of Scripture that God asks us, “Do you love me?”

Why does He ask? And why does He ask three times? Scholars agree that Jesus asks Peter this question three times to offset the guilt Peter feels for denying Jesus three times. If you remember, Peter, the night before Jesus was crucified, denied publicly three times that he knew Jesus: “The woman asked Peter, ‘Aren’t you one of Jesus’ disciples?’ ‘No,’ he said, ‘I am not.’ . . . Meanwhile, as Simon Peter was standing by the fire, they asked him again, ‘Aren’t you one of his disciples?’ ‘I am not,’ he said. But one of the household servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, ‘Didn’t I see you out there in the olive grove with Jesus?’ Again Peter denied it. And immediately a rooster crowed.”(John 18:25-27) Jesus had predicted the moment, and in the book of Luke, Luke records what Peter did next. “As soon as he said these words, the rooster crowed. At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered that the Lord had said, ‘Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny me three times.’ And Peter left the courtyard, crying bitterly.” (Luke 22:60-62)

Peter knew what he had done. He had denied not only his Messiah, but his friend. The guilt must have weighed heavily on him. Jesus knew this. I believe that’s why He asked this question of Peter three times. Jesus knew Peter’s heart, but He wanted Peter to know he’d been forgiven. So Jesus asked the question three times, in order to allow Peter to reaffirm his commitment not only to his Lord, but also to his friend.

So Jesus looks down the centuries and asks us the same question. Here’s my theory as to why He asks us the same way He asked Peter. How many times have we denied we knew Jesus? Maybe we didn’t do it with words, like Peter, but perhaps by approving of actions we knew Jesus would not approve. Maybe we didn’t stand up for Him when someone else put Him down. Maybe we denied knowing Him by our own actions. Whatever the case, He is giving us the same opportunity that He gave Peter: a chance to reaffirm our commitment to our Lord and our Friend. He looks at us and says, “Do you love me?”

What is your answer to that question? There are really only two answers: yes or no. But maybe you’re unsure of what it means to love Him. What does it mean to love Jesus as your Lord and your Friend? Well, I have a theory about that, too. I believe that it has to do with the two Greek words that Jesus uses in these three short verses. The first Greek word is agapao, from which we get the word agape. The second is the word phileo, from which we get words like philanthropy and Philadelphia. Let’s look at each of these words separately and why Jesus used them.

Agapao literally means “to love”. Yet when I looked deeper, I found out that it’s not the kind of love we think of when we say the word love. Agape, the noun form of agapao, refers to an active love, one that shows itself in deeds and actions, that is often self-sacrificial and always a choice. This form of love is not a feeling. This form of love is deliberate. In fact, Jesus used agapao and its other forms more than any other to talk about love. He used it most often in the book of John to show the kind of love that not only God has for us, but that we should have for Him. In fact, when Jesus told Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”, He used the word agapao. He used it to talk about His relationship with the Father: “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.”(Jn 15:9) He even used it in His final commandment to his disciples: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”(Jn 15:12 NIV) The last time in the Gospels that we see Jesus use agapao is in His questions to Peter. There’s a reason for this. As much to us as to Peter, He is asking, “Do you actively love me? Do you show it for others to see?”

So how do we actively love Jesus? I believe that there are three things Jesus did in His own life that we can learn from. As we look at how Jesus showed His love, we see that He served, He obeyed and He sacrificed.

Through His healings and miracles, He served others. At the wedding in Cana, recorded in John 2, Jesus turned jars full of water into fine wine. Why? So that the groom wouldn’t be embarrassed by the fact that his household had run out of wine for the wedding. In a town called Nain, He raised a widow’s only son from the dead. Why? So that the widow would be taken care of, since in that time, a woman depended either on her husband or her son for her income and without either, she might have become homeless and penniless. Jesus Himself stated that serving was one of His ministries on earth when He said, “For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others.”(Mt 20:28)

Jesus also obeyed His Father. “For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do what I want,” He told the people in John 6:38. Praying before His crucifixion, He says to the Father, “I brought glory to you here on earth by doing everything you told me to do.”(Jn 17:4) And even in His humanness, He obeyed: “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine.”(Lk 22:42)

This brings me to the last way Jesus showed agape: He went to the cross for you and me. For, you see, agape is sacrificial. Jesus showed the ultimate form of agape when He hung on a cross on a hill outside Jerusalem and became the once and for all sacrifice for sin, when He embodied and demonstrated the words that He had spoken to Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son”. Agape is a choice and sometimes that choice is sacrificial. Jesus had a choice: go to the cross as our sacrifice for sin, or, as Pastor Bill puts it, push the God button and wipe out sin with a wave of His hand. Because He had agape for us, Jesus went to the cross.

So what does all of this mean for us? It means we can learn from Jesus’ example. To show agape, we serve – we serve God, each other, those outside the church, including the ones we may not like very much. Jesus came to serve those who opposed Him, too, after all. To show agape, we obey what God tells us to do. To show agape, we sacrifice. We may not be called to sacrifice our lives, as Jesus and the majority of the disciples were, but there are things that God will call us to give up not only in order to show Him how much we love Him, but also to make us more like Jesus.

In addition to agape, Jesus asks us if we phileo Him. “Do you love me like a brother, like a friend?” He asks. “Do you have a relationship with me?” Jesus asks this because without a relationship with Him, agape is pointless. I think we’ve all heard of people who serve in churches not because they want to, but because they feel obligated to or because they want people to notice that they’re serving. Jesus addressed this on several occasions when He talked about those who prayed publicly in order to be heard, or dressed and acted a certain way in order to be seen as Godly by others. He called such people whitewashed tombs – they look good on the outside, but they’re dead on the inside because they’ve missed the point. To be like God, you need to know God. And to know God you need to have a relationship with Him. Jesus did, and He did it through one primary method: prayer. He got alone with His Father and talked to Him and listened to Him. He spent time with His Father. But the Father wasn’t the only person Jesus had a close relationship with. He spent three years in the company of several men He called His friends. When you spend time with someone, you get to know that person.

In the here and now, we have three ways that we get to know Jesus: prayer, which I’ve already mentioned, study of the word of God, the Bible, and worship. God communicates to us in all three ways.

In our busy lives, it’s difficult to take time to pray, yet prayer is one of the most essential keys to a healthy relationship with God. If we want to be like God, if we want to know Him, we must pray and we must take the time to pray. King David in Psalm 5 states: “Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.”(Ps 5:3)[i] David knew that the secret of a close relationship with God was prayer. Now this doesn’t mean you’ll do all the talking. In fact, God wants to do some of the talking. In Psalm 46:10, God says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”(NIV)[ii] If we are still before God, if we’re focusing our attention on Him, then He will speak. It may not be an audible voice; in fact, He will more often speak with a still, small voice that takes all of our concentration to hear in our hearts and minds and spirits. But I promise you, He wants to speak with you. You are precious to Him and He wants to spend time with you.

We also get to know God through His word, the Bible. God has a lot to say about who He is in the Bible. He is our Deliverer (Dt 5:6). He is our refuge (Ps 46:1). He is our Shepherd (Ps 23:1; Jn 10:11). He is our Strength (Jer 16:19). He is the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn 14:6). He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last (Is 44:6; Rv 1:17). He is our Sacrifice, once and for all (Heb 10:12). This is just a smattering of examples as to who God is according to the Bible. As we read His word daily, we start to see what an amazing God we have, and learning about Him causes us to want to spend more time with Him. God also uses his word to teach us how to be like Him.

Finally, we get to know God through worship. I’m not just talking about the music we sing or listen to. I’m talking about every aspect of worship – the music, the giving, the teaching, the fellowship. Worship is just another way we can learn who God is, what He’s done, and hear Him speak. He may speak through the music or the teaching or another believer, but like with prayer and reading the word, He does want to speak. We need to keep an open heart to hear Him.

So how will you answer Jesus? He speaks the question even now to our hearts: “Do you love me? Do you actively love me? Are you my friend?” If your answer is yes, then I ask these questions: How will you agapao Him? How will you phileo Him? Will you serve, obey and sacrifice? Will you take time to pray, to read His word, to worship?

The work of the cross is done. The stone is rolled away. But once we accept God’s gift of grace, what will we do with it? This is what Jesus is asking. “I have died for your sins because of my agape for you. Do you love me?”

This is the last question of Jesus on earth according to Scripture. What is your answer?

[i] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois, 60189. All rights reserved.
[ii] Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.