Christ Church

New Testament

A Cascade of Love (Troy)

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Sermon Text – John 15:9-12

INTRODUCTION

When it comes to the subject of love, man has attempted to capture its essence using a variety of arts. The singer songwriter composes a ballad. The Hawaiians dance the hula. The artist paints a couple, enjoying a sunset. The poet writes a sonnet. And there have been plays and movies and concertos and books, all attempting to capture love and communicate its virtues. Now, given that the scriptures teach that God is love, that love is his very nature, that love flows out of Him as the fountainhead of life, christians have a particular artisanal advantage when they want to sculpt or paint or sing about love, because they can define it, “This falls under the category of love, while this falls under the category of hate.” We have a foundation to produce lovely things, because we know what love is. We worship a God who defines what love is by His very nature. He exists, and love, pours out on the human race in a myriad of colors, and shades and hues. God is love.

And so I too, would like to take the brush and paint a picture for you. And do what we humans cannot help but do, and image the invisible God of love through artistic expression, particularly, through the art of preaching. 

THE FLOW OF LOVE FROM THE FATHER TO THE SON

If you are seeking for the perfect picture of a loving relationship, look no further, because there is absolutely no barriers, nothing standing in the way from the Father’s love reaching the heart of his son.  He sends the son, and the son goes. He assigns a mission, and the son accepts without grudge. His disposition is the same as the Father, and they both think that the mission is wonderful. He says, “Have you not read this scripture: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes.’” Jesus says, “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.”

When Christ took on human flesh and dwelt among us, he kept the law perfectly, including the greatest commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Jesus was never in a location that He wasn’t supposed to be. He never was doing anything that He wasn’t supposed to be doing. He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” 

When it comes to the exchange of love between the Father and the Son, there is no shame involved. There is no instance where one party loves the other party, less or more. They both infinitely love each other perfectly, with no sin.

THE FLOW OF LOVE FROM THE SON TO US

At the end of John’s gospel he says, “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” So where do we start when talking about the love of Christ? In the story of the prodigal son, the wayward young man, returned of his own volition, convinced of his own folly, recognizing that being his Father’s servant was superior to tending pigs in a foreign land. Jesus uses the story to reveal the hard heart of the nation of Israel during his ministry. 

But I’d like to borrow the characters in Jesus’s parable to draw another analogy. Imagine that the prodigal did not return willingly, but rather was dragged back home. Maybe he got in trouble with the law; he was to be executed. So the authorities took him home to have a discussion with his Father. The father sees a platoon of Roman soldiers in the distance, and his son being led in shackles. It’s been five years since the incident. When his son figuratively ripped out his heart and rebelliously asked for his inheritance early, an unprecedented display of disrespect. An offense that was essentially communicating, “Father, I wish you were dead.” Oh, how the Father wished everyday that the son’s silhouette would break over the horizon in the distance, and he could run to him, and hug him, and forgive him. But the soldiers reach the house, his son hangs his head in shame and the captain says, “This man is to be executed for his crimes. We’ve come to make an offer to you. Your life for his. We will execute you, and we will let him go free. What say you?”

You already know what he would say, don’t you, because he did it for you. You are that man in shackles. It is you who were in rebellion and spit in the face of your father. You wanted things your way, you wanted the inheritance now, so you could squander it and gratify your sinful desires. And you are quite right to stand there, with your head to the ground in shame. But the reason you do not look your Father in the eye, is because his look of love would melt you, as he says to the captain, “I accept, please set him free, kill me, and exonerate him.”

THE FLOW OF LOVE FROM US TO OTHERS

Like an expansive orchard, abundant with ripe fruits, life presents us with an endless harvest of opportunities to love others. It starts in the home, with your own family. It radiates out towards the church body, your neighbors, your co-workers, your friends, and even strangers. The author to the Hebrews reminds us to “not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”

The catechism of the world teaches that you should hate your enemy. And the tactics of this hellish dogma include slander, attack, bearing false witness, stubbornness, and an unwavering moral indignation. The operative word there being “moral”, as it’s only a supposition of morality, a decoy, a stool made of two legs. These are blunt and crude instruments. But the Christian is not afforded any of these. We function and operate under a completely different paradigm of truth, God’s law, and the love of Christ. As such, slander is off limits. Bearing false witness is forbidden. But we are not to see this as a disadvantage. That would be like coveting their stick, when we’re armed with a sword.

CONCLUSION

Having reached the end, keep in mind that our love for the world and for each other, thanks be to God, is not something we have to psych ourselves up for because the power does not originate with us. The cascade of love has the power to split rock, and then shape it over time. The rock conforms to the flow of water, not the other way around. The barriers we once had, that prevented us from loving others, have been washed away. The waters of baptism have cleansed us, freeing us to be channels, and canals, and aqueducts that carry the love of Christ to the ends of the earth. 

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No Murmuring at All
 (Philippians #8)

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Introduction

We have been focusing on like-mindedness and joy. But the particular like-mindedness and joy that Paul is urging upon the Philippians is not simply something that would create harmony and happiness within the body of Christ. It also creates a dramatic contrast with the only other way of attempting to be human, the way pursued by those who are outside of Christ. Christians who are living like Christians shine like stars against the darkness of a complaining generation. 

The Text

“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me.” (Philippians 2:12–18). 

Summary of the Text

Paul says that the Philippians are beloved of him, and he remarks on their past pattern of obedience to apostolic authority. As they have been obedient, he wants them now to be much more obedience in his absence (v. 12). The command they are to obey is the requirement to work out their own salvation, and to do so with fear and trembling (v. 12). The reason given why they are to do this that God Himself is working in them, to will and to accomplish according to His good pleasure (v. 13). What should this “working out” look like? We begin by doing all things, not most things but all things, without murmuring or disputing (v. 14). Notice the link between an absence of disputing and like-mindedness. Living this way sets up a dramatic contrast between them and the backdrop of a crooked and perverse time (v. 15). Such blameless and harmless sons of God would shine out as lights against the pitch blackness of a murmuring and disputing world (v 15). Paul wants them to hold forth the word of life (the gospel) so that he might have additional cause for rejoicing in the day of Christ (v. 16). Since he was laboring for the fruit of the gospel in their lives, this would be evidence that his labors were not futile (v. 16). If their obedience were to be the altar upon which Paul was to be sacrificed, he would rejoice and rejoice together with them (v. 17). If he departs to be with Christ, they would triumph together with him (v. 18).  

Work Out, Work In

Paul here tells them to work out their own salvation, so let us consider this first. The reason given for them working out their salvation is that God is working in their salvation. They are to work out what God works in. It is the same root verb in both uses. As God works His will into us, and as He works His good pleasure into us, we work out that same salvation by exhibiting to the world what God exhibited to our souls.

The Pelagian says that God works in nothing, we work the whole thing out. The antinomian says that God works in everything, and we have to do nothing. 

But how much of your salvation is worked into you by God? 100%. And how much of your salvation is worked out by you? Also 100%. As the great Augustine once put it, “Grant what thou commandest, and command what thou dost desire.”  

If we recognize the awesome grace that is involved in this, what we work out is not going to be done in a spirit of showboating, but rather with a demeanor of “fear and trembling.”

What Comes Out in This Working Out

So Paul tells us to work out our salvation. But when we work it out, what is it that comes out? The opposite of murmuring. “Do all things without murmuring and disputing.” Any salvation that is being worked out is a salvation that is resolved to be done without moaning, complaining, grumbling, murmuring, kvetching, fretting, bellyaching, carping, fussing, groaning, grousing, whimpering, whining—and have you ever noticed how many words we have for this? Kind of like  the Eskimos and snow.  

The Stark Contrast

This is a living out of the gospel, the word of life (v. 16). The crooked and perverse nation is the world without the gospel, and is assumed to be sheer darkness (v. 15). When the gospel comes to people in this dark world, and they look to Christ, the end result is that they are saved, and begin to work out that salvation. The fruit of that salvation is love, joy, peace, and all the rest (Gal. 5:22). The fruit of light is that which is good, and right, and true (Eph. 5:9). The fruit of this grace is faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, and the rest (2 Pet. 1:5-8). But in this place, Paul sums up the contrast by saying that the result of working the grace of this salvation is an absence of complaining. 

Think about what happens when you congregate with your unbelieving acquaintances. What do they complain about? They complain about their husbands and wives. They complain about their children. They complain about their parents. They complain about their pay. They complain about the weather. They complain about the stupidity of co-workers. They complain about taxes. They complain and complain, and are in the process of turning into a cluster of grumbles themselves. 

One of the most potent evangelistic things you could do is simply express gratitude publicly for the things that they like to complain about. 

Bring This Back to Christ

Remember the context here. Paul ends this passage by considering the prospect of him being sacrificed on the altar of their obedience, and he rejoices in that. When he commands them later to “rejoice always” (Phil. 4:4), he is not telling them this in the context of a minor problem like sore feet. Paul is cultivating the mind of Christ in his life, and he is urging the Philippians to do the same thing in theirs.

We have just finished considering how Christ made Himself of “no reputation” (Phil. 2:8). Did He have anything to complain about? Was there nothing in the treatment He received that was worthy of a murmuring spirit? Anguish, yes, but complaining . . . no. 

And this is why we are privileged, as believers, to look straight at the cross of Christ. When we do, we also are looking at all the complaints of all of God’s elect. We see them all, but we see them all crucified.  

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The First Witness (The Continuing Adventures of Jesus #11) (King’s Cross)

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Introduction

Today we consider Stephen’s martyrdom and his message to the Jewish leaders, that might be boiled down to the simple quotation from Isaiah: “Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool, what house will you build me?” (Acts 7:49, Is. 66:1-2)

The Jewish leaders hated God, and this means that they used fastidious religious traditions to attempt to keep Him at bay. And so we too must be aware of this tendency in the Christian church. It is not enough that we be around the Word of God. We must listen and obey. We must humble ourselves and worship Him alone.  

The Text: “Then said the high priest, are these things so? And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken: the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charan…” (Acts 7:1-60). 

Summary of the Text

The charge brought against Stephen was that he was speaking blasphemies against Moses and God, the temple and the law (Acts 6:11, 13). The high priest asked Stephen if this was true, and Stephen answers the charges with a lengthy summary of Jewish history, beginning with Abraham’s call in Mesopotamia, in the land of the Chaldeans (Acts 7:1-4). The overarching point of Stephen’s message is that God has never been bound permanently to one place: God spoke to Abraham before he lived in the Promised land, before he owned a single square foot of the land, and yet He gave him the covenant of circumcision and foretold the four hundred years of sojourning, including slavery in Egypt (Acts 7:5-8). Stephen traces the story of Joseph, envied by his brothers, but God was with him, all the way down into Egypt, providing for his family, according to the promise made to Abraham (Acts 7:9-17). 

When another king arose who dealt harshly with Israel, God raised up Moses who was rejected by his own kindred, but God spoke to him by an angel of the Lord in the burning bush, which was holy ground and he brought them out of Egypt (Acts 7:18-36). Moses foretold another prophet and spoke many good things, but the Jewish fathers rejected him, demanding the golden calf and worshiping other gods, turning away from the tabernacle that he built that was with them even unto the days of David (Acts 7:37-46). Solomon finally built God a temple, but God does not dwell in temples made with hands since He made all things (Acts 7:47-50). At this point, Stephen drives the point of his message home, calling the Jewish leaders stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears and like their fathers, persecutors of the prophets and rejectors of the law (Acts 7:51-53). When they gnashed their teeth and Stephen had a vision of Jesus standing at God’s right hand, they hauled Stephen out of the city and stoned him, laying their clothes at Saul’s feet, while Stephen prayed for their forgiveness (Acts 7:54-60).  

The Necessity of Debate and Collision

Stephen’s short ministry was characterized by debate, dispute, and controversy (Acts 6:9-10). It can be tempting to think that Stephen was being needlessly confrontational, but we should remember that the ministry of Jesus was much like this: three years of controversy, concluding with an early death. The gospel smells like death to those who are perishing, and those who bring that gospel are covered with that aroma (2 Cor. 2:15-16). And at the same time, controversy and debate is where the truth of the Word shines, confounding and infuriating some, but also softening and piercing others: it is the aroma of life for those who are being saved. There is even a hint of that here with Saul witnessing the murder of the first martyr. 

Resisting the Holy Spirit?

Here, Stephen charges the Jewish leaders with resisting the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51). And that may strike some as a strange thing to say. Who can resist the Holy Spirit? Isn’t this like saying they are resisting God? But this highlights the doctrines of predestination and reprobation. In fact, in our sinful state, all men resist God, suppressing the truth in unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18), and it is only those whom God mercifully chose before the foundation of the word to save who cease resisting (Eph. 1:4ff). This doctrine is a stone of stumbling and rock of offence to those who are disobedient, “whereunto also they were appointed” (1 Pet. 2:8). To which the objection comes again: but if they were appointed to be offended and disobedient, who can resist God? And Paul answers this elsewhere: “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and who he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?” (Rom. 9:18-20) This is a doctrine of high majesty, clearly taught by Scripture, which shuts the mouths of men in humility or else drives them to gnash their teeth in fury. 

Jesus Standing

There’s a marked contrast between Jesus standing in Heaven and Saul standing outside the city overseeing the stoning of Stephen. It has been pointed out that in the apostles’ creed and many texts, Jesus is described as “sitting” at God’s right hand (e.g. Mk 16:19, Heb. 1:3, 10:12, Rev. 3:21), but here, at the climax of this story, Stephen sees Him “standing,” in a posture of intercession, like an attorney in a courtroom. The Jews thought they were conducting a trial of Stephen, but it was actually God who was conducting a trial of them. While they condemned Stephen in their sham hearing (thus condemning themselves), Jesus exonerated him while condemning the Jews. And yet, even then, at least one of those guilty Jews would become the answer to Stephen’s prayer, that God not hold their sin against them (Acts 7:60). 

Applications 

The sovereignty of God is what crushes the pride of man. The rejection of the sovereignty of God is ultimately an attempt to wrest some part of that sovereignty from God. The exhaustive sovereignty of God is the theological doctrine that destroys all totalitarianism. And it does this by humbling man in worship. 

It is precisely this humility that listens to the Word of God and obeys. It is this humility that tells the truth even when the truth will offend and infuriate. A Christian is someone who lives coram deo: before the face of God. But because of the mercy of God, this is a great joy and relief. Whatever the Father has for us is for His glory and that is our highest good. 

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