Who Will Go with Me?

 

Who Will Go with Me? 

 

Some time ago, I read a poignant tale by American fiction writer, Madeline Le’Engle (d. 2007). The story was about her grandfather. He’d always been a strong, vibrant, robust man – until the dementia demon sank its talons into his memory and slowly reduced the nearly 100-year-old to a shadow of what he once was. As her grandfather lay dying, he gripped her mother’s hand and asked, almost as a child might ask, “Who will go with me when I die?” 

 

Those words haunt me whenever I think of them. There he was, a once powerful, ‘in-charge’ guy who had become like a small, frightened child. I know nothing of his position with Christ. I do not know if he ever humbled himself before the cross of Jesus. But if he had, Oh! What comfort someone could have given the frightened child inside the man.  

 

Of course, men and women caught in the grip of dementia are not the only ones who lie on deathbeds, fearful that no one will go with them when they die. I know many healthy people who fear such a thing. And they have good reason to fear because they live lives without so much as a passing thought about eternity – nor do they care a smidgen that obedient faith in Jesus Christ is God's absolute and unyielding requirement for eternal life. 

 

But, and perhaps even more troubling to me, are those I know who, although they live in faithful obedience to Christ, they STILL fear the grave.  

 

Why is that, when God has so clearly promised to accompany them step by step through the valley of the shadow of death? Why do they fear when God has repeatedly told them such things as: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me HAS eternal life. He does not come into judgment but HAS PASSED from death to life.” (1 John 5:24, emphasis mine). Or this promise through St John the Apostle: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, THAT YOU MAY KNOW that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:13, emphasis mine) 

 

I can only surmise that they fear because they’ve been incorrectly taught according to the dogmas of their church or the false ideas of their family traditions that no one can be sure of their eternal destiny until they die. They fear because they trust the very fallible and demonstrably erroneous doctrines of men instead of the perfectly infallible doctrines of Scripture.  

Whatever our age or health, Madeline Le’Engle’s grandfather’s plaintive cry should haunt all of us: “Who will go with me when I die?” 

 

And so, the question for you: Jesus Christ alone holds the key to eternal life. No other Name has been given by God to humanity through which and whom we must be saved. No one else in all creation can go with you to the Father when you die. And so, the question: Have you offered God your faithful obedience through Christ? Have you followed the Lord Jesus in baptism? Do you routinely confess to Him your daily sins and turn from them each time you fail? 

 

If you answered yes, then the haunting words of Madeline’s grandfather need never, ever be yours. If you answered yes, then you have absolutely no reason to doubt that the Good Shepherd will go with you when you die.  

 

And for that immutable promise of God Himself, oh! We give great thanks. 

Rich Maffeo
maffeo.richard@outlook.com 

Blog: www.inhimonly.blogspot.com

Father to the Fatherless

 

“Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.” (Psalm 27:10)

 

If you are fatherless because your father abandoned you – then this message is for you. If you’ve known and still live with your father’s rejection – or, as in my case, the rejection of more than one father – then this message is for you.

 

My first abandoned me when I was four. The second adopted me when I was twelve, although to this day I don’t know why he did that. I can’t remember him ever saying a kind word to me or taking me around the shoulders and hugging me. He lived with us but was absent from us.

 

So, if you’re fatherless, then you know – as I know – the lingering sadness that floats through crevices of your memory, sadness caused by the rejection of the man in your life whom you wish so much had been in your life.

 

But this note is not so much about the heartache of rejection as it is about what can be deeply comforting for those who choose to receive that comfort.

 

I discovered that comfort more than 50 years ago. I was 22, and although I never experienced love from my earthly fathers, I discovered I was loved – deeply and passionately and fully loved – by the One who wanted to be my heavenly Father.

 

He it is who created me. He it is who physically formed me in my mother’s womb. And He it is who never rejected me, even for a moment – although there were oh-so-many-times I rejected Him and had given Him every reason to walk away from me.

 

So, to you who are fatherless, please, listen to me for a few more moments.

 

I have often found great solace in knowing about my heavenly Father’s utter faithfulness to His immutable promise – His promise to never turn anyone away who comes to Him for adoption into His family.

 

And perhaps it is now, as I grow older and closer to the day when my eyes will finally see Him, perhaps it is that knowledge of His faithfulness to me, and of His deep love for me, that the lingering void I’ve lived with all these years is finally fully dissipating and being replaced with the warmth of His Presence.

 

Please, if you have read this far, please hear me say it again, because this message is not just about me. It’s all about you.

 

If you’re a fatherless man or woman, I so much want for you to know and to trust the unchangeable promise of God who WANTS to be your Father. He so very much wants to receive you into His ever-dependable embrace, for He vows to never reject anyone who comes to Him.

 

Read that again: He will never reject anyone who comes to Him.

 

Please, I hope so much that you will accept what I say here, not only because my words are rooted in my half-century of experience with my heavenly Father, but also because what I say here is rooted in the utterly unfailing trustworthiness of the Scriptures.

 

Calvary’s cross where Jesus died, and the empty tomb prove that you can trust Him when He tells you He loves you. You can trust Him when He tells you He will never reject you. You can trust Him when He tells you He will wipe clean – perfectly clean – every single sin you’ve ever done – regardless of the depth of those sins – if you confess and repent of them.

 

Please, won’t you now tell Him you’re sorry? Won’t you now tell Him, “Father, I come. Father, I come”?

 

You do not need to remain fatherless. But more than that: God Himself does not want you to remain fatherless.

 

Psalm 2 Bible Study Snippet

PSALM 2 Bible Study

I’m taking advantage of being on my sickbed by moving forward with my outline for the Bible study I am teaching at a 55+ community. As we look into the second psalm, some thoughts came to mind that I thought I’d pass along on the internet. If you are in my Bible study, consider this a preview of what we will talk about when I am feeling better.

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“Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!”

a. What does Scripture tell us of how God often responds to such ongoing and persistent arrogance? It is not pretty. For example, see Matthew 13:13-15 –“Therefore I speak to them in parables . . . 15 For the heart of this people has become dull, With their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them.’

(Note: They closed their own eyes and ears and hearts, so much so that God will not heal them).

Note also this text in Jeremiah 6:16-17 “Thus says the LORD, “Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ 17 “And I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen.’

(Note they CHOSE to not walk with Him or listen to Him. The context of this text in Jeremiah goes on to speak of His judgement against them.)

Is there any application to us reading this?

Now see the follow-on verses of this psalm: (verse 4) He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them.”

There is good reason God tells us through the writer of Hebrews: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31) There is good reason the apostle Paul warned the Galatian Christians: “God is not mocked.” (Galatians 6:7)

Consider now this (what ought to be a frightening text in) Proverbs 1:22-33 “How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing and fools hate knowledge? . . . 24 “Because I called and you refused, I  stretched out my hand and no one paid attention; 25 And you neglected all my counsel and did not want my reproof; 26 I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes . . . 28 “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me, 29 Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD. 30 “They would not accept my counsel, they spurned all my reproof. 31 “So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way and be satiated with their own devices . . . 33 “But he who listens to me shall live securely and will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

And along this line of Biblical counsel, now consider the last known words of a few infamous mockers of God. Listen to the death-bed words of atheist Voltaire: “I have swallowed nothing but smoke. I have intoxicated myself with the incense that turned my head. I am abandoned by God and man. I shall die and go to hell!”

Afterward, his nurse said this: “For all the money in Europe I wouldn’t want to see another unbeliever die! All night long he cried for forgiveness.”

 Or these by Sir Francis Newport, the one-time head of an English Atheist club, who said to those gathered around his deathbed: “You need not tell me there is no God, for I know there is one, and that I am in his presence! You need not tell me there is no hell. I feel myself already slipping. Wretches, cease your idle talk about there being hope for me! I know I am lost forever! Oh, that fire! Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell! . . . Oh, eternity, eternity forever and forever! Oh, the insufferable pangs of Hell!”

BUT, on the other hand, here are the last words of men and women who died in the strong embrace of their Savior, Jesus: For example,

Elizabeth Catez, known as St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, died at the age of 26. It is said that as she went to her Lord, she died murmuring a soft chant: “I am going to the light, to love, to life!’”

Christian pastor John Inskip, as he lay on his deathbed, pulled his wife close, took her hands in his and raised them up together. His last words were these: "Victory! Triumph! Triumph."

St. Teresa of Ávila’s last words were these: “My Lord, it is time to move on. Well then, may Your will be done. O my Lord and my Spouse, the hour that I have longed for has come. It is time for us to meet one another.”

Dwight L. Moody, founder of the Moody Bible Institute, said on his deathbed: “Can this be death? Why it is better than living! Earth is receding, heaven is opening. This is my coronation day.”
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St Catherine of Sienna died with these words on her lips: “Blood! Blood! Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”

f. Return for a moment to Galatians 6:7. Here again is that verse, along with the next: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

 And again, time for application. How then ought we to live today in light of eternity –and eternity which, for any of us, might begin before the sun sets today.

Rich Maffeo
maffeo.richard@outlook.com 

Blog: www.inhimonly.blogspot.com

 

Unsolicited Advice

 

Feel free to share if you think it worthwhile:

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I suppose many young people consider me an old man. And that’s okay. I am old. But I like to think that with my age has come a modicum of wisdom. And it is because of what I have learned over the years that I write this note.

I’ve had a very successful work career. Very successful and rewarding.  And I hope you believe me when I tell you I didn’t get to where I got by being ignorant of how the ‘world’ works. Yet, I will quickly add that I also know I didn’t advance in my career by not knowing – and DOING – what GOD wanted me to know and to do in my working ‘world.’

So, during this week of Thanksgiving, let me offer a bit of unsolicited advice to some of you now working your way upward in your particular career. I offer it as a voice born of decades of experience. I hope you will take my words in the spirit of caution and concern in which they are intended:

BEWARE! If you are willing to compromise your ethics – even if the activity in which you are engaged is legal – if you are willing to compromise your ethics, you should know it is a very, very small step from that place of ethical compromise to being willing to compromise what is illegal. And if you think your employer will come to your aid if you get caught, then you don’t know where the term, “Being thrown under the bus” has its origins.

Please. The money, the prestige, the power – you will on that day realize too late that you were played for a fool. And this warning from your Creator should catch your attention: “Be sure your sin will find you out.” (Numbers 32:23)

It may be years. It may even be decades. But in the end, all of what you gained along the way will taste like ashes in your mouth after a house fire.

Rich Maffeo
maffeo.richard@outlook.com 

Blog: www.inhimonly.blogspot.com

Through Him

 

I know. I know. I posted this out only two months or so ago. But I know so many people stuck in a false idea that they cannot come directly to God in either prayer or in confession. And being stuck like that only weakens their relationship with the God who did all He could do to not only save them from an eternal death, but who also did what He did so He and they could enjoy direct fellowship with Him.

If you are one of those Christians still stuck in that idea, spinning your proverbial wheels to get closer to Christ and unable to do so -- please, look to the word of God, look to His love letters written personally to you. Here is what I posted back in September:
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Majesty. Only His Majesty.

I’m continuing my read through the book of Hebrews and the Lord stopped me at this text in chapter seven: “So much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant . . . because He continues forever, [and] holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore, He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:22-25)

I sat there a while, staring at that last verse: “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

And I got it. Jesus, our High Priest, is able to save all those who draw near to the Father THROUGH Him (the Son).

Through HIM.

Not anyone else. Not a priest. Not a saint. Not a pastor. Not a parent. Only through Christ Jesus. No wonder St Paul wrote words that resound through time and eternity:

“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For IN HIM all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and IN HIM you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and IN HIM you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried WITH HIM in baptism, in which you were also raised up WITH HIM through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together WITH HIM, having forgiven us all our transgressions.” (Colossians 2:8-13) 

No wonder again the writer to the Hebrews ASSURES us: “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us . . . . draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14-16)

Why does the Father assure us we can directly approach Him? Because we come only in Christ, through Christ, with Christ. No one else.

This is the Father’s WILL for us. This is the Father’s PLAN for us.

To believe otherwise, to believe the Father is pleased that His children, adopted by their faith in His Son – to believe He is pleased when we feel as if we should approach Him through any other person, alive or in saintly glory, is to dilute the authority and majesty of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Please. Don’t do that to your heavenly Father. Please. Don’t do that to the Son of God. Please. Don’t do that to the Holy Spirit, whose temple we are (1 Corinthians 6:19). Please. Don’t minimize one iota the glory, the preeminence, the transcendence, the sovereignty of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our heavenly Father WELCOMES everyone – anyone – who simply comes to Him according to His design and purpose: That being, through the Lord Jesus.

That’s the way God set it up. We don’t need to try to change it. Please. Don’t be taken captive through philosophy and false words. 

 

Something to Think About

 

Are you righteous – as righteous as God? Are you as holy as He, whose holiness and righteousness are brighter than 10,000 suns?

Of course, you are not. And neither am I. And that should be a very serious problem because, as the writer to the Hebrews tells us, without holiness, “no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14)

As I thought about that text, and of my own utter lack of the holiness required by God, John 14:6 dropped into my thoughts. You might know the verse by heart. Jesus told His listeners: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

For decades I thought that verse had only to do with the forgiveness of sins – which it certainly does. But I suddenly realized this morning there is something more – much more – involved in the Lord’s words.

No one who has ever lived has ever been holy enough in and of themselves to meet God's requirement for utter holiness. No one has ever, or can ever, completely fulfill His commandment: “Be holy for I am holy” (see 1 Peter 1:16).

THAT is why no one can so much as even approach the consummately holy God, much less stand in His presence – UNLESS our holy God makes it possible to do so.

Enter Jesus.

St Paul gives us a number of clues to how that all works. Here is one: “He [the Father] made Him [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  

Here is another: “But by [the Father’s] doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).  

And one more, only for the sake of time: Paul writes to the Christians at Rome: “For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:3).

In other words, God imputes (synonyms of ascribe, attribute, assign) – God the Father attributes to everyone who is IN Christ because of their obedient faith – the Father imputes to us the same holiness and righteousness as of Jesus Himself.

NO WONDER the Lord told His listeners back then, and His listeners today, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

So, reader, here is the critical question: Knowing no one can come into the Father’s presence apart from Christ, are you ‘in’ Christ by your obedient faith in Him? If not, your position can immediately change for the better – if you turn your life and lifestyle over to Christ.

Please hear this: Scripture warns the hesitant again and again: “Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2)

Rich Maffeo
maffeo.richard@outlook.com 

Blog: www.inhimonly.blogspot.com

So Rich and Free

 

Last week I spoke about the three things that are impossible for anyone who wants to walk with Jesus: It is impossible to fail in such a relationship. It is impossible to be or remain lost. It is impossible to be unproductive in our service to Him.

 

These things are impossible because our supernatural and utterly sovereign God ensures such things are impossible for any and each of His children who, through their faith in Him, have been adopted into His eternal and Holy Family.

 

Which now brings us to our text for today as it relates to last week’s message. Here is John 16:27 “The Father Himself loves you because you have loved Me and have believed I came from God.” (John 16:27)

 

The Almighty, Holy, immutable Creator of the universe and all things in it – including you and me whom He knit together in our mother’s womb – this magnificent, magnanimous, most gracious, and merciful God Himself loves YOU (think of it in the singular and personal). This love for you and all men and women is the predominant theme of the entire Bible, from the first chapter of Genesis to the last verse of the last chapter of the last book of the Bible.

 

His love for you and me most obviously evidenced itself on Calvary, but that same love continues unabated, undiluted, and unchanged from even before our conception and to this very moment.

 

Have you ever been passionately loved by someone? If you have, then you also have, in the very most superficial way, an understanding of God's passionate love for YOU. And even if you have never been loved passionately by another, then consider all of the daydreams you’ve had of being so loved as you’ve read love stories played out in novels or watched them on the television screen.

 

Listen! Jesus even tells us that the Father’s love for you and me is to the SAME degree of love that the Father has for Jesus. Listen to this infallible text from the Lord’s so-called ‘High Priestly Prayer’:

 

John 17:22-23 “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”

 

How much more intimate and passionate can the Father’s love for YOU and me get to be?

 

But some might say – perhaps even some here might say – If the Father loves me so much, then why is my life the way it is? And what about all the terrible things that have happened to me in my life? What kind of love is that?

 

Well, I certainly cannot know the answer to questions like that. No one can know the answer to those questions. But we CAN remind ourselves to look at the One whom the Father so passionately loved – and yet sent Him to a cruel and torturous death. And what did that One say as He was dying? You know what He said. He cried out: “Into Your hands I commit my spirit.”

 

Listen also to what the great and greatly beloved apostle Paul wrote after suffering so much for the sake of Christ: (2 Corinthians 1:8-9): “For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.”

 

And what of the so-called ‘Heroes of Faith’? we read of in Hebrews 11 – heroes who suffered unspeakable trials but yet died with God's praises on their lips?

 

Listen: If they kept keeping on with the lover of their souls – even when they didn’t understand the ‘whys’ of it all – if THEY kept on keeping on – then so can you. And so can I.

 

They all knew AND they each believed, even as WE must know and must believe that “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us . . .. [And] Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “For your sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:18, 35-39)

 

So, how can we respond to that kind of love? How OUGHT we to that kind of love? Well, we all know the answer to that question, and the answer is summarized in one word: Obedience. But because of our sin NATURE, no one in and of themselves has it in themselves to fully obey their Father in heaven. Our hearts remain deceitful – so much so that we can so easily hide from ourselves even our most egregious sins. That is why our response of obedience can ONLY be accomplished through a power outside ourselves because within ourselves we are too engaged in doing life ‘My Way.”

 

And it is because I know my sin nature always gets in my way when I try to obey, I like to pray something like this from Psalm 119:33-35a: “Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I shall observe it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may observe Your law and keep it with all my heart. Make me walk in the path of Your commandments . . . .”

 

In other words, “Father, I ask you to MAKE ME want to give you my whole heart. Only YOU can break through to my pride and self-serving spirit.”

 

As I reflected on this point during the week, I thought of some lyrics of a song by Shannon Adduci: Give me a whole heart/To fully love you. Give me an undivided heart/Totally free. I ask you to heal my broken places/The lingering wound your love replaces/Bind every part. Give me a whole heart. 

Lord, help me to see/Your abundant love for me. Help me to rise/So I can soar on eagles' wings. Oh Lord, help me to go/Where I've never gone before. Give me a whole heart.

 

That’d make a good prayer, wouldn’t it?

 

Now let’s move on to the next part of this text in John 16: “The Father Himself loves you because you have loved Me.”



“Because you have loved me.”

So, do you love Jesus? Sure, you do – to one degree or another. And so do I – to one degree or another. Truth is, we do not yet love Him as we ought. We all know in our heart of hearts that we fall short of the kind of love He looks for in us. But here is some good news about that sad reality: Jesus is happy to get from us what we can now give to Him, if we are also willing to be willing to have Him draw us even closer to Himself.

 

Need an example? Here it is from the end of John’s gospel. I’ve shared this with some of you before, and it is so very valuable that I share it again. The New Testament writers used two words for “love” – phileo and agape. Phileo carries the idea of tender affection. Agape is often used to describe God's unconditional, merciful, and enduring love – the kind of love He commands us to have for Him and for others.

In the 21^st chapter of John’s gospel, John records this conversation between Jesus and Peter: "Simon, son of John, do you love (agape) me more than these?” He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love (phileo) you.” He said to him, "Feed my lambs.” He then said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love (agape) me?” He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love (phileo) you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love (phileo) me?” Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, "Do you love (phileo) me?” and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love (phileo) you.” (Jesus) said to him, "Feed my sheep.”

A modern version of the conversation might sound something like this:

“Peter, do you love me with all your heart?”
“Lord, I have great affection for you.”
“Peter, feed My lambs.”
“Peter, do you really, really love me?”
“Lord, I think you are wonderful.”
“Peter, tend My sheep.”
“Peter, do you have great affection for me?”
“Lord, you know I do.”
“Feed My sheep.”

 

Two things catch my attention in this exchange between the Lord and Peter, as I hope they also catch YOUR attention.

 

First, Peter must have felt miserable about his thrice denial of his best friend and Lord. But then I noticed how the Savior tried to help Peter move beyond his guilt. When Peter wouldn't say – couldn’t say – he passionately, fully, completely loved Jesus, the Lord came down to his level: “Okay, my friend. Do you have affection for me?”

And second – and this is equally important – after each agape/phileo exchange, the Lord’s charge to Peter was the same: “Take care of My sheep.” In other words, “Peter, I know you feel guilty, but your repentance restored our relationship. Your sorrow and guilt are unnecessary. Don’t let them keep you from your task to tend My flock."

How like the merciful Christ to call each of us out of our sorrow and self-recrimination AND our inability to fully love Him as we want to love Him. But Jesus knows our hearts. He knows our weaknesses of the flesh. But He seems, from this example, to be content for the moment with our ‘phileo’ affection. He knows that if we give Him THAT, then a maturing agape love will always follow. 

 

So, Christian, will you give Him your ‘phileo’ affection?

 

Now let’s return to our verse: “The Father Himself loves you because you have loved Me and have believed I came from God.”  Now look at that last clause: “You have believed that I came forth from God.”

 

Listen. Don’t think for a moment that it’s easy to believe Jesus came forth from God in the way He actually DID come forth from God. Belief in the miracle of the incarnation flies in the face of human reasonings. It is much easier and much more palatable to the human psyche to choose to believe as LDS Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims, most Jews, and others who want to believe Jesus was merely a created being and not Almighty Jehovah God Himself incarnate in human flesh.

 

And why is it so difficult for many people to believe in the miracles of the incarnation? Scripture tells us it is NOT for intellectual reasons. It is for moral reasons. We can’t turn there now, but Jesus tells us in John 3:19-21 that people love darkness rather than light. THAT’S why people don’t come to Him, because if we acknowledge that Jesus is God Almighty in the flesh, then such an acknowledgment would require a change in how we live life – to live it HIS way or to live it OUR way. And THAT is always a moral choice.

 

As CS Lewis wrote: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell.

You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

It takes WORK – the work of our total mind, conscience, and fleshly nature to accept the Biblical version of Jesus. It’s work because not only do we not want to walk in His light, but also because our fleshly minds recoil at supernatural events such as the incarnation.

 

It also takes work to believe Jesus is who He said He is because such a belief means our salvation cannot be earned. Salvation is nothing else than a divine GIFT, a gift we must receive with thanksgiving.

 

Think how often our humanness tries to earn points with God. Why do so many pray and fast and tithe and attend church and do good works? Is it because, as Jesus pointed out in the Sermon on the Mount, is it to impress others? Or is it to placate our own conscience? Or do we do those things out of love for, and obedience to, Jesus?

Let me remind all of us what God tells us throughout Scripture: Going to church does not save us. It’s WHY we go to church that saves us if we do so out of love for Jesus. We do so because we want to please Him and obey Him. Likewise, receiving Holy Communion saves no one unless we receive communion out of our love for Jesus. If we receive Holy Communion because we want to please Him and obey Him. And giving to the poor – and even being baptized – saves no one unless we do so out of love for Jesus and a desire to please and obey Him.

 

Our life and lifestyle FOCUS must be always about Jesus. Anything less is of the flesh, and those who live in the flesh cannot please God (see Romans 8:6-8).

 

The human heart is perfectly comfortable with its self-deception. Only the Holy Spirit can deliver us from its clutches. That’s because we want to feel like we are doing something to earn our place in heaven. And that’s the rock of stumbling of which Jesus and all the New Testament writers spoke so often.

 

Let me say it once more for emphasis: There is absolutely NOTHING anyone can do to earn salvation. It is entirely a gift that must be received by faith – faith in what God has told us about sin, righteousness, and judgment.

So, I need to close this message for the sake of time. I will do so with a quick reminder of all that I have said today.

 

First: The Father Himself loves YOU. And even though your life and mine may have taken some disastrous and painful turns – let’s be careful to not call God – even in the darkest corners of our thoughts – let’s be careful to not call God a liar when He tells us He loves us.

 

Second: He loves us because we love His Son. And although our love for Jesus may not be as deep or intimate or obedient as we would like it to be, we must know that if we give Him our hearts as best as our humanity is able to give Him our hearts – know that Jesus is okay with our ‘phileo’ offer. He knows ‘agape’ will follow.

 

And finally, BECAUSE we believe the infallibility, inerrancy, and full inspiration of the Scriptures, we therefore believe Jesus is Jehovah God incarnate AND we believe He has come forth from God to be our substitutionary atonement. He came forth from God to take on Himself the full, perfect, and complete penalty our sins deserve.

 

Now to Him whom we know as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – thank you, Lord, for saving our souls. Thank you, Lord, for making us whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to us Your great salvation, so rich and free.