Our theme for advent this year has been God’s unlimited love. We’ve asked the question: How far does God’s love reach? And we concluded that no one is beyond the reach of God’s love. The social outcast is not beyond God’s love; the religiously pious are not beyond God’s love; the morally fallen are not beyond God’s love; the spiritually confused are not beyond God’s unlimited love.
We’ve reflected on its character. We’ve discovered that this love:
#1 Knows no boundaries
Jer. 31:3 I have loved you with an everlasting love, I have drawn with cords of loving kindness
#2 Forgives all sin
Num.4:18 `The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.
#3 Compassionate and renewed
Lam.3:23-24 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
#4 Unfailing
Exod.35:13 "In your unfailing love you will lead
the people you have redeemed.
Two more things that we should know about God’s love.
#1 It is inclusive
Because it knows no boundaries, because no one is beyond its reach, the love of God includes everyone. From shepherds to wise men, from the outsider to the insider; No person who has ever lived, no person who is living, and no person who is yet to live could ever be described as being beyond God’s love.
This is what some writers have called the scandal of God’s grace. That no one, no matter what they have done or what they might do, is beyond God’s love.
The psalmist has it right when he asks: Where can I go to get away from you?
There is no escape.
To religious people God’s unlimited love is always going to be scandalous. Why should the bad get the same opportunity as the good? Why should the murderer be welcomed alongside the victim? You may of course not see it quite that way. You may have no problem with the lavish, unlimited reach of God’s love. But where the love of God goes, forgiveness goes too.
The scandal is may not be in the reach of God’s love as much as it is in the forgiveness that it offers.
“Amazing love”, wrote Graham Kendrick, “how can it be, the Son of God given for me
My debt he pays, and my death he dies, that I might live.”
#2 It’s exclusive
Whilst the love of God is unlimited in its reach it is not unlimited in its application. Philip Yancey makes this point when he asks his friend: You ask me about forgiveness now, but will you even want it later, especially if it involves repentance?
The application is exclusive because it requires you to take up the offer. But this is not an offer that you simply accept or reject without consequences. This is an offer that you must take seriously, that you must consider carefully. Your whole destiny rests on your response to this offer. It’s not an offer to be taken lightly.
John, in his gospel, makes this very point when he says: Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
You can respond in:
#1 Wonder
Wonder at what God has done for you. Wonder at how God unfolded his plan for your redemption through the birth of a child. Wonder at the simple fact that you oculd mean this much to the creator of the universe that he would come into your world, take your pain, shape your future.
#2 Worship
You could respond in worship. You could fall to your knees, weep for your mistakes, or cry in joy for your freedom that this birth announces. Worship is always a good response. No matter what the situation or the circumstances, worship is always appropriate. You could worship
#3 You could bring gifts
The wise men brought offerings, interesting offerings. What offering might you bring?
In He chose the nails, Max Lucado asks this question: What will you leave at the cross? He talks about bringing your bad moments, your mad moments, your anxious moments and your final moment.
#4 Receive
Whatever else you do in response to the nativity, you have to decide to receive what is offered or to reject it. You cannot sit on the fence and see which way the wind blows.
The birth of Jesus announces to the world that God is still involved in human history, still involved in that which he began and still at work drawing history itself to its conclusion.
So here lies a baby, the sign of God’s unlimited love. The choice is always yours, has always been yours, to do with that sign what you will.
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Monday, December 18, 2006
God's unlimited love: How far does it reach?
How far does God’s love reach? Is anyone excluded? Is it possible for someone to be so far from God that they are beyond the reach of his love?
Perhaps our question is more personal. Can I move so far away from God that I move beyond the reach of his love for me?
Perhaps our question is more like, “How does Jesus being born bring God’s love closer to the people around me who seem to live their lives oblivious to the love God has for them?”
So how far does God’s love reach?
#1 The spiritually far from God
In Matthew chapter 2 we read about the visit of the mysterious magi from the east. I know that generally speaking the church likes to think of these characters simply as “wise men”, possibly kings, certainly not astrologers. But this is possibly closer to the truth. The "Magi” cannot be identified with precision. By NT times, the term loosely covered a wide variety of men interested in dreams, astrology, magic, books thought to contain mysterious references to the future, and the like. In Acts 13 we meet Elymas the sorcerer or magon, who opposes Paul and tries to turn the proconsul from the faith.
Not all stargazers are open to the purposes of God or willing to take a journey of discovery with him.
Apparently these men, these magi came to Bethlehem spurred on by astrological calculations. But they had probably built up their expectation of a kingly figure by working through assorted Jewish books.
I guess you might call them the spiritually confused, although I don’t suppose they saw themselves in that light. But however they saw themselves, God loved them, and called to them.
Maybe they were not so far from God after all.
Whether you dabble at the edge of faith or dabble with the spiritually suspect, God’s love is never that far away from where you are.
#2 The morally far
If God’s love can reach way out east to people who are watching stars, who else can he reach?
How about the morally far from God.
Jesus became known as the friend of sinners. Depending upon which side of the religious divide you stood, this was either an insult (why do you mix with such rejects), or a comfort (someone like Jesus is willing to spend time in my company).
For Jesus it was a choice. He spoke of the need the sick had for a doctor, he spoke of coming to save those who had found themselves lost.
When he met Zacchaeus, it was Jesus who chose to share his company. He was no a reluctant guest in the house of a sinner, but he chose to be there. In John’s gospel we see Jesus presented with a case of adultery and asked to offer a judgment. Instead he offers forgiveness and a chance to start again, to change a lifestyle rather than end a life.
Jesus was known as one who would spend time with prostitutes, not a great reputation to have. But the love of God doesn’t worry about reputations, it only worries about people. People matter to God. Lost people, morally bankrupt people, matter to God.
#3 The social outcast
“The prostitute” points us towards another group of people who are well within reach of the love of God.
The social outcast.
In NT times there were people who were persona non grata as far as the religious community were concerned. Grouped together as publicans and sinners these people were thought to be beyond the reach of God. Among the list were the tax-collectors.
Working for a foreign government collecting unfair taxes on their behalf, and usually adding a little, or a lot, of commission on the side, these men were not well liked to say the least. They would have had few, if any, friends in so-called polite society. I doubt very much that they would have been welcomed at the Temple in Jerusalem or even at their local synagogue. But the love of God reaches out to even these outcasts.
As Jesus walked along the road one day he saw a tax-collector called Levi and he said to him, “Come and follow me.” And he did. He followed Jesus and he did two other things of great significance. First he threw a party for all his outcast friends and invited Jesus to be there. We don’t know how many responded to the invitation, we don’t know how many of those who came were changed by their encounter with Jesus, but we know that Jesus would have loved them just as he had loved Levi.
And the second thing Levi did? He wrote the gospel that bears his name, not Levi but Matthew. Can you imagine the New Testament without Matthew’s gospel? The stories we wouldn’t have, the insight into God’s fulfillment of his promises that would be missed.
The social outcast turned storyteller and all because the love of God reaches even the social outcast.
#4 The religiously far
Some people are very religious but far from God. Perhaps Nicodemus, a Pharisee who came to meet Jesus one night, would fall into that category. He knew a lot about God, but did he truly know God? He came with questions, and he got some answers. He didn’t seem to grasp the answers, at least not straightaway, but he came.
Many religious people were unwilling to even ask the question, but Jesus still loved them, spoke to them about God’s love and purposes. Even when they rejected him and sought his life, he still loved them.
For God so loved the world, is how John 3:16 begins. It’s a verse that many within the church know well. It speaks about the all-encompassing love of God. If you are part of the world, then you are included in the range of God’s love, you are not beyond his reach. As Max Lucado puts it: it doesn’t say for God so loved the Europeans, it says for God so loved the world.
No matter what you think about yourself, no matter what you’ve said about God, no matter what you might have done, you are not beyond the reach of the love of God. Jesus invite you to come to the manger at wonder at the journey he made all the way from heaven to live on earth so that you could experience the love of God first hand.
And as you wonder at the baby in the trough, remember too the man on the cross. Remember that this baby grew to be this man who gave up his life that having seen God’s love you might understand his forgiveness.
Perhaps our question is more personal. Can I move so far away from God that I move beyond the reach of his love for me?
Perhaps our question is more like, “How does Jesus being born bring God’s love closer to the people around me who seem to live their lives oblivious to the love God has for them?”
So how far does God’s love reach?
#1 The spiritually far from God
In Matthew chapter 2 we read about the visit of the mysterious magi from the east. I know that generally speaking the church likes to think of these characters simply as “wise men”, possibly kings, certainly not astrologers. But this is possibly closer to the truth. The "Magi” cannot be identified with precision. By NT times, the term loosely covered a wide variety of men interested in dreams, astrology, magic, books thought to contain mysterious references to the future, and the like. In Acts 13 we meet Elymas the sorcerer or magon, who opposes Paul and tries to turn the proconsul from the faith.
Not all stargazers are open to the purposes of God or willing to take a journey of discovery with him.
Apparently these men, these magi came to Bethlehem spurred on by astrological calculations. But they had probably built up their expectation of a kingly figure by working through assorted Jewish books.
I guess you might call them the spiritually confused, although I don’t suppose they saw themselves in that light. But however they saw themselves, God loved them, and called to them.
Maybe they were not so far from God after all.
Whether you dabble at the edge of faith or dabble with the spiritually suspect, God’s love is never that far away from where you are.
#2 The morally far
If God’s love can reach way out east to people who are watching stars, who else can he reach?
How about the morally far from God.
Jesus became known as the friend of sinners. Depending upon which side of the religious divide you stood, this was either an insult (why do you mix with such rejects), or a comfort (someone like Jesus is willing to spend time in my company).
For Jesus it was a choice. He spoke of the need the sick had for a doctor, he spoke of coming to save those who had found themselves lost.
When he met Zacchaeus, it was Jesus who chose to share his company. He was no a reluctant guest in the house of a sinner, but he chose to be there. In John’s gospel we see Jesus presented with a case of adultery and asked to offer a judgment. Instead he offers forgiveness and a chance to start again, to change a lifestyle rather than end a life.
Jesus was known as one who would spend time with prostitutes, not a great reputation to have. But the love of God doesn’t worry about reputations, it only worries about people. People matter to God. Lost people, morally bankrupt people, matter to God.
#3 The social outcast
“The prostitute” points us towards another group of people who are well within reach of the love of God.
The social outcast.
In NT times there were people who were persona non grata as far as the religious community were concerned. Grouped together as publicans and sinners these people were thought to be beyond the reach of God. Among the list were the tax-collectors.
Working for a foreign government collecting unfair taxes on their behalf, and usually adding a little, or a lot, of commission on the side, these men were not well liked to say the least. They would have had few, if any, friends in so-called polite society. I doubt very much that they would have been welcomed at the Temple in Jerusalem or even at their local synagogue. But the love of God reaches out to even these outcasts.
As Jesus walked along the road one day he saw a tax-collector called Levi and he said to him, “Come and follow me.” And he did. He followed Jesus and he did two other things of great significance. First he threw a party for all his outcast friends and invited Jesus to be there. We don’t know how many responded to the invitation, we don’t know how many of those who came were changed by their encounter with Jesus, but we know that Jesus would have loved them just as he had loved Levi.
And the second thing Levi did? He wrote the gospel that bears his name, not Levi but Matthew. Can you imagine the New Testament without Matthew’s gospel? The stories we wouldn’t have, the insight into God’s fulfillment of his promises that would be missed.
The social outcast turned storyteller and all because the love of God reaches even the social outcast.
#4 The religiously far
Some people are very religious but far from God. Perhaps Nicodemus, a Pharisee who came to meet Jesus one night, would fall into that category. He knew a lot about God, but did he truly know God? He came with questions, and he got some answers. He didn’t seem to grasp the answers, at least not straightaway, but he came.
Many religious people were unwilling to even ask the question, but Jesus still loved them, spoke to them about God’s love and purposes. Even when they rejected him and sought his life, he still loved them.
For God so loved the world, is how John 3:16 begins. It’s a verse that many within the church know well. It speaks about the all-encompassing love of God. If you are part of the world, then you are included in the range of God’s love, you are not beyond his reach. As Max Lucado puts it: it doesn’t say for God so loved the Europeans, it says for God so loved the world.
No matter what you think about yourself, no matter what you’ve said about God, no matter what you might have done, you are not beyond the reach of the love of God. Jesus invite you to come to the manger at wonder at the journey he made all the way from heaven to live on earth so that you could experience the love of God first hand.
And as you wonder at the baby in the trough, remember too the man on the cross. Remember that this baby grew to be this man who gave up his life that having seen God’s love you might understand his forgiveness.
Monday, December 4, 2006
Thoughts on God's unlimited love
This year our Advent theme is "Love unlimited". We're talking here about Barry White's backing group, but the unlimited love that God has shown us through his SOn, Jesus. Here are some opening thoughts about God's unlimited love.
Here is what we want to know. We want to know how long God’s love will endure… Does God really love us forever? Not just on… Sunday when our shoes are shined and our hair is fixed. We want to know… how does God feel when I’m a jerk? Not when I’m peppy and positive and ready to tackle world hunger. Not then. I know how he feels about me then. Even I like me then.
I want to know how he feels about me when I snap at anything that moves, when my thoughts are gutter-level, when my tongue is sharp enough to slice a rock. How does God feel about me then?…
Can anything separate us from the love Christ has for us?
God answered our question before we asked it. So we’d see his answer, he lit the sky with a star. So we’d hear it, he filled the night with a choir; and so we’d believe it, he did what no man had ever dreamed. He became flesh and dwelt among us.
He placed his hand on the shoulder of humanity and said, “You’re something special”.
Max Lucado In the Grip of Grace from One Incredible Moment
A love promised
How would you describe God? If someone asked you for a single sentence description of his character what would you highlight? Eight times in the Old Testament he is described like this: slow to anger and abounding in love. Seven of the eight times it adds: gracious and compassionate. That God is holy, the righteous judge of all people, creator and sustainer of the universe is also true, yet there is something about compassion, grace, and love that just seems to say more.
Four characteristics of this promised love
#1 Knows no boundaries
Jer. 31:3 I have loved you with an everlasting love, I have drawn with cords of loving kindness
#2 Forgives all sin
Num.4:18 The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.
#3 Compassionate and renewed
Lam.3:23-24 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
#4 Unfailing
Exod.35:13 In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed.
A love revealed
Matthew tells us that all this happened to fulfil what was spoken through the prophets.
The birth of Jesus is a revelation of God’s love for us. God loves us so much that he is willing to become one of us. To experience life as we experience it, to set aside his glory, majesty and even his rights as God, and experience humanity. God loves us so much that not only did he become one of us, but he also died for each of us.
While we were still rebels, Christ died for us, says Paul.
A love poured out
We are:
Loved unconditionally
Loved eternally
Loved individually
Here is what we want to know. We want to know how long God’s love will endure… Does God really love us forever? Not just on… Sunday when our shoes are shined and our hair is fixed. We want to know… how does God feel when I’m a jerk? Not when I’m peppy and positive and ready to tackle world hunger. Not then. I know how he feels about me then. Even I like me then.
I want to know how he feels about me when I snap at anything that moves, when my thoughts are gutter-level, when my tongue is sharp enough to slice a rock. How does God feel about me then?…
Can anything separate us from the love Christ has for us?
God answered our question before we asked it. So we’d see his answer, he lit the sky with a star. So we’d hear it, he filled the night with a choir; and so we’d believe it, he did what no man had ever dreamed. He became flesh and dwelt among us.
He placed his hand on the shoulder of humanity and said, “You’re something special”.
Max Lucado In the Grip of Grace from One Incredible Moment
A love promised
How would you describe God? If someone asked you for a single sentence description of his character what would you highlight? Eight times in the Old Testament he is described like this: slow to anger and abounding in love. Seven of the eight times it adds: gracious and compassionate. That God is holy, the righteous judge of all people, creator and sustainer of the universe is also true, yet there is something about compassion, grace, and love that just seems to say more.
Four characteristics of this promised love
#1 Knows no boundaries
Jer. 31:3 I have loved you with an everlasting love, I have drawn with cords of loving kindness
#2 Forgives all sin
Num.4:18 The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion.
#3 Compassionate and renewed
Lam.3:23-24 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
#4 Unfailing
Exod.35:13 In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed.
A love revealed
Matthew tells us that all this happened to fulfil what was spoken through the prophets.
The birth of Jesus is a revelation of God’s love for us. God loves us so much that he is willing to become one of us. To experience life as we experience it, to set aside his glory, majesty and even his rights as God, and experience humanity. God loves us so much that not only did he become one of us, but he also died for each of us.
While we were still rebels, Christ died for us, says Paul.
A love poured out
We are:
Loved unconditionally
Loved eternally
Loved individually
Sunday, December 3, 2006
The unfinished story
Whichever way you look at it, the story of the early church seems incomplete at the end of the book of Acts. Even Paul acknowledges that although he is compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem, he doesn’t what will happen as a result of going there. He just knows that trouble is ahead. And what of Peter and the other apostles and leaders? Is their story over, or is it still unfolding, just not recorded.
But maybe there is a more subtle message in the incompleteness of the story.
There is always more to do.
There is always more to do than there are resources to meet the need. There is always more to do than there are people to do it. There is always more to do than there is time in which to do it. There is always more to do.
There is always more to do because the story isn’t finished. The church is still here, and Jesus is still in the business of building the church he began. The story did not finish with Paul arriving in Rome, and won’t be finished until he says it’s finished.
There is always more to do because God is not finished in this place.
The problem is that sometimes the job seems to be too much, too overwhelming, too big.
What to do?
What to do when the task looks too big
#1 Remember God’s plan: Acts 1:8 Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth
When we can’t, God can and does: When we get to the end of our resources, we have a God who has more resources at his disposal than we can imagine.
#2 Jesus builds the church
As we’ve looked at the early church we’ve thought about its foundations: continuity, promise, power and purpose. We’ve thought about what it means to build a great church characterised by: Devotion to Biblical teaching and standards, devoted to God, devoted to each other and that has great outcomes. And we said that in the end great churches are: Passionate about God; Passionate about each other; Passionate about the world.
But let’s not forget: Jesus builds the church not you and me. We’re involved, we’ve been invited to play a part, but we are not the master-builders.
Three questions to ask:
#1 What is Jesus doing, how can we be involved?
I know it actually two questions, but let’s ask it as one question in two parts!
Where do we see God actively at work in our community? And then ask how can we be involved.
#2 What are the “God given” opportunities before us?
This is closely linked to the first question, because if God is at work in our communities then that surely presents opportunities to us. But I’m thinking here about future things that we can see coming our way. The Wixams and Shortstown building projects; the village care scheme; being a school governor, a parish councillor. There are all sorts of ways to be involved in our communities. No treading water while we wait for new homes to be built.
#3 What is our mandate?
1.Go and make disciples: A great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission makes great Christians.
2. Preach the gospel (Luke 24)
3. Love each other
4. Be personally transformed
5. Be encouragers
When the task looks big, we need all the encouragement we can get!
But maybe there is a more subtle message in the incompleteness of the story.
There is always more to do.
There is always more to do than there are resources to meet the need. There is always more to do than there are people to do it. There is always more to do than there is time in which to do it. There is always more to do.
There is always more to do because the story isn’t finished. The church is still here, and Jesus is still in the business of building the church he began. The story did not finish with Paul arriving in Rome, and won’t be finished until he says it’s finished.
There is always more to do because God is not finished in this place.
The problem is that sometimes the job seems to be too much, too overwhelming, too big.
What to do?
What to do when the task looks too big
#1 Remember God’s plan: Acts 1:8 Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth
When we can’t, God can and does: When we get to the end of our resources, we have a God who has more resources at his disposal than we can imagine.
#2 Jesus builds the church
As we’ve looked at the early church we’ve thought about its foundations: continuity, promise, power and purpose. We’ve thought about what it means to build a great church characterised by: Devotion to Biblical teaching and standards, devoted to God, devoted to each other and that has great outcomes. And we said that in the end great churches are: Passionate about God; Passionate about each other; Passionate about the world.
But let’s not forget: Jesus builds the church not you and me. We’re involved, we’ve been invited to play a part, but we are not the master-builders.
Three questions to ask:
#1 What is Jesus doing, how can we be involved?
I know it actually two questions, but let’s ask it as one question in two parts!
Where do we see God actively at work in our community? And then ask how can we be involved.
#2 What are the “God given” opportunities before us?
This is closely linked to the first question, because if God is at work in our communities then that surely presents opportunities to us. But I’m thinking here about future things that we can see coming our way. The Wixams and Shortstown building projects; the village care scheme; being a school governor, a parish councillor. There are all sorts of ways to be involved in our communities. No treading water while we wait for new homes to be built.
#3 What is our mandate?
1.Go and make disciples: A great commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission makes great Christians.
2. Preach the gospel (Luke 24)
3. Love each other
4. Be personally transformed
5. Be encouragers
When the task looks big, we need all the encouragement we can get!
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