Quotables for 2/24/10

"A sermon 'zinger' used to encourage church plants instead of resuscitating old churches goes like this: 'It is easier to have a baby than to raise the dead!' Jesus, however, did only the latter. Evangelism is a bit more complicated than the sound bite conveys, simply because people are. Whether or not they are consciously aware of it, many non-Christians are seeking a deeper, ecclesial reality in their life, not a gospel that caters to their present one."

~ Matthew Milliner, "Attack of the Ugly Babies," Evangel

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“Never did the love of God reveal itself so clearly as when he laid down his life for his sheep, nor did the justice of God ever flame forth so conspicuously as when he would suffer in himself the curse for sin rather than sin should go unpunished, and the law should be dishonored. Every attribute of God was focused at the cross, and he that hath eyes to look through his tears, and see the wounds of Jesus, shall behold more of God there than a whole eternity of providence or an infinity of creation shall ever be able to reveal to him.”

~C.H. Spurgeon, quoted in Miscellanies.

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"If I were an unbeliever and I attended these [seeker-driven /purpose-driven] churches and listened to all their sermons week after week, how would I define the term "Christ Follower"?

Here's the answer I came up with after reviewing the sermons preached at these seeker-driven / purpose-driven churches over the last 24 months:

Christ Follower: Someone who has made the decision to be an emotionally well adjusted self-actualized risk taking leader who knows his purpose, lives a 'no regrets' life of significance, has overcome his fears, enjoys a healthy marriage with better than average sex, is an attentive parent, is celebrating recovery from all his hurts, habits and hang ups, practices Biblical stress relief techniques, is financially free from consumer debt, fosters emotionally healthy relationships with his peers, attends a weekly life group, volunteers regularly at church, tithes off the gross and has taken at least one humanitarian aid trip to a third world nation.

Based upon this summarized definition, I've come to the conclusion that the world is full of people who can fit this definition but who've never repented of their sins and trusted in Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins."

Chris Rosebrough (read the rest here.)

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I have decided to limit postings of "Quotables" to one day per week, to avoid the risk of becoming simply a compiler of other people's work to the exclusion of my own.  I deeply appreciate my readers, and ask for your prayer as I continue to try to find and follow God's direction in how I spend the time He gives me.

Sharing in the Father's Love

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I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” Jesus, John 17:26

Jesus wanted us to know the very love that God the Father had for Him. Not to know it academically, as if we should all sit back and say, "Oh, I see, God loves Jesus this much."

No, Jesus wants that love to be "in us." He wants us to feel it in our bones, our hearts, our souls. He wants it to so fill us that it controls our every thought and action, just as it did Christ's.

Jesus described it simply as, "The love with which You (the Father) have loved Me (the Son)."

Is this a warm-fuzzy kind of love? The kind that sends us off to a life of ease and prosperity?

Where did the Father's love send Jesus?

You see, Calvary wasn't just about loving us, though of course that's huge. But even through the scourgings, the mockings, the nails, the agonies of heart and soul, the bitter taste of death…even through all of these, the Father was loving the Son. And the Father did not love as a helpless onlooker, the way the women looked on at the foot of the cross (Mark 15:40).

God sent Jesus there. In love. God wielded the whip through human hands. God drove the nails. God left Him feeling forsaken. In love. In love. In love.

It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. (Isa 53:10 KJV)

What kind of love is that?

Do we really want to share in it?

Jesus wants us to! He said so when He prayed in the Upper Room, immediately before walking His disciples to Gethsemane where their nightmare, and His, would begin in earnest. And in that same prayer He talked more about His desire for us:

…that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. (John 17:13)

Joy? Can that possibly be compatible with the kind of love that sent Jesus to Calvary?

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16:25)

Somehow, when we lose our life, we find it…and in finding it, we finally find our joy.

And where will we find our life?

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Col 3:3-4)

Somehow, in a way that boggles our fleshly minds, our greatest joy comes from experiencing God's love just as the Son experienced it…even on Calvary's road. Not by experiencing things which parallel Christ's experiences, but by experiencing Christ on that road…and through Him, experiencing the Father.

…that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:26

So how was the Father's love expressed to the Son throughout His life and agony and death? And how do we experience it?

Any thoughts?

Good Friday Requiem (A Medley of Scripture and Hymn)

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

He cried out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come forth!" And he who had died came out...

"I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again."

“Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. Then I said, ‘Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will, O my God.’”

The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD! God is the LORD, and He has given us light; bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.

This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bull, which has horns and hooves. The humble shall see this and be glad; and you who seek God, your hearts shall live.

Oh sacred head, now wounded

With grief and shame weighed down

Now scornfully surrounded

With thorns Thine only crown;

How art Thou pale with anguish,

With sore abuse and scorn!

How doth that visage languish

Which once was bright as morn!

“I am feeble and severely broken. My heart pants, my strength fails me; as for the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me. My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague, and my relatives stand afar off. I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother’s children.” (For even His brothers did not believe in Him. All His acquaintances, and the women who followed Him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.)

“I am a worm, and no man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All who see me ridicule me, saying, ‘He trusted in the LORD; let Him rescue Him. Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him.’”

Even the rulers with them sneered, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ.”

“They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Dogs have surrounded me; the congregation of the wicked has enclosed me. They have pierced my hands and my feet. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it has melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue clings to my jaws; You have brought me to the dust of death.”

What Thou my Lord hast suffered

‘Twas all for sinners’ gain

Mine, mine was the transgression,

But Thine the deadly pain.

Lo, here I fall, my Savior!

‘Tis I deserve Thy place;

Look on me with Thy favor,

Vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

“Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

“But You are He who took me out of the womb; You made me trust while on my mother’s breasts. I was cast upon you from birth; from my mother’s womb you have been my God. Be not far from me, for trouble is near, for there is none to help. In You, O LORD, I hope; You will hear, O Lord my God. But my enemies are vigorous, and they are strong; and those who hate me wrongfully have multiplied. Those also who render evil for good, they are my adversaries, because I follow what is good. Because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on Me.

“But You, O LORD, do not be far from me; O my Strength, hasten to help me! I am poor and sorrowful; let Your salvation, O God, set me up on high. Do not forsake me, O LORD; O my God, be not far from me!”

“MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

What language shall I borrow

To thank Thee, dearest Friend,

For this, Thy dying sorrow,

Thy pity without end?

Oh make me Thine forever,

And should I fainting be,

Lord, let me never, never

Outlive my love for Thee.

Amen

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The hymn: “Oh Sacred Head, Now Wounded” by Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676).

The Scripture references, in order of use:

John 1:4

John 10:10

John 11:43-44

John 10:17-18

Ps. 40:6-8

Ps. 118:22-24

Ps. 118:26-27

Ps. 69:31-32

Ps. 38:8

Ps. 38:10-11

Ps. 69:8

John 7:5

Luke 23:49

Ps. 22:6-8

Luke 23:35

Ps. 22:18

Ps. 22.16

Ps. 22:14-15

Ps. 69:20-21

Ps. 22:9-11

Ps. 38:15

Ps. 38:19-20

Ps. 69:9

Ps. 22:19

Ps 69:29

Ps. 38:21

Mark 15:34

Isa. 53:10-12

(All Scriptures used were chosen because the New Testament identified them as Messianic prophecies, or because they were found in context with such prophecies.)

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