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December 23, 2007AM
Philippians 1:2-11
Challenging Chains with Love
How can I possibly say anything about love that has not already been said?
Perhaps it would help to remind us what life is like apart from Jesus.
Jesus is God’s perfect expression of love.
Amen? Are we in agreement?
Jesus is God’s perfect expression of love.
To who was that love expressed?
I Jesus’ perfect love COMES to a CRUDE LIFE.
He came to people who were gripped in the pain of sin.
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” (Romans 8:22)
He came to people lost in darkness.
“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed” (John 3:19,20)
“Their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:21)
He came to a world of people living in chaos.
“They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless” (Romans 1:29-31)
He came to people sitting under judgment.
“‘So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me,’ says the LORD Almighty” (Malachi 3:5)
Jesus came to people living in despair.
“You lived in this world without God and without hope” (Eph. 2:12b)
It was a world of hostility.
“The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God” (Romans 8:7)
It was a hard-hearted world.
“I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 11:19)
That is what your life and my life is like in this world.
Our lives are totally messed up.
We are living in mass confusion.
We get everything wrong.
But God was not willing to abandon our CRUDE LIFE.
He loved us too much to leave us in that lost and sinful condition.
Jesus entered our CRUDE LIFE with His perfect love.
II Jesus’ perfect love CLEANSES the CRUDE LIFE.
Jesus entered this world to reclaim, restore, redeem your life.
Paul knew what God wanted to offer us through Jesus.
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (v.3)
Jesus’ perfect love was God’s grace poured out on us to cleanse us.
“Though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form He humbled Himself and became obedient until death, even death on a cross.” (Phil. 2:6-8)
He knocks on the door of every heart knowing what lies on the other side.
He is aware of the blackness and hatred and abuse of every heart.
He sees the sin and treachery that lurks behind the door.
And yet He knocks, waiting, longing, hoping the door will open.
I have knocked on doors hoping they would not be opened.
I knew what life was like on the other side of the door.
I knew that a demanding family lived on the other side.
I knew I would encounter a family living in poverty.
They would be living dysfunctional lives.
They would be living in painful and shattered relationships.
There would be filth throughout the house.
There would be suspicious looks possibly even hostility.
Did I really want that door to open?
Was I willing to walk into that environment?
Could I deal with those challenges or hope to make a difference?
My life would be so much easier if the door never opened.
That’s what is on the other side of my door as Jesus knocks.
Each knock is a touch of perfect love.
He knows the condition of the heart on the other side.
He knows what is going to be required to cleanse that heart.
It would cost Him everything.
His life would be sacrificed on the cross.
Why would He continue knocking?
Because of perfect love.
He is not willing to leave us to perish in our sin.
His blood shed on the cross cleanses us from all sin.
Anyone living for eternity in hell is unthinkable to God.
He has seen your heart and mine.
He invites us to trust Him enough to open the door of our hearts.
He is willing to enter the filth and mess of our lives.
Have you invited Him into your heart?
Has your life been CLEANSED by His perfect love?
Have you acknowledged your sin and asked Jesus to forgive you?
Jesus, whose birth we celebrate, entered your crude life.
Jesus in the manger was the first knock of perfect love.
Cleansing from sin is the beginning of Jesus’ perfect love in our hearts.
But that is not where the journey ends for any of us.
III Notice what Paul wrote in verse 6.
“I am sure that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
Jesus’ perfect love not only CLEANSES the CRUDE LIFE.
Jesus’ perfect love COMPLETES the CLEANSED LIFE.
What does this complete life look like?
It is a life where Jesus’ perfect love abounds more and more.
Paul prayed “that your love may abound more and more.”
It is impossible for a life full of hostility, despair, chaos, darkness and sin to have love that abounds more and more.
There is no way a life shrouded in darkness could love more and more.
There is no way a hostile heart could love more and more.
There is no way that chaos can generate love.
But the love Paul prays for us to experience is a divine love.
Only a heart that is cleansed of sin is capable of this abounding love.
Only a heart that is cleansed can be made COMPLETE in Jesus.
The work of Jesus is not restricted to the heart.
His love floods the entirety of a life.
Those who are cleansed within need to be sanctified throughout.
The COMPLETE LIFE offers every thought, word, and work, as a spiritual sacrifice.
It is to have a heart that is all-flaming with the love of God.
It does not get caught up in the petty superficial snags of life.
It loves unconditionally as God has loved us.
It loves with every thought of the heart.
It loves with every word of the tongue.
It loves with every move of the body.
The COMPLETE LIFE in Christ shows the praises of God.
Every prayer is, “Jesus, Complete what you Cleansed.
“Make me holy in heart and life.
“Let Your perfect love abound in my heart more and more.
“Empower me to love a CRUDE LIFE as you loved me.
“Make me not only pious but make me merciful.
“May I live directed by the mind of Christ!
I love the word complete.
It means to be whole, to be finished, to be absolute, to be perfect.
It is not half-hearted or half done.
Have you ever tried to eat an incomplete cake?
Maybe it is short some ingredients.
Maybe it is only half-baked.
Eating an incomplete cake is an unpleasant experience.
And there is nothing more unpleasant than an incomplete Christian.
One who is big on receiving forgiveness and short on expressing love.
The Christian who is picky about who they will love.
Robert Rainy says it this way: “Paul is praying ‘that your love for one another will never be doled out in parsimonious pinches, but will rather tumble forth like some magnificent cascade.’”
The complete person overflows with the fruits of righteousness.
They are no longer hung up on the law.
The complete person is pure and blameless.
It is the person whose love abounds more and more.
It is the person who approves what is excellent.
They recognize what is vital.
It is the person who loves and serves with Jesus’ perfect love.
That was how Paul lived.
He yearned with the affection of Christ Jesus (v. 8)
Are you letting Jesus complete what He cleansed?
Closing Song The Power of Your Love