“Will you lay down your life for Me?”
This was a question Jesus posed to Peter? How would you answer him? Or are you just glad that he didn’t ask you this question? But then again, this is exactly what Jesus requires of each of us. We are required to lay down our life for Jesus and for the gospel. In Matthew 16: 25 Jesus said, “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Therefore, if we want life, then we must relinquish our life. It sounds like an oxymoron but we surrender our lives and take on the life of Christ, a life in him and of him. Paul revealed in Romans 6: 4 that “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” “For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians. 4: 11).
This dying or laying aside of our life doesn’t happen once for all. It is the constant laying aside of our ego laden needs and taking up the life of Christ with its mission of love and servitude. This is not an easy task because our ego seeks always to protect itself but this is the call of Christianity, of following after the Christ and walking in his ways.
Paul further explained this idea in Galatians 2: 20 when he wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Our life of the flesh has been exchanged for a new life in the Spirit of God wherein we died and were reborn as a child of the Most High, a child of the Spirit. The person we were died and a new person was created in the new birth. Why do we attempt to still live as that old person if he or she died with Christ at the cross? That life we lay down and take up the new life that Christ bought for us at Calvary. That old man was dead in his sin anyway. There was nothing but corruption and decay in his bones but the new man is made in the very image of Christ Jesus, beautiful and radiant.
This is who you are in Jesus but only to the degree that you make a decision to let go of that corpse who is the old you. Believe me, the old man, that old self that each of us knows all too well is decrepit and is better off in the grave. We turned to Jesus and accepted him as Lord because we wanted this new life in him. Most of us were well aware of the state of our inner man. Most of us knew that we needed something, that we needed Jesus to take this sad thing that we were and to make something of it. And that is what he did. He exchanged our lives which were full of decay and death and gave us his life which is the picture of glory and beauty. We died, were crucified with him and were raised up with him in his glory and righteousness but we must make a decision to be renewed in our inner man. God has provided this new life but it is up to us to allow the life of Christ to be born in our inner man. It is not automatic. We have to choose to lay down our lives for Christ. He asks us just as he asked Peter, “Will you lay down your life for me?” This is a question each of us must ask ourselves because this is the essence of the new life, the reborn man and the life in Christ. This death and resurrection in Christ is what happens after we say the sinner’s prayer. We decide that to live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1: 21). We choose to let our old self with all of its baggage and problems die and be put away. We give ourselves to Jesus as Lord, pledge ourselves to him and his service and we are raised up in him to a new person full of glory and righteousness.
Let go of yourself. You have died with Christ now bury that old man and let him rest in peace. Don your new life in Christ. Let go of the self-absorbed concerns and turn your life over to him. He will glorify and exalt you when you give your life to him. He will raise you up and give you the abundant life which is your inheritance and which he came to give you. Bury the old man and take up the life Christ has for you.
“A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
Jesus gave us one commandment knowing if we would live by this one commandment we would fulfill all the law and the prophets. Everything that God would prescribe for us is included in this one commandment, that we love one another as Jesus first loved us.
How did Jesus love us? He loved us sacrificially. He put our needs before his even to the point of death. That is a remarkable act. Can you imagine putting other people’s needs before your desires even if it means your death? That is a tall order. Face it; most of us continuously serve ourselves even at the cost of others. How often do we cease our pursuit of what we want long enough to even consider what others need or want? It is just not our way, is it? We were not trained to serve others but rather to grab all we can get even if it means hurting others. So, what does it take for us to, even for a moment, retire our self-interest long enough to consider the needs and wants of someone else?
Whatever Jesus told us to do he has also empowered us to do. That is good news, yes? But realize too that there is no excuse for disobedience. We do not have the excuse that we cannot do what he has commanded because he always provides the ability with the command. So, if this is Jesus’ command to us, and we know it is, and he has empowered us with the ability to fulfill the love command, then why aren’t more of us living by this commandment?
God is love. He is the power and authority required to fulfill this commandment. Jesus is showing us that our grand command is to convey the essence of God to others. Did you catch that? Since our command is to love one another and God is love then the command is to “God” one another as Jesus did or to express the nature and heart of God among one another just like Jesus did. It sounds like a difficult task but Jesus provided the way. He told his disciples to stay in Jerusalem until they received the promise of the Father which would give them the requisite power (Acts 1: 4 – 8). Then he sent the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit has come to make his abode in us, to actually live in our hearts. He is the power to love and to live. The only way we can do what Jesus has commanded us to do is for us to fill up with God. We can never in our own strength or by an effort of our will love people the way Jesus has directed us. We must first let love fill us to overflowing, then we will be able to let the expression of who God is flow out of us.
So we have an absolute command from our Lord regarding how we are to treat others and he has provided the means by which we can adhere to his command. We must make a decision to obey this commandment of love. We need to understand with our minds that it means putting others needs ahead of ours. We should actually spend some time thinking about what that means and meditating on how that might appear in practice. Then we need to seek the help of the Father through prayer. We must first let Him love us. We will never be able to love others if we do not first receive the love of God deep into our hearts. His love can only flow through us once we have allowed Him to abide fully within us. So there is our starting point and perhaps where many of us fail. Make a decision to obey Jesus’ command to love others as he loved us and then earnestly seek the help of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Open your heart and let God flow into it. Open your heart and let His love flow out.
“As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.”
Jesus’ words bring life to those who find them. Jesus tells us that his father’s command leads to eternal life. Moreover, Jesus said that everything he said came from the father so everything that Jesus ever said leads us to eternal fullness of life. Everything we want, everything we need is fulfilled through Jesus’ word.
It sounds simplistic to say that everything we need can be obtained through the Word until we remember that God created the entire universe with the spoken word. Now He has given us His words. With them there is nothing which is impossible to us. If we are not where we want to be in life, then we need only go to His Word and get more life. Jesus said that he came to bring us abundant life and we know from John 1: 1 that Jesus is the Word. So the Word came to give us abundant life.
Conversely, if we are not living the abundant life, then we have not allowed the life of Christ to fill us and we need to put more of Jesus inside of us by ingesting his word. The Word of God is the seed and the soil is the heart. When we plant his word in our hearts it yields a harvest. If we fail to bear fruit then Jesus need not judge us for we are already judged. The word that he has given us produces life so our lives will show whether we have accepted or rejected Christ’s word.
Do you remember the story of the talents in Matthew 25: 14? The servants were not tasked with safeguarding the master’s assets. The mission is to use the talents God has given us to produce a crop. He has given us his word and it is our job to do something with it. Prepare the soil; till it and pull out the weeds. Then plant the seed. If you will be diligent and faithful at reaping season you will have a bountiful harvest.
“Stop grumbling among yourselves.” Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you?
The church needs to hear Jesus preach this message again and ask this critical question, “Am I easily offended, do I take offense?” We are living in an age where we must constantly walk on eggshells and I know that it becomes tedious for everyone and stressful to live in this state. But there is a larger issue here. That is that we so easily become offended at the message that Jesus has sent to the body.
Jesus didn’t mince words. He taught openly and in honesty. And, yes, sometimes people were offended but can we be honest for a moment today without anyone taking offense? The truth of the matter is that those people in Jesus’ time just as the people in our time chose to be offended. It is so interesting that we use the expression “take offense”. That very expression reveals that we exercise our choice to take or not take offense. God would love to give us all the truth but we can’t handle it. Pastors guard themselves and honestly, between you and I, preach watered down messages because they know their parishioners can’t handle it. They endeavor not to hurt anyone’s feelings or cause anyone offense but if we want to be offended, we will find a way. I have met people that you could compliment and they would still be offended. It has become a lifestyle. Now, how is God going to minister life giving truth to us if we are so touchy?
This is life and death stuff here folks. We have got to yearn for the truth and receive it when it comes. We need to take the shackles off of our teachers and beg them to tell us the whole truth. Many clergy will not teach on tithing or giving because they are afraid of offending the congregation. I can appreciate their misgivings but if we will not allow them to teach us about God’s divine fiscal policies then we are doomed to poverty or at best mediocrity.
And I wish to make a personal plea here as well that you can perhaps also apply to your pastor. We have a mandate from God to tell the truth and I like every other minister of the gospel have to decide whether to deliver the message that seems hard or to disobey God. It is not a fun choice but there are two things you should know. Speaking for myself, I never deliver a hard message in order to hurt you. I give the messages that I think God is giving me for you and out of love for you. The Bible teaches us that a parent who loves their child will reprove them. I want the best for you so I am motivated to tell you the truth even if it stings a bit. Secondly, if it is a particularly hard hitting message, don’t be offended. I’m probably not even talking to you. I am probably preaching to myself because believe me, some of these messages are for me more than for anyone else. Some of them seem to be given only for me. But I take that as God’s love for me. He wants us to live the high life, a life of abundance and He knows the things in our lives which are acting as obstacles to this good life. How shall He tell us so that we may move into the better life that He has for us? Shall we choose to be offended when God is trying to help us?
So here is the conclusion. I honestly believe that any time we find ourselves offended by our pastor’s message we should check ourselves. Now, I am not saying that ministers are perfect. I have been offended by some messages too but there is another characteristic that should be working in us too. It is called forgiveness. We must overlook one another’s flaws. Do you believe your pastor hears from God? If the answer is no, change churches. If the answer is yes, then be faithful. Jesus, so many times said, “He who has ears, let him hear.” It could be that we are all still developing our spiritual ears. But let us come to this conclusion. Our minsters were called by God to serve us and they have an anointing on their lives to deliver the gospel. They have our best interests at heart and preach truth, even hard-hitting truth, because of their devotion to us.
I would like to make this personal again. I apologize right now if I ever hurt your feelings. On the other hand I want you to know that I place a high value on telling you the truth and I trust that you are people of stern stuff rather than wishy-washy, half-hearted Christians. God is raising up His army in our generation and His ministers have been tasked with equipping the saints. I would rather bruise your ego a little than for the enemy to kill you. So this is the choice I make, to tell you the truth as God reveals it to me and trust that you are strong enough to hear it. There may be times you disagree with me. That’s okay. Listen, I still watch and listen to preachers that I have some disagreements with. It is very difficult for us all to agree 100% of the time but that should be no bar to our fellowship. You simply take those things to the Lord and let Him guide you and teach you. Some of those items will lead you into deep revelations. And I will tell you upfront that I am not walking in the full revelation yet. I am still learning as well. So don’t let that hinder you. If we continually allow ourselves to become offended, we end up isolating ourselves and then we develop our own personal theology which is very dangerous.
Alright, so this is one of those messages I have not wanted to send though it has been on my list for months. When God showed me the exact same verse again today it just could not be avoided any longer. So don’t take offense at a message that teaches not to be offended and let us all remind ourselves that this message began with Jesus speaking. The spirit of offense which is in operation in the body of Christ can, and will, be crushed when we all refuse to feed it or give into its urgings.
To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.
In our discipleship we desire to reflect the grace of the Lord. When people look at us, we hope they see Jesus. I never considered that when we look at the Lord, we see ourselves. Today’s scriptures teach us a very important lesson. What you see when you look at God is likely a reflection of yourself. Stop and think about that for a moment. Do you see a loving God full of grace and mercy or do you see a vengeful God. Is he punishing the world or loving it. God hasn’t changed. He is love but what we see in Him shows what we have allowed ourselves to receive from God. He gives us power to be loving and forgiving because He is loving and forgiving. If, instead, we see Him as shrewd it is because of something in us, crookedness. If we see Him faithful it is because we have allowed ourselves to receive faithfulness from Him. He shows Himself blameless because we have received our spotless garment by faith in Jesus. We look at God through the veil which we choose, through our filters.
The key point is that the way we perceive God is a measure of who we are rather than a treatise on who He is. We know unequivocally who and what God is, God is love. Therefore, if we do not perceive Him as He truly is, then it is because of an overlay that we have cloaked Him with from our own personalities. He is faithful because love is faithful. Any characteristic which is derived from love is His natural clothing. Any characteristic which is distinct from love is the veil of our eyes. We may have inherited these veils, these painted lenses, from our parents, we may have learned them from religion or they may be of our own doing. Any unregenerate part of our being may be reflected onto our image of God. Our task as disciples of Christ is to see Him as He truly is. The question, then, is not “Who do you think God is?” The task is to strip the veils of convention, habit and our own worldly experience from our eyes and to see God as He truly is. We have a test which will show immediately our perception of truth. If our image of God is anything less than complete love then we know there is yet something within us that needs addressing.
Looking at God is like looking into a mirror which might explain why it is difficult to get people to seek Him or even to spend time in prayer and in the Word. Even if they cannot articulate their hesitancy in their heart of hearts they know they will see something ugly in the mirror and they are afraid. Their hearts are not strong enough to admit the truth about themselves. This is a great sorrow because God is the healer of the heart. There is nothing so ugly in any of us that He cannot turn it into beauty. It is what He does. There also is not one of us that was beautiful in ourselves. Any beauty any of us reflect is the Lord Jesus himself. What is it that gives one person the guts to seek healing and inner beauty and others fall to fear? I wish I knew. Perhaps it is a little hope of something better. Maybe it is just a little faith that God really is love and that he will accept us and help us. Whatever it is, I pray that seed in every one of us so that we may grow into the beautiful creature of grace that we are each meant to be. If we could only see ourselves the way God sees us. I adjure you by all that is holy. Seek the face of the Lord expecting to find love and acceptance. Do not worry about your soiled garments. You are not as dirty as Jesus was when the sin of the world hit him and yet he is seated right now at the right hand of God. You can’t get any dirtier than he was and yet his robes are now as white as snow. He is radiant in his cleanliness. God has provided that same beauty for ashes experience for each of us. Give God your rubbish and he will exchange it for His glory. “Let’s Make a Deal” never had a deal as good as that. If you will with all honesty give your entire heart to God He will show you His wholeness and grace. Then you will look in the mirror of His face and see only love.
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
We have all heard the expression “Give and take”. It is particularly used to describe relationships. Well, I would like to coin a new phrase today. I want you to enjoy “give and give” relationships because this, I believe, is the Christian model.
I recently went on a camping trip where I got to renew old acquaintances and meet some great new people and it is from these folks that this idea has arisen in my consciousness. Let me begin with a little story which I believe will demonstrate why this idea of give-give has become prominent in my thinking.
The first day there I met this lovely couple, Sally and Chad. There was an instant connection with them as we all paddled on the lake and talked about the Lord. That evening, everyone got together at our campsite. Well, I had just brewed a cup of tea when Sally and Chad arrived. We got to talking about tea and I told them about how I had discovered this brew (Good Earth Original Tea) in La Jolla, CA back when I lived in San Diego. We discovered that we shared a common interest. I offered them to smell or taste my tea and they both thought it smelled good so I made each of them a cup of tea. While we sat under the evening sky enjoying our Good Earth Tea (how appropriate) we discovered another tea connection. It turns out that they drink P.G. Tips which is an English blend. I was amazed to hear that someone else knew about P.G. Tips tea much less drinks it and I told them about my dear friend who is part British and about the Christmas she gave me a box of P.G. Tips. They could really appreciate how special that tea was for me and we really enjoyed talking and sharing.
Well, the evening went on, the weekend went on. It was a delight getting to know them a bit and we certainly enjoyed each other’s company. On Tuesday we all had to pack up and get out of the campsite before 11:00 but before Sally and Chad left Sally came down to say, “Good-bye.” That alone was a very nice gesture but before she left she handed me a Ziploc bag. You guessed it! It was full of P.G. Tips tea bags, thanks to which I am enjoying a beautiful cup of tea right now. I was very blessed by their kind thoughtfulness.
Now, a bag of tea may not seem like a big deal but, honestly, it was the heart gesture involved. They sought to bless me, and they succeeded. It was the spirit behind the gift that was so loud and so precious. May I say it? It was love. They were moved by that spirit of love within them that seeks to honor and bless others and this couple just knows how to cooperate with the kind intentions of God’s soul. They have merged with the Spirit of love so they know how to be a blessing. Not only that but they actually strive and attempt to bless others. And I know other people who have accepted this mantle from Jesus and I must say they are an inspiration to me.
So now what do we think of this new relationship with Sally and Chad? Upon what is it based? I brewed them one little cup of tea each and the next thing I know they have out given me, out blessed me. It is almost like poker – they saw my two tea bags and raised me a whole bag. But wait, it ain’t over yet because this relationship is based on mutual blessing. It is a give – give relationship. So what does that mean? This weekend I am going to Trader Joe’s hoping to find Good Earth brand tea and when I do I am going to buy a whole box and send it to them. You see, it was completely my pleasure in the first place to share my tea with them. It gave me joy to do that for them. And they certainly did not need to reciprocate in any way nor was their gift to me a payback, because they didn’t owe me anything. They just sought to bless me and they did. Well, now I am hoping to bless them by surprising them with some Good Earth Tea. So, all you folks who know Sally and Chad keep this under your hat.
I want for you to have relationships that are based on mutual blessing. When we give ourselves to the life of Christ within us this sort of generosity and kindness ought to come bubbling up out of us and we ought to connect with others on this level. When you find people who are walking in the love of Christ I hope that you will hang on to them and let your relationships form around that kind, gentle and generous spirit who is Jesus, our Lord and who lives within each of us. When Jesus is the focal point, then abundance, prosperity and kindness will always be the fruits. Develop Give – Give relationships. Let each of you be selfless and honor one another in love. It is a great way to live and part of that abundant life that Jesus intended for you. Demand and expect for all of your Christian relationships to show this kind of grace and maturity which comes from a life surrendered to Christ. And, in the name of Jesus, Be Blessed even as you are a blessing!
