LOVE LIMITLESS # 2 PM
CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIGHT?
Some people are so ugly they are referred to as someone with a face “only a mother could love.” Let’s face it mothers deserve a break… They put up with a lot and they still love their rotten to the core offspring! So who here has a mother? And tell me does your mother love you? My mother only watched me play football once! She wanted to go on the field and “Bop the guy who tackled me.” So your mother loves you, right? So can you feel her love right now? Maybe if you think about it a bit you can sense that reality, right? What about God’s love, can you feel that?
The facts: Jesus lived in Palestine around 2000 years ago, He claimed to be the son of God. He died on a cross and his followers told of how He rose again from the dead.
The Motivation: John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (ESV)
The Connection: God’s love demonstrated in this act of surrender can be experienced or not depending on your receptivity.
Let’s look at those who were and who weren’t affected by this love.
- Barabbas – Doomed to die for crimes of insurrection, but now pardoned instead of Jesus. Did he ever stop to think that Jesus went to death in his place? So close he came to losing his life, but Pilate wanting to release Jesus was forced by the crowd to crucify Him and release Barabbas instead.- Did he feel the love?
- One Bitter Thief – This man crucified with Jesus cries out: Luke 23:39 One of the criminals who was suspended kept up a railing at Him, saying, Are You not the Christ (the Messiah)? Rescue Yourself and us from death! (AMP) His one time meeting with Jesus who died for him was brief but ineffective. Did he feel the love?
- One open hearted thief – The other thief rebuked the first and could clearly see Jesus was who He said He was – The Son of God and not worthy of this ignominious death, unlike himself who deserved all he got due to his many wrongs. He said: Luke 23:40-43
40But the other one reproved him, saying, Do you not even fear God, seeing you yourself are under the same sentence of condemnation and suffering the same penalty?
41 And we indeed suffer it justly, receiving the due reward of our actions; but this Man has done nothing out of the way [nothing strange or eccentric or perverse or unreasonable].
42 Then he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when You come in Your kingly glory!
43 And He answered him, Truly I tell you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.
- John the disciple – As John watched the agony of the crucifixion, he was moved to do what he could to alleviate Jesus pain. All that rushed through his head and heart were those things that Jesus had repeatedly told the disciples over and over: I will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes to be killed; to give my life a ransom for many, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. And so the words rang in his head and heart; but to see the agony in such a graphic scene must have broken his heart.
- Mary the mother of Jesus – For thirty three years she watched her beloved son grow up. She watched Him fall down as He tried to walk at a tender age, she watched him learn his father’s trade at carpentry, She wondered at His amazing wisdom that arose so early in His life as He lived in the reading of the old testament writings. Now as she watches the crucifixion, His agony is her agony. This is not another man tortured for his crimes but her beloved Son in complete agony. Yet over and over He had told her: this is why, because of my father’s love. It ripped her heart out but she saw the love first hand.
Millions have heard of His love. His love for them. Millions have let that love pass them seemingly unaffected. Millions more have been deeply affected by this love, this limitless love. Whether this love affects you or not is not up to God but up to you!
I can tell you all the facts of the greatest act of Love, but whether it affects you or not depends on you and where you stand. Where do you stand tonight? What affects you? What moves you? Will you allow your heart to be moved and if not why not?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What does love feel like? What about God’s love?
2. How is it some people are open to God and others are not?
3. How open are you to God?
4. What can you do to be more open to God, more willing to listen to Him, more willing to hear His voice?
5. Could you become more responsive to God’s love?
craigmanderson 