What difference has Jesus made in your life? What difference has Jesus made in our lives? I could have just titled the message tonight “Why am I a Christian?” … because that’s really what I want to speak to for the next few moments… Have you ever asked yourself that question before—for those of you who’ve accepted Christ into your life? Why are YOU … a Christian? If you can answer that, you’ll know without question what difference Jesus has made…
To be perfectly honest with you, my reasons for being a Christian really boil down to two things:
1) The lack of good alternatives, and…
2) Jesus.
I’ve found no other object of faith that could stand up to scrutiny like Jesus does! And, the Gospels—that we’ve been looking at to get to know Jesus better—describe this Jesus to us… So let me share with you, as we begin, a scripture from the Apostle John that really speaks to why I’m a Christian…
“Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. 10 This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.” – 1 John 4:7-10 (TEV)
One of the reasons I’m a Christian is because of God’s love—unlike any other LOVE this world has ever seen! This is what love is … John tells us. Jesus was right in the middle of helping to bring this kind of LOVE to the world! Never before in human history had anyone ever dreamt of the idea that a god could or would love human beings! Love has never been a normal way of describing what happens between human beings and their God… For instance:
- Not once does the Qur’an apply the word love to God…
- Aristotle (and Greece had more than their share of gods, folks) bluntly stated, “It would be eccentric for anyone to claim that he loved Zeus”—or to harbor the idea that Zeus loved them, for that matter…
In great contrast, the Christian Bible claims that “God is love,” and cites LOVE as the main reason that Jesus came to earth: “This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.” LOVE was the motivating factor behind why Jesus came…
The Bible says that GOD IS LOVE. God is not the example of LOVE; God is, in fact, LOVE itself. And, Jesus was the only human being to ever embody that LOVE for us to see. JESUS IS THE ONE WHO GIVES US A COMPLETE VIEW OF GOD’S LOVE (from both sides—heavenly and earthly perspectives). That’s the difference Jesus makes!So, let me do my best to paint you a picture of that LOVE tonight… First:
IN JESUS, WE SEE A PORTRAIT OF GOD… God is, in a word, Christ-like. Jesus represents (as my father used to say) a God with skin on—a God we have a choice of either taking or leaving, loving or ignoring… And, it’s this visible, scaled-down version of God that allows us to see God’s features more clearly…
In a nutshell, here’s the difference Jesus has made: Jesus changed how we view God (the difference Jesus makes):
- Once God was distant; now God is near…
- Once God was beyond words; now God is one who cares for ‘the grass of the field, feeds the sparrows, and counts the hairs on a person’s head.’
- Once God was not even ‘nameable’; now God is one who we can casually, yet respectfully, call ‘Abba’ or Father (literally, ‘Dada’ or ‘Daddy’) … as in ‘Our Father, who art in heaven….’
- Once God was unreachable, except through a high priest; now, we can intimately approach God in prayer ourselves (without a go-between)…
This is what Jesus did for us; this is what LOVE did for us! In Jesus, we see a true portrait of God—not the God of our imaginations, but a God far beyond what our imaginations could ever come up with! Jesus corrects for us our misconceptions of who God is. Because of Jesus, God is now our ‘Abba’…
IN JESUS, WE SEE A PORTRAIT OF HUMANITY… Again, Jesus has both perspectives (heavenly/earthly), doesn’t he? Well, what in the world did God have in mind when he created us then? Look at the world for what it is today… Is that what God had in mind, or was his LOVE greater than this imperfection we see around us?
Think of what Jesus has done for in this way: When a light is turned on inside a room, what was a window also becomes a mirror … reflecting back the contents of that room. In Jesus, we not only have a window to God, but also a mirror of ourselves—a reflection of what God had in mind when he created us…
“Behold the man!” Pilate cried. Behold the best example yet of what God had in mind for humanity. Yet, look what it got him… And, folks, that’s what this season is all about … which brings me to my last statement about the LOVE of God:
IN JESUS, WE HAVE THE MUCH-NEEDED WOUNDED HEALER… The INCARNATION (God becoming human) shows us the greatness of our miserable lost lives … by the greatness of the remedy God required to fix our relationship… As we will study together during this season of Lent, remember that it is by his wounds that we are healed… And, quite frankly, anyone who would suffer on my behalf—show that kind of LOVE—has got my attention… That’s LOVE in action; that’s why I’m a Christian today; I’ve never seen this kind of LOVE anywhere else…
Folks, don’t ever forget that, as the prophet Isaiah once said: It is through the Servant’s wounds that we are healed—not his miracles… If God can squeeze such victory out of what looked like defeat, and can draw strength from such a moment of weakness … then what can God do with the failures and shortcomings of my own life? We’re a part of this story, too; did you know that?
During this season of Lent, I want you to know just how much God loves YOU. If you’ve never known his love before, I want you to discover it. But, along with that, I want you to know that it’s not just Jesus’ story we’re going to be talking about during Lent; it’s your story and my story, too. We’re a part of humanity that God loves; we’re a part of the reason that God sent his very best—his Son, Jesus. So, we’re in this story, too. We’re going to be reminded of what part God played … all through this season. But, what part in the story are we going to play?
V. 10 reminds us once again, “This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.” God loved me first. And, God loved you first. When you start to think that you’re not doing too badly at loving God back … don’t ever forget who started it all! That’s what we’ll be celebrating together during this season that we’re about to enter… Are we’ll be doing that by looking at the last 24 hours of Jesus’ earthly life. Are you ready to know just how much God loves you? Let’s learn that together during this season ahead, as we look at the last hours of Jesus’ life … beginning this Sunday!