Our King's Coming: Apocalyptic to Prophetic

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Have you ever asked the question, "What is the gospel according to Jesus?" It's a bizarre question with him being the gospel. But I was intrigued when I first saw Mark 1:15, "'The Time has come', [Jesus] said. 'The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.'" This 'good news' is the same word and meaning as gospel. Jesus' gospel is that the kingdom is near.

When thinking about the end times, my mind automatically drifts to movies like, I am Legend or Day After Tomorrow, or even 2012. My mind drifts towards apocalypse. The problem with that obsession is the focus it gives for life today. Christianity becomes about getting to heaven, instead of the richness of a life giving God who has come and is coming to save the world. There is an in-breaking reality of the kingdom that gives us hope. This is the prophetic view of the end.

We tend to have hope in a heaven that we will enter when we die, but if that is our only hope then why even live today. Our hope of heaven is not something far removed, but a very present in-breaking reality. His kingdom is here and coming. We see it whenever we see someone healed, someone saved, someone freed, someone restored from guilt, pain, or oppression.

Revelation 21 gives a great depiction of a new heaven and a new earth. When I read it, I begin to think this: I see glimpses of this today. I see glimpses of God dwelling with man. I see glimpses of him taking away tears and mourning. These are all proof that God's kingdom is near. This brings me hope to live in today. This gives me hope to be an ambassador for that Kingdom.

This was the topic of this weeks message. Take a listen if you so desire.

Our King's Command: Love One Another

Here is Last weeks Message that came from my blog.
Matt 22: 34-40 & John 13:31-38 are the texts to begin this message.

Click the title to check it out.

Below are the two blog posts that coincide with my message.

Part Two: Loving as Christ  http://pskip.blogspot.com/2011/08/loving-one-another-pt-2-love-as-christ.html
Part One: Loving Yourself http://pskip.blogspot.com/2011/08/love-one-another-loving-yourself.html

Loving One Another Pt 2: Love as Christ Loves Us

Two days ago I posted about Loving One Another: Loving Yourself. Today I want to take that a step further because you can't love others simply by loving yourself. There is more to it of course. So here it is: to love one another we must love ourselves in Christ and love each other through Christ.

We are to love as Christ loves us, but the question is how? How can I possibly love as Christ loves us? How does Christ love us?

Through looking at the conversation in John 13:31-38, here is my observation:

The conversation is about Christ leaving. The command to love one another is in the middle. Peter quickly comes back in saying, “wait wait wait!! Where are you going?” 

Jesus then says that Peter will not follow him now, but will later. Where did Christ go after this?  The answer is simple. He went to the cross and to the father. 

Peter ironically says he’ll follow Jesus even if it costs him his life. Though Jesus responds by questioning Peter’s devotion, Jesus knows Peter will follow him. Later Jesus reinstates Peter (after Peter disowned Jesus) saying this: ‘“I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God’ (John 21:18-19a).  

What did Jesus mean then when he said that the disciples could not come now but will later? He meant that he was going to die for them (and the world). And then go to be with the Father.  Later they would die for him and the sake of his kingdom. 

Back up now. What does it mean to love one another as Christ loved us? Christ laid down his life for his friends. This is how he has loved us. He gave his life for us. Is this not our call as brothers and sisters in Christ: to give our life for one another. When we give a cup of water we bless Christ. Jesus said this: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Jesus then calls us friends, not servants . . . if we do his command. What is his command? “Love each other” of course (John 15:17).

This is a sacrificial thing. This thing called love is not mere feelings, but actions. When you have a child it takes time, money, time, money, care, time, money. This is a sacrifice. This is love. When you promise to love your spouse for better or worse it means to sacrifice for them in better and worse. We get lazy in the better part and forget to love our spouses. Then, when it comes to worse we have forgotten that love takes work. If we would only love, sacrifice ourselves on behalf of the other, in the better times, I bet we would see less divorce and pain in marriage in the worse of times. This is just a theory. 

This is the same for the church. If we would love one another more in the better times, there would be less church splits in the worse. There would be less offense in the worse. The Karen people of Burma take a while before they trust you. But when they do, it is for life. If you screw something up, they don’t stop being your friend. They forgive and move on, because they trust you and know you make mistakes. 

This is not the same for our culture. We are easily offended people and do not let people into our lives. We are protective wolves, guarding our very hearts. If someone gets a bit close and we see them make a mistake we instantly put our guard back up. This is especially true for a church who has lost many pastors in the past ten years. The trust is not there. 

I see that many churches are good at guarding. This is a great thing. Protection is key to a community. But what about when it comes to letting someone in to the most private areas of your life. I know that I have problems sharing with people the secrets and painful areas of my life. I can deal with it on my own. Pause! What am I doing? I am not allowing other people to love. I am not sure our problem is that we do not love one another. I believe our problem is that we don’t want anyone to love us. We crave it and cry for it at night or when no one is watching, but yet we are terrified to let people in and sacrifice for us. After all, what if they hurt me?  

My answer: We need to grow up. We need to not worry when people hurt us and we must continue to love, continue to be open for love. If you are perfect then stop reading this because I am only talking to the majority, known as the imperfect. 

Jesus’ Answer to “What if they hurt me?” is this: Forgive as I have forgiven you. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all apart of one head: Christ. We don’t have love, but once again, like loving ourselves, we can love with the love of Christ. Look at how he has loved us. Absorb his love into your system and let it flow from you. “This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us.” So then, “let us love one another, for love comes from God” (1 John 4). Remain in Christ and his love and you will be able to love one another. In fact, you wont be able to help but love.

Love One Another: Loving Yourself

Jesus gave a new command to his disciples the night before he was crucified. I can imagine how emotionally charged the night would have been: he just showed the disciples how to serve each other by washing their feet, then Judas is filled with satan and leaves to betray Jesus. Then, we are back to Jesus says, “Love one another,” and “I am leaving guys and you can’t come . . . yet,” all in the same breath.  

My question is, “How do we love one another?”

Earlier, Jesus gave the greatest commandment: Love God with everything & Love your neighbor as YOURSELF. You must love yourself? How is this different than selfishness? This is a struggle for most of us. What is loving myself if it is not being a bit selfish sometimes? 

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love, does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:7-8) 

Loving yourself is different because God gives us his pure love. When we are of the world our love for ourself becomes obsession.  We get addicted to loving ourself and loving ourselves becomes at another’s expense (especially our loved one’s). This is why Christ gave the command to love another so many times: to eliminate selfishness. Other places he tells us to deny ourselves. How can we both love and deny ourselves? Generally, we know how to love ourselves right? The problem is not loving others.

I’m not sure if their is a difference between Christ’s time and now when it comes to this command, but sometimes the reason we cannot love one another is because we have no idea how to love ourselves. Maybe it is a form of selfishness, but it looks different. 

These are the people who get angry at themselves easily. These are the people who cannot find motivation to make a meal for themselves when there is no one to eat it with. And further, they want to get out and exercise, but why does it matter? There is not much purpose in their lives unless they are busy. Yes, busybodies. These people need to find themselves doing something in order to have purpose. 

This has been me. At home in evenings, not wanting to eat, get out, or anything. Movies are no good. TV fails me. No patience to read. 

What do I find at the end of the day? Hate. Hate, not only for myself but, for my loved ones as well. I end up mistreating the ones I love. I don’t want to, but when I hate myself it becomes automatic to hate whoever is around me. It comes out as being short and usually not joyous. Why? Because I hate myself. 

The Result: Not obeying Christ. His command is to love my neighbor as myself, but I hate myself. The good news is that I realize my worthlessness. This is good. But where is the part when I discover the LIFE that Christ gives in my worthlessness? Yes! I have worth because he gives me life! Christ, show me this worth that I may love myself that I may love others. 

I am not alone in this. There are many many others. We need to come to a place in our christian walks where we can say, “YES I AM WORTH IT IN CHRIST!” In fact, there is a time where we need to declare it! This does not take away from God, but on the contrary, it gives glory to God. Christ died to take our sin. He died to take our worthlessness and hopelessness to give worth and hope. He ascribes it to us. He implants worth into our depravity. When others SEE how God has changed our lives and given us life, then we have lived out our purpose. Then, we can give an account for the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15). 

The result then is that we can love one another. We can then obey Christ’s command, the greatest command, the most repeated command I see in scripture. We need to love one another. Jesus, in the midst of betrayal and right before going to the cross, gave this command: Love one another. 

My life, and I am wondering if this is your life as well, is saying, “Sorry God, I can’t even love myself, I have no love for others. In fact, I hate myself, I am not worthy!”

In great care and in his most loving, fatherly instinct God says this: “You are worth it! I gave you worth! Was my son on the cross not enough for you? Did he die in vain?”

Let’s wake up. Let’s get out of self hate and self pity and say Yes, I am worth making this sandwich. I am worth the exercise, I am worth, rest, I am worth my job, I have worth because of Christ. Then we will love one another. Maybe it will still not be automatic, but at least we will have a great start. So how do we love one another? Love yourself with Christ’s pure love for love comes from God (1 John 4:7). Jesus says this: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love”(John 15:9). Remain in his love and you will love others.