Encountering Jesus: The Heart of God's Love

Of every nation, kingdom, and come, don't let your heart be troubled. Hold your head up. I don't feel fixed.

Fix your eyes on this one truth: God is madly in love with you.

Take a shoulder, be strong, remember where your love comes from.

I've got to warn you, what comes next is like, whoa, whoa, whoa. If you know the song, we're gonna be doing that later, so gear yourself up for that, okay?

So this song, the core message is Jesus looks out at his friends and followers, and those who are suspicious and those who are skeptical, and says, "I've got to tell you, like, the human heart's got a problem, and I'm setting a course in action that's going to solve that problem."

It's going to culminate in his arrest, his beating, his brutal death, and his burial. But it doesn't culminate there; it culminates in his resurrection.

So I want to explore and walk through this and talk a little bit about what good grace could look like. Hopefully, for each of us, we can, to some degree, say, "Can I say to myself, focus on this one truth: God is madly in love with me?"

So madly in love with me. Because the tension we run into a lot is this: I, as a preacher, for years I've heard this, "I get about the grace of God, but what about following God?"

Order of operations really matters. If you start with following God, obeying him, living by his way to get to his grace, the center of the movement is still you. Still you in that heart, the one that's deceitful beyond all things.

If you begin by encountering Jesus and realizing that even you—maybe that's the two words: even you—are loved. If you've never gotten to that place where you can say, "Even me," I'd encourage you to allow yourself to get there.

It's not because you're worth loving because of what you've done; you're worth loving because he sees value in you and loves you even though. And that's part of my story, which I'm going to get to.

It's a story that fits really well into Jesus and how he lived. I mean, the people Jesus was with, he was always crossing over, doing the unexpected, saying and interacting with people in ways that nobody anticipated.

Beginning, or not an inclusive list, but with people like tax collectors, who, for Jesus's vocation as a rabbi, would have just been on the outside. Jesus should not interact with these people; nothing good comes from that.

People like Levi and Zacchaeus, and some of you know their stories. You don't need to know them today to really grab hold of. I just want to give sort of a survey of the types of people that Jesus looked at and said, "Focus on this one truth: God is madly in love with you."

Sinners, like the woman caught in adultery and like another woman in prostitution. And I'd go as far as to say like the men who dragged the woman caught in adultery into the middle of the street.

Sinners. Jesus demonstrated love to them: a paralytic man, a man with a withered hand, a woman with an issue of bleeding, a blind guy with the name Bartimaeus.

So we call him blind Bartimaeus forever. I'm like, I think that—I don't know if that's what he wants to be called the rest of his life.

But there's the outcast, like the Samaritan woman at the well. There are outcasts like lepers who are forced to live outside of their community.

And there's outcasts—I love this because we have a lot of students in the room—like children. For most of history, you guys were kind of like, "You're not a lot of youth yet till you get strong enough to fight in our wars or work on our fields."

So you live in a slightly different time where—but Jesus actually crossed over those lines and was like, "I like teenagers. I like kids. Bring them to me. I want them to hear about the goodness of the kingdom of God."

Socioeconomic, ethnic, political people of all sorts of divisions, Jesus brought them together.

A thief on the cross—we don't know a lot of this person's story; he just shows up briefly. Jesus looked at them and said, "Focus on this one truth: God is madly in love with you."

And I would go as far as to say even a rich man named Nicodemus, a rich religious leader, someone who thought they had it all figured out, he also encountered the good news, the good grace of Jesus Christ.

I'm going to talk to you about three people today, just to serve a little look at our history. Because if you're following Jesus, knowing where you've come from, knowing what the foundation is, is really important.

And if you're exploring or seeking who Jesus is, knowing where you've come from, knowing who the people are, what was it like, why do we know their stories, it's so critical.

I want to start with this guy, Paul. We do mention Paul a lot. He's a controversial historical figure, foundational author of many of the letters that we find in the New Testament of the Bible.

Paul's story arc is this: I want to talk about good grace—enemy to family. That's a storyline right there.

Wait, wait, not just enemy to friend—enemy to family. It all begins—we're introduced to him in the book of Acts.

So those pew Bibles, those Bibles that are in front of you, if you ever want to follow along, I'm doing a little extra work. I'm pulling out page numbers for you.

So page 887 on that brown Bible in front of you if you want to follow along with any of the things I'm looking at today, okay?

But we're going to be in Acts chapter 7, page 887. Now, I really hope that page number's right. I'm not sure I double-checked it right.

So let's kind of see how this story unfolds. Stephen is one of the early followers of Jesus, and while he's speaking about the good grace of God, people get upset because they go, "No, it's not about the good grace of God; it's about proving you're good enough."

They get so enraged with what Stephen says about Jesus, they pick up stones and they begin to bash him with the stones. And that's where we're introduced to Paul, who goes from enemy to family.

While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." And then he fell on his knees and he cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them."

And you already see the good grace, the soil of his heart. He begins to look a lot like Jesus because this is what Jesus said in his final moments: "Father, please do not hold this sin against them."

And Stephen says, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them."

And then we're introduced to Saul, Paul. He didn't have like a grand name change; they're just translations of his name. We're introduced to him, and Saul, Paul approved of their killing him.

So that's Acts chapter 7. We're introduced to this guy, and this is how we meet him. It's just the proof of this guy getting beaten to death with stones for announcing the goodness of Jesus Christ.

The text goes on to tell us at the beginning of chapter 8 that at that day, a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and so people were scattered all over Judea and Samaria.

And then it says godly men—so the friends of Stephen—took him, and I would say heartbroken, but not grieving as the world does, but heartbroken. They took him and they mourned deeply for him.

They watched their friend die in front of them in the very outset of this movement. And then we find in verse 3 where we hear more about Saul in Acts chapter 8.

But Saul, Paul, began to destroy the church, going from house to house. He dragged off both men and women and he put them in prison.

Then Acts chapter 8 takes a little break and it tells us about this guy Philip who goes out into the desert, meets an Ethiopian eunuch, and the guy's reading the Old Testament scroll of Isaiah.

He's like, "Who's this about?" And Philip goes, "It's Jesus." And baptism happens, and that's one of the first recorded stories of baptism in Jesus' name.

But then it picks back up. It's like, "Oh, let's get back to Paul, though. He's up to some devious stuff."

It tells us, "Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples." That's Acts chapter 9, starting in verse 1.

He's run into a problem, though. He's like dragged off and arrested and persecuted everybody he can. He's all out of people to persecute, so he goes to the high priest and asks for a letter to the synagogues in Damascus.

So that if he found anyone else—he's like, "I need to take this program to some other cities. There's probably people following Jesus there too, people who ran away, people who fled. I'm gonna go find them."

If I find anyone there who belongs to the Way—this is just the early way the followers of Jesus were described, people of the Way—whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

That sets up Saul, Paul—enemy. Let's just see the brief moment where he begins to become family.

As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and he heard a voice saying, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

If I was God, I would do this way different. I'd be like, pyrotechnics, WWE, WWF—like I'd be kicking stuff. I'd kick Paul off his horse, and then once he's off his horse, I would toss him around.

I'd probably tie him to the horse and drag him through the desert for a little while, and then I'd be like, "Yo bro, it's Jesus."

There's a good reason we're not in His shoes, by the way, because he says, "Never heard a voice saying to him, 'Saul, Saul, why are you against me? What's driving you? What's motivating you?'"

And he says, "Who are you, Lord?" He's struck. He says he loses his sight, and people around him can hear what's going on. He's talking like he's going crazy.

Saul asked, and Jesus says, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting." He replied.

Now Saul of Tarsus is a devout Jew, and we saw he initially persecuted the church. He was an enemy, and in this moment right here, something happens.

He's led by his traveling party to Damascus, and at Damascus, he ends up going to a guy named Judah's house. Judah lives on Straight Street, okay?

And Paul's in his basement, and God has a dream. In a dream, he comes to a man named Ananias. He says, "Ananias, I need you to go to Judah's house on Straight Street. The Saul, the enemy, is there. He's now your family."

Ananias goes to that basement, puts his hands on Saul, and he prays for him. He welcomes him into the family. Saul sees again—Paul. He gets his sight back, and in that moment, he transitions from enemy to family.

And you can't find a story in the New Testament scriptures or in early church history, or in many of our lives, of anybody coming to God that's like, "I just figured it out and I did it, and I just stayed the same."

It's just like a thing I added to my life. Paul's life was forever changed. He received good grace. He had to go, "Even me."

And Jesus looked at him and said, "Paul, I want you to focus on this one truth: God is madly in love with you."

And once you receive that, the rest of your life you can just spend asking God, "Here I am. What do you want me to go? What do you want me to do?"

So Saul, Paul traveled the Mediterranean, and he planted churches, and he met with Christians. Sometimes when he came into town, they were all nervous because they thought, "Maybe he's here to trick us. Like maybe he's here undercover and he's going to arrest us."

Eventually, they realized that not only was he a friend, he was family. And ultimately, he's in prison, and from prison, he writes many of his letters.

We're going to be reading his letter to the Colossians as a church in the fall. We're going to be looking at lessons from the letter to the Colossians and how he says to them, "I want you guys to know Jesus is above everything."

And you realize when you look at his life, he got it. He experienced it. Jesus was above everything.

And that very Jesus looked at him and said, "Paul, focus on this one truth: God—"

Now, those of you who are super literal are going to be like, "The Bible never says that." So just roll with me with it: "Focus on this one truth: God is madly in love with you."

So that's Paul. Last week, Katie talked about Peter. She told us the story of how Peter went to Cornelius's house, and he was like, "Look at what a great Jew I am. You wouldn't believe I even showed up at your house."

But Peter went through your transformation. I want to tell you about Peter now, the second example of focus on this one truth of good grace.

Peter's journey is from unbelief to belief. If you know his story arc, it works like this: he believes. He was out fishing one day, and this up-and-coming rabbi was on the shores of the sea, and he said, "Peter, I want you and your brother and your friends. You guys come follow me."

And it was a little different because rabbis didn't do that. You applied for rabbi school, and then you'd go to rabbi school, and you would kind of present your portfolio, and only the best of the best got to be a rabbi, got to be a follower, a disciple of a rabbi.

Jesus is just walking the streets going, "You look like you dropped out. Come with me."

Person by person, he invites them to be his followers. And Peter believes. We see the story of the New Testament captures Peter and Jesus and the followers and the kingdom of God.

But then there's a moment where Peter's like, "Jesus, I'll die for you." And Katie talks about Peter like he tried to cut a guy's head off at Jesus' arrest. That's how passionate he was.

But within hours, he was asked, "Hey, aren't you one of Jesus's followers?" And he was like, "Well, it's a guy that looks like me."

And then someone else said, "Wait, I feel like I saw you with Jesus." He's like, "I mean, either that face—I just have that face. It looks really common."

And then a little while later, there's this little girl. She's like, "Aren't you one of Jesus's followers?" And Peter's like, "No, I never knew the man."

And then a rooster does what? Crows three times, and then shame—Peter hangs his head because he's disbelieved. He hangs his head, and we don't find out much about him until Jesus meets him resurrected.

And Jesus welcomes him back, and Peter rebelieves, and then he dies for—that's his story arc. He dies for his belief.

But let's get to the closing moments and how it got there. We're going to be looking at Peter's story from John chapter 21. That's page 881 if you've got that Bible in front of you.

John chapter 21, here's what's happened to set up this moment: Jesus has risen from the dead, and he's looked at a discouraged, hopeless, disappointed group of people who thought they put all their trust in him—someone who was a lie—and he said, "It wasn't a lie. Not only have I come to bring the good news, the foundation of that good news is going to be that I've come and I've overcome even death itself, as evidenced by me standing in front of you right now."

He says, and Peter rebelieves. But then you know what he does? I don't know what you would do in this situation. He's not like, "Jesus, what do you want to do?" He's like, "Oh, Jesus is risen from the dead. Let's go fishing."

Now, a lot of you—this is Idaho—a lot of you, like, totally makes sense. Like, "Yeah, let's go fishing." But it wasn't that kind of fishing. You didn't fish for like eight hours and put it all back and take pictures of it.

It was like hard work all day long. That's where they go. They're back on their boats, they're back in their nets, they're right where the story started.

And Jesus shows up on the beach. He says, "Let's cook some of this fish up. I need to talk to you all."

And he pulls Peter aside, and this is the conversation they have. When they finish eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?"

None of us really know what "these" are because Jesus didn't say. But if you look at the conversation around it and you look at the scholarship in church history, there's two general ideas.

One is that Jesus is kind of looking at the other disciples and going, "I mean, come on, you love me the most, don't you? Like, you love me more than these guys," which just seems off-brand for Jesus just a little bit.

Like, "Simon, I know I'm resurrected, but you still like me, right?" That's a little bit, but it could be.

The other idea is that Jesus sees what Simon did, countered the resurrected Jesus, and he said, "I don't know what's going on, but I know how to fish, and I know fishing. I know what to do there, so I'm just going to go back, and I'm going to do what I know how to do."

And Jesus looks at him and says, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" And he points at the sea and the boats and the nets and his fellow fishermen—this thing you've built your life on, this thing you trust, this thing you were doing day in and day out for most of your life.

"Do you love me more than the things you trusted before I called you?"

Simon looks at him and says, "Yes, Lord." It's a sweet moment. You know I love you.

Well, Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." And then Jesus ruins the moment because he doubles down. Simon's loving this. He's like, "Oh, Jesus, I love you."

And Jesus said, "Feed my lambs," which was—Jesus didn't have lambs. It was like people—like, take care of the people.

And then Jesus goes, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" And he answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."

And Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep." And in Greek, there's a fantastic interplay of words going on here, but that's not the point of today's message.

I just want to show you the grace that Peter received and how even after denying Jesus and even after going back to the things he used to trust, Jesus is still like, "Focus on this one truth: I'm madly in love with you."

Focus on this one truth: I'm madly in love with you.

And so he says one more time, the third time he said to him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?"

And I just love the honesty of the scriptures. Peter was hurt. Can you relate? You ever talk to somebody like, "Are we still friends?" "Yeah, we're still friends." "Are we still friends?" "Yeah, we're still friends."

And then you're like, "Well, they're needy," right? There's a little—Jesus seems a little emotionally needy.

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him a third time, "Do you love me?" Watch how Peter responds. He said, "Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you."

And Jesus said, "Feed my sheep."

And Jesus is saying, "Focus on this one truth: I'm madly in love with you. You don't need to go back to the things you used to trust. You don't need to rely on the things you used to think you could count on because I'm going to do something new with you, but it's going to spring forth from me, my good grace being given to you."

And you know it was good grace because while these are images of sheep, this is essentially what Peter did with the rest of his life.