“For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
When someone gives you a gift, you often feel a certain amount of loyalty to them. A very small gift yields a very small amount of loyalty, but a very large gift garners much more. To not give any kind of loyalty is to either not actually receive the gift, or else to walk a path of ingratitude which is generally a pretty terrible look. Well, in Christ, God gave us the ultimate gift. Let’s talk about what He gave, and what we should give in return.
“And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
The Gospel isn’t just one thing. It is many things, and all of them are good. It’s the sort of thing where the more you explore it and the deeper you understand it, the more you come to find is there; the more you come to find just how comprehensive it truly is. Paul here has started unpacking the benefits of the Gospel. He started with peace, went to grace and glory, and now he takes us into territory it doesn’t seem like the Gospel should touch. Let’s talk about what the Gospel has to say about our hard times.
In the superlatively successful Broadway show, Hamilton, the Founding Father’s greatest weakness is that he is never satisfied with what he has. He is always reaching and stretching for something more. When pointed in the right direction, this resulted in incredible success and achievement. When pointed in the wrong direction, though, ruin for himself and others. We all have desires that we long to have satisfied. For some of these desires, though, there doesn’t seem to be anything in this world that can do the trick. As we continue in our series, All Signs Point to Jesus, this week we are looking at a sign that points us toward His ability to satisfy all of our desires. Let’s explore the Scriptures together.
Satisfied
When was the last time you felt really and truly satisfied? What was it that gave you that feeling? Maybe it was finishing a really big project and having your contributions graciously recognized by others. It could have been working with another person, teaching them to do something, and then seeing them succeed wildly. Perhaps it was just a really good meal. There are lots of things that might satisfy us in this life. The thing about getting satisfied in this life, though, is that whatever desire it is that was satisfied has a tendency to return. You ate that great meal, but then you were hungry again. In fact, you were probably hungry again by the time the next mealtime rolled around. You finished that one project, but then there was another one behind it. And if there wasn’t, you went looking for one. That one student succeeded, but then there was another student who needed help. And when those desires returned, sometimes the same things satisfied them again, but sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes you needed more. It’s almost like underneath these more common, daily desires we have there are deeper longings that cry out for satisfaction. Yet try as we might, getting these addressed often seems to be just beyond our reach.
“We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)
In the last generation, thanks to a number of different cultural trends, it became common to think of Christianity as providing a kind of fire insurance. Many preachers adopted what is often caricatured today as a “turn or burn” approach to their preaching, putting incredible rhetorical pressure on their congregations to follow Jesus in order to escape the horrors of Hell. Most of this thinking followed from an impoverished understanding of a much older sermon by Jonathan Edwards. Because of this, salvation began to be thought of as a mostly past tense affair. As long as you had been saved, how you lived going forward was up to you. But Paul spoke of salvation as something much greater than that. Let’s talk about salvation as something that encompasses past, present, and future.
Jesus wants us to see Him. He wants us to see beyond the things He can do for us, to who He really is. As a result, He reveals Himself in ways that enable and help us to do that. One of the ways He did this during His ministry was with a series of what the apostle John identifies as seven signs. As we continue in our teaching series, All Signs Point to Jesus, this week, we are looking at a third miraculous sign Jesus performed. This one picks up from our seeing Him for who He really is, to actually following Him into something more than just a miracle. He invites us to follow Him into real life. Let’s take a look at this together.
More Than Well
Have you ever fallen for a gimmick? Someone came along with a really great sales pitch for a brand new product that was going to completely revolutionize your life. All it was going to take from you was a “modest” investment of capital to help get this new venture off the ground. But when you did, you were going to be on the ground floor of an entirely new cultural movement. This wasn’t just about making your life better; it was about making the whole country better (healthier, more fit, financially stabler, and etc.). This wasn’t just an opportunity you didn’t want to miss. This was an opportunity you couldn’t afford to miss.
The Nexus 