Tonight I want to plop Gods heart out on the table in our midst.  The Gospel is really GOD bearing His soul in our midst so our lives can be shaped by His love for us.  

Rom 5:6  For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Rom 5:7  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
Rom 5:8  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

The apostle Paul says God demonstrates the love He feels for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Not when we were godly, not when we obeyed, not when we were living right, but when we were ungodly Christ layed down his life for us.  Paul says we can see what manner of love God has for us, that when mankind set themselves up as the enemies of God, Christ came and died for us. 

Now how does Christ dying for us show us that God loves us?  I can see how it means that Jesus loves me, but how does Christ laying down his life for me demonstrate that God loves me? 

Joh 1:1 speaking of Jesus says …. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  John goes on to say … And the word that is God was made flesh and tabernacled with us so we can see God for who He really is.  

Jesus is the word about God made flesh.  He’s the word about what is in Gods heart towards mankind.  He’s the heart of the Father made bare in our midst.  Jesus says in John 17 that the Father is in him and he is in the Father.  Jesus says in John 12 he didnt come to speak of himself but he came to reveal the Father, even as the Father has given him commandment.  Jesus says in John 14 if you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father.  In John 5 Jesus says he can do nothing unless he sees the Father do it.  

Isaiah speaking of Jesus says unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 

Hebrews 1 says God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, has spoken to us in these last days by His Son.  It goes on to say that Jesus is the brightness of God’s glory, and the express image of God’s person.  Jesus is the full revelation of God.  There’s nothing to be known about God outside of Jesus.  Jesus is God’s doctrine.  He is Gods language.  Jesus is God with us to explain God to us. 

We say Jesus is fully God and fully man.  We all say that.  And if I said that one statement everyone would say amen!  Jesus is God and man.  We all say Jesus is God.  We all agree with the words of Jesus when he says if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.  We all say amen when it’s said that Jesus is Immanuel, God with us.  But, somethings happened when we think of the cross.  We get to the cross and all of a sudden Jesus is only a man.  We get to the cross and somehow Jesus is no longer Immanuel.  We get to the cross, and somehow Jesus is no longer God with us. 

There’s never a time when Jesus is not the word made flesh.  There’s never a time when Jesus is not revealing the Father to us.  Its not as if Jesus was no longer Immanuel on the cross.  There’s never a time when Jesus isn’t God with us.  There’s never a time when he isn’t prince of peace, wonderful counselor, everlasting Father, Mighty God. 

Yes jesus is a man but he’s also the word.  The cross is one of the pillars of the word made flesh, and God explaining Himself to the world, and much of whats been taught about the cross, is to make it out as if Jesus and the Father aren’t one on the cross.  As if somehow on the cross, the Father and the son arent one.  As if somehow on the cross the Father isnt in the son, and the son isnt in the Father.  If Jesus isnt God on the cross, then who is He???  If Jesus isnt the word on the cross, then where’s the word, and who is holding everything together?

Part about plaque over jesus’ head on the cross …… Jesus of Nazareth the king of the Jews.  Change it.  Change it.   Say he said he was the king of the Jews.  Acrostically it spelled out YHVH.  The name of God.  If you look at the picture meanings of each of the letters of God’s name it says open hand of grace, nailed in Grace.  Isnt Jesus the right hand of God!  YHVH!!!!!!!!!!

Explain Nicene counsel in 325 AD convened primarily to deal with the doctrine that said Jesus is not God.  It was decided that it was heresy to say Jesus isnt God.  

In the sermon on the mount.  Jesus says unless your righteousness.  Unless the righteousness you look to, to inherit the kingdom of God exceeds the righteousness the scribes and pharisees are looking to, you’re not going to inherit the kingdom of God.  That’s what he says there.  You’re not going to inherit the kingdom of God unless the righteousness you look to, or the ability you look to is greater than the righteousness or the ability the pharisees are looking to.  

Now whose righteousness is greater than that of the scribes and the pharisees?  When you think about inheriting the kingdom of God you ought to think about sin and death being conquered inside of human flesh, and you ought to think about a body being clothed in the immortality of God.  And so you ought to ask yourself, whose righteousness can do that?  Whose righteousness can remove death from the earth?  Do any of you think you can eradicate sin and death from your bodies.  Do any of you think that by your ability to love you can keep yourself from the grave.  Do any of you think that by your ability to turn the other cheek you can keep yourself from the grave.  Do any of you think that by your ability to love your enemies thats going to remove death from the earth. 

In the sermon on the mount Jesus isnt trying to teach you how you need to act better so you can inherit the kingdom of God.  Jesus is trying to point you to the one who can give you the kingdom of God as a gift.  That’s why he says blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.  Meekness means to think little of your own ability to produce life and to make much of Gods ability to serve you with His life.  You can only inherit something by someone giving it to you as a gift.  

Well the pharisees made much of their ability, and were trying to earn the gift by their own ability.  And Jesus comes and says unless you’re looking to an ability thats far greater than human ability, you can’t inherit the kingdom of God.  And so what Jesus is doing in the sermon on the mount.  Is he’s trying to point people to the righteousness of God.  Gods the only one who can conquer sin and death in the flesh.  He’s the only one that can manifest immortality in the flesh.  He’s the only one who can do that.  He’s the only one who has life in Himself.  

And so in the sermon on the mount.  When Jesus goes into love your enemies, bless those who curse you, pray for those who despitefully use you, turn the other cheek, if someone steals your coat, go and get your cloak and offer it to them.  When he goes into all that He’s describing the Father.  He’s describing the Father’s righteousness towards you.  He’s describing the way the Father will be with sinners.  That’s why He says be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect.  That’s why when He gets to chapter 6 verse 33 what does he say?  Seek ye first the kingdom of God and whose righteousness?  Gods!  Do you see how we get all the way to chapter 6 verse 33 and we completely forget about everything before and we dont jump back and define it.  And so Jesus describes God’s righteousness towards sinners.  And he says thats the only righteousness that can save you from sin and death.  If you want to seek the kingdom then seek Gods righteousness towards you.  

And so in Jesus, we see God on the cross turning the other cheek dont we?  Don’t we?  Don’t we see Jesus on the cross turning the other cheek?  If you’ve seen Jesus you’ve seen the Father.  If you’ve seen Jesus turn the other cheek you’ve seen the Father turn the other cheek.  We see Jesus loving people, and laying down his life for people that set themselves up as his enemy on the cross.  Don’t we?  Those guys are nailing him to the tree and whats he doing for them, loving them.   Doesnt the sermon on the mount say love your enemies.  In Jesus we see God on the cross, loving His enemies.  We see His righteousness towards us.  We see His faithfulness towards us and our lives.  We’re supposed to see the Father on the cross being faithful towards us when we are unfaithful towards Him.  That’s what we’re supposed to see.  Its God on the cross praying for those who are despitefully using Him.  Doesn’t Jesus pray for them.  Its God on the cross that when we stripped him naked, and stole his coat, he went to get us the robe of His life.  Isnt that what the sermon on the mount says.  Pray for those who despitefully use you.  If someone steals your coat give them your cloak also.  I’m telling you about a righteousness that can save you from death.  Let me describe what it looks like to you.  It looks like a guy praying for those who despitefully use him.  Oh and by the way the guy whose righteousness I’m describing to you its God’s.  And when you despitefully use God and nail Him to a tree He will pray for you.  In Jesus we see God blessing those who curse Him.  Werent they cursing Jesus?  What did he do?  Didnt he bless them?  Didnt Jesus manifest everything He describes in the sermon on the mount?  If you’ve seen Jesus you’ve seen the Father.  Jesus is Immanuel on the cross.  He is God with us.  And He is come as Mighty God, and what did He do?  He whooped the death that was whooping us!  Hallelujah!

God came into the earth to love us and save us.  To heal us, to exalt us.  He came as the Good Samaritan to pick us up and fill us with the wine of His life and make a place for us to dwell with Him in His house for all eternity.  That’s what He came to do.  He came to only be good to us. And we nailed Him to a tree.  And when we nailed Him to a tree He’s still God with us.  And do you know what He’s saying to us?  He’s more concerned about us and whats tormenting us than whats happening to Him when we’re nailing Him to a tree.  He’s filled with compassion for us when we’re nailing him to a tree.  That’s our God.  Do you know what He’s feeling in His heart?  I know, I know guys.  I know what the death in this world has done to you.  I know the fear that its put in your hearts.  I know the anger and the hatred and the bitterness thats taking you captive because of it.  I know.  It’s ok, and He embraces us while we’re nailing Him to the cross.  God with us.  You start knowing that God and I promise you that your life starts being shaped by the love of God.  You start really knowing God.  

Jesus said if you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father.  He said I dont do anything that I dont see the Father doing, didnt he?  Guys we’re supposed to see the Father when we see Jesus.  When we see Jesus laying down his life we’re supposed to see the Father laying down His life.  I dont do anything I dont see the Father doing.  We’re supposed to see the Father on the cross preferring our lives over His own.  We’re supposed to see the Father on the cross loving man and being good to man even as we’re hating Him.  That’s the kind of love you can trust in.  That’s the kind of love that will set you right man.  The kind of love you know that even if you have hate towards the guy they’re still loving you.  Doesnt it say love covers a multitude of sins.  How do you think the Father overcomes our sin.  How do you think He overcomes the fact that we were trusting in our own works?  He comes and loves us in the face of us hating Him.  He doesnt return the evil we committed against Him with evil, and He melts our hearts with His love.  Man!  Glory to God!  That’s the Father on the cross embracing us as we’re taking our anger out on Him.  

I can see this in my own life with my father.  When I was a kid I was a drug addict, from like 11 years old til around 22.  And I even od’d and died on a hospital bed and had to be resuscitated with the crash cart.  Several times during the night I flatlined and had to be resuscitated.  My dad had to sit in there with a buzzer the whole night because they didnt have time to sit in the room with me and they told my dad he’s gonna flatline over and over tonight.  Everytime you see the flatline you hit the buzzer and we gonna come running in and we going to shock him back to life.  

I was filled with hatred and anger unspeakable.  You know when I woke up in the hospital bed that morning after all that had happened I looked over and saw my dad sitting there crying.  You know what I said to him?  You’d think I’d fell remorse, but what I said to him is what the hell is your problem.  You know what he did, he embraced me.  And it didnt get better, it got worse for about nine more years.  And I took every ounce of my anger and my hatred and my vitriol and my dissatisfaction with life and my pain and my suffering.  I took it out on him, and he loved me in the middle of it.  He never imputed it to me.  He embraced me over and over and over again.  The neighbors told my dad he had to have tough love and to get rid of me.  They told him you got to kick him out on the street.  I was so bad the neighbors would call my parents and have meetings off at the Walmart parking lot, so the community could gather together and discuss what are we going to do about this kid thats running amuck, because you guys don’t know what to do.  So my dad would go there twice a week and people would just berate the guy.  And my dad’s father was a marine, who fought in the South Pacific in world war 2, and so he’s a rough kind of a guy.  So this tough love concept was not a far away idea to my dad.  My dad said well maybe I do.  Maybe I do need to be tough.  But one thing my dad always does is He talks to God.  So when my Dad started talking with God do you know what God said to him.  Its not tough love to kick him out Larry.  It’s tough love to sit with him in the darkness.  That’s tough love.  You see God spoke from experience because we were in that kind of a darkness and He came and entered into it to be with us in that darkness, right.  And He took our best shot, so He could return love for the evil we gave Him, so that could break down our hurt with His love for us.  

Gods telling us while we’re nailing Him to a tree its ok, I know.  I never created you guys to see death.  I know what its doing to you.  I know its confused you.  I know it has you in outer darkness.  I know it makes you blind.  I know it makes it to where you cant see.  Its ok.  I know.  I’m here, and I’m going to take this death thats destroying you into my body right now, and I’m going to destroy that death, and I’m going to raise up a human body that has immortality, and I’m going to promise you that as a free gift because I love you.  

When Jesus is on the cross, thats God turning the other cheek so he can take our sin into Himself, so the death that was reigning over us could be swallowed up in His life.  All the hatred and bitterness and murder and confusion sin was producing in us, that came out of us towards Him.  He took into Himself.  He absorbed the death that was the fruit of our sin into Himself so He could swallow it up with His life.  He carried our griefs and our sorrows.  

Paul said God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.  He didnt say God was outside of Christ.  He said God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.  That was God in Christ, and He wasnt willing to let you take the wages of the sin you had committed.  Paul says God didnt impute our transgression to us doesnt he?  We’ve made the scriptures so mechanical, and stripped the personhood of God and the passion in His heart for us.  God was unwilling to allow us to suffer the death we earned.  That was God in Christ that said I know they sinned.  I know they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  I know the wages of that is death.  But, I’m not willing to let them die.  I’m not willing to let that death come upon them.  It was God in Christ that said I’d rather take their death into myself.  I’d rather taste their death myself than let them die.  You’re supposed to see that when you see Jesus. 

This is the righteousness of God towards us.  This is the tenderness in the Father’s heart towards us.  It doesnt take a righteous guy to punish sinners.  We got jail systems all over this unrighteous world that are busy punishing sinners.  It takes a righteous guy to heal sinners.  It takes a righteous guy to take the punishment of the sinner into Himself instead of imputing it to them.  It takes a righteous guy to love the people who set themselves up as His enemy.  It takes a righteous guy to lay down His life for those who are trying to take His life.  It takes GOD.  

When we were rejecting God, He was embracing us.  God never scapegoated us.  He embraced us even as we were scapegoating him … so he could take our sin and our death into himself, and give us the robe of His life.  

We all know John 3:16 but very few quote 1Jn 3:16  Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down his life for us.