Love Endures All Things - Haddon Robinson

0:10 Several years ago there appeared on Broadway a political satire called Of Thee I Sing. It could well appear again in 2008. Opening scene of that musical took place in a smoke-filled hotel room. A group of what we might call superdelegates had gathered. and they had chosen a man to represent them and now they were looking for a platform on which he could campaign. They had all kinds of suggestions and then one of the delegates looking at a chambermaid who was there to clean up the room saw her as a kind of ordinary person and he asked her, what do you think the people of the country want? And she responded, love. Everybody wants love.

1:05 And love became the major plank of the platform. Not so outlandish compares to hope or change or integrity or truth, all of which become part of campaign literature.

1:26 Now, love could be well used today. It's up there with hot dogs and baseball, Well, Toyotas, shopping at the mall. sometimes I think when we look at the New Testament if we think about it at all we have the sense that the apostles, the writers of the New Testament got together in a church council that hasn't been numbered and they wanted to get a message that would be very user friendly and somebody suggested how about love and they adopted it and all of the apostles who did the writing stayed on message. Again and again, we are told that we are to be people of love.

2:20 You can't quarrel with that. That's a good platform. Until you get down to examining what you mean by love. In some cases, the devil is in the details. in the New Testament. God is in the details. In 1 Corinthians chapter 13, this passage we have been studying together for a number of weeks, after having established that love is essential for Christian ministry, for Christian service and sacrifice, Paul takes a stab at defining love in verses 4 through 7. He's going to tell us what love is by showing us what love does. He's going to define love by describing love.

3:11 And as we have seen, there are 15 different phrases that the apostle uses to show us love in action. The first two, love is patient, love is kind, is a, well, kind of a headline for what follows. And then there are eight things that love doesn't do. It doesn't envy, it doesn't boast, it's not proud and then he concludes with five things that love does do five things that characterize a person who really loves God and people it rejoices wherever truth is found it always protects it's in constant trust in God and then Paul says that this love of which he speaks, love always hopes.

4:07 the ancient world was devoid of hope. It's interesting, I think, that in Acts chapter 16, where Paul makes a great turn in his ministry, he is over in Turkey, up in Troas, and he gets a vision of a man from Macedonia. And the man pleads with him in this vision to come and help us. if there was a culture in the ancient world that didn't need help it was the Greek culture they had everything they had philosophers they had Plato and Aristotle and Isocrates they had orators men who could travel across the Greek culture and whole people spellbound.

5:08 They had architecture. Today we visit Parthenon, that magnificent temple built over 2,000 years ago. And still it astounds us. They had amusement. They had the arts. there were the plays of Sophocles and Euripides they had sports virtually every city had a stadium in which people competed in a few months we will see the games in Beijing which go back to ancient Greece one classical historian says of the Greeks that anything the Greeks needed they had invented anything that they wanted they had but he was wrong there was one thing they did not have they did not have hope because they did not have hope they gave themselves to all kinds of sensual indulgences it's true of that culture it's true of our own Matthew Arnold the historian put it this way on that sad pagan world disgust and secret loathing fell deep worriness and sated lust made human life a hell as Paul said they were without God and they were without hope and if there was one city in Greece that typified the hopeless condition of the people the city of Corinth great throbbing city

7:15 commercial center surrounded by two great seas ships came to it from all parts of the world at the center of the city there was a temple to the goddess Aphrodite goddess of fertility goddess of sexual love we are told at one time in Aphrodite's history she had between 5,000 and 10,000 temple prostitutes to do her bidding you can be sure with women doing personal work those sailors became easy convicts to that religion people who were moral people despised Corinth if you said that somebody was a Corinthian you meant he was totally debauched you said that someone was a Corinthian drinker you meant he or she was an unrestrained alcoholic whenever you turn over a rock you see those slimy creatures that appear.

8:36 And that was the whole culture of Corinth. Thieves, robbers, homosexuals, idolaters. It was moral darkness without hope. And then one day, a little Jew from Tarsus showed up in the marketplace. by his own admission he felt very weak he said he was afraid he trembled to speak into that darkness this word of hope but he did at first I'm sure the Corinthians listened to him and walked away and mocked and later some others came and heard and they heard him but then went back to their prostitutes and to their wineskins but then some came perhaps to laugh but stayed to listen and this message that this little Jew preached Jesus Christ and him crucified his person, his work somehow grabbed hold of them they cast themselves with a reckless abandon upon God's truth and grace and they were changed listen to how Paul expresses that in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 he says you know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God this is 1 Corinthians 6, 9 don't be deceived neither the sexually immoral

10:45 or idolaters or adulterers or male prostitutes or homosexual offenders thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. and that is what some of you were. but you were washed.

11:27 You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God. these folks had been filthy and now because of Paul's gospel by God's spirit, they were clean these folks had been unholy now they were set apart to God they were wicked and because of the gospel Paul preached the judge of all the universe had declared that they were righteous they were changed Paul's hope was not based on wishful thinking. You know, hope for the best but expect the worst.

12:26 Wishful thinking doesn't work. You know wishful thinking. A woman has a son and goes off to swim in a cesspool. turns his back upon her and his values His mother says, but Henry is such a good boy, and I'm sure that Henry will turn out all right. His friends know Henry. He's stolen from them, the drugs. The police know Henry. They've got several file folders on him. now if that mother thinks that Henry has the potential to really turn his life around and be a whole new person it's cute but it's not hope there's nothing in Henry that will make the difference but the gospel the gospel comes to men and to women it came to the people in Corinth came to people in the ancient world it comes to people today and when they come to embrace the gospel the person, the work of Jesus Christ they are changed the filthy are cleansed the unholy are set apart to God the wicked are declared righteous.

14:15 whenever you see a woman or a man no matter who they are don't ever dismiss them as hopeless if you are someone who takes the gospel of Jesus Christ seriously, to say that somebody is hopeless is to slam the door in the face of God.

14:41 This love of which Paul speaks. always hopes because it's based in Jesus Christ. And then he says, love. endures. I speak honestly, I hardly know how to touch this. several years ago Bruce walkie and I let a tour Turkey, churches in the Revelation.

15:27 And the last night, we were in the city of Ismir and we were having dinner at one of its nicer hotels. Bruce was there, I was there, our guide was there. the guy had been in the United States at least 10 years, spoke English flawlessly. And as we were eating, he began to ask us questions. Serious questions. About the Christian faith. I said to him, you know, if you're a follower of Islam, if you died tonight, would you be sure you could stand in the presence I said, well, what?

16:13 Five things that Muslims should do. I said, I've done two out of five. Then we began to talk the gospel. Talked about it long into the night. They closed the restaurant when we left.

16:33 And before we left, I said to him, Look, you're serious about our conversation, I know. It would not be faithful of me not to ask you if... if right now you'd like to put your trust and confidence in Jesus Christ he said to me, you don't know what you're asking me I'm asking you put your trust, your confidence in Christ he said, do you know what would happen if I did that?

17:09 if I announced it to anybody if my wife would leave me, my family would disown me my boss would fire me I might want to leave to go back to the United States and the government would not give me an exit, he said. I give up everything you go back home tomorrow I would not expect that you would support me I would starve the death of my own culture. As far as I know, he did not trust Christ that night. but there are people who have made that decision and suffered all of that loss and endured hardship because they are Christ's followers if you think that Romans 8 28 all things work together for good to them who love God to them or the call according to his purposes is a promise that you'll have a middle-class life in a kind of a lovely little church in a nice little town where you may even get a pass to the country club Paul did not make that promise.

18:40 in fact when you look at the apostle who wrote these words and he tells us about what he suffered it's a terrible list he says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 I have been flogged more severely. five times I received from the Jews 40 lashes minus one.

19:24 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in open sea. I've been constantly on the move. I've been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false brothers.

19:59 I've labored and toiled. I've often gone without sleep. I've known hunger and thirst. and have often gone without food and I have been cold and naked. When they whipped him, he bled. When they stoned him, he groaned. When he was exposed to the elements, he froze. you say how did he do it why did he do it look at the church today we hear it and it's a nice statistic that more people were martyred for the faith in the last century than all the other centuries combined it's also true that there are more muslims who have converted to christ who've gone back into islam than have remained christians Put your finger on any part of the map and it will bleed Christian blood.

21:26 our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world have been imprisoned and they have cried out to God for deliverance and no angel has come open the gates of the prison they have prayed no earthquake came to deliver them they suffered they bled they have died or even more impressive they've suffered they have bled they have been released they've gone back into the ministry again Love endures. Why? because Christians are and we love to be beaten Paul's answer to that in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 Christ's love constrains us.

22:43 because we're convinced that one died for all and therefore all died and that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again That deep conviction. kept Paul going it has caused christians throughout the centuries to endure all kinds of hardship.

23:40 You look at the life of our Lord. What's most impressive? Not that he turned water into wine. even that he walked on the lake of galilee what i think was most impressive was that in the garden of gethsemane knowing what it meant to go to the cross he could say if possible let this cup from go from me but nevertheless, not my will, yours be done. and in saying that he was going into the darkness saying that he would be separated from the father for the first time in all eternity saying that he chose suffering over ease I believe that the greatest anthem of praise the church has ever sung has been in the groans of its martyrs.

25:10 in the body of its dead. of those who would not quit. because they had a faith in Jesus Christ. they live for a better world a better time We've been doing a strategic plan. we've had several people say we need to have a theology of suffering I think they're right. I don't want to know who's going to teach it. Don't give me your academic degrees.

26:08 Show me your stripes. Show me your wounds. I'm not qualified. But that may be the theology for the 21st century, if we are to endure. Thank you. that's not going to make it there's a plank on anybody's campaign But there's something I'd like to do as we sum up this section. I look at 1 Corinthians 13 4-7 talks about love but I often put my name where love is and I'd like to do that now but lest you sit there and judge me and be unloving I'd like you to put your name there Haddon Robinson is patient and he is kind.

27:29 Haddon doesn't envy, doesn't boast. He's not proud. Haddon Robinson isn't rude. he's not self-seeking he's not easily angered.

27:56 And he keeps no record of the wrongs done against him. He doesn't delight in evil. but he rejoices wherever truth is found. He always tries to protect,

28:18 always trusts, always hopes. always perseveres. And again and again and again I have said, forgive me. but do this work in me. Amen.