Where Does Radical Love Come From?

0:01 If I were you sitting there with a new guy in this sacred place, this one right here, which has so faithfully ministered the word to you over the years, I would want to know who in the world are you? And you've heard a little bit. I wouldn't really care about your name. I wouldn't care about your education. I wouldn't care very much about accolades. if I were you I would want to know like why are you here and what are you trying to accomplish and what are you committed to and what's your authority that's what I would want to know if I were you so let me begin with three statements that get at that before we look at scripture I come to you with a total allegiance as much as it lies within me, to be honest, to the Bible.

1:08 I have zero authority if I cannot show you here what I am going to say. And there's no reason that you should believe anything I say because I say it. if I can see it, savor it, show it to you, you better believe it. This is not my word. This is God's word. So I get zero authority because of being an old man who's done this for a long time. That doesn't matter. But can you see it? So we're going to go here in a minute. That's commitment number one. Number two is I do have a life mission statement. I formulated this mission statement in 1995, so I've had other life mission statements, but for 30 years this has been my life mission statement.

2:05 I exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things, for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. So I'm here to spread a passion. The biblical word would be zeal. If you like that word better. A zeal for the supremacy of God in every dimension of your life through Jesus Christ. And it's good for the nations. So I'm not here just to inform you. I would like to, in the power of the Holy Spirit, say things so faithfully to the word and with his anointing that your zeal for God's supremacy. would be bigger when you leave. That's number two. And number three is that I am driven, as you have heard from both elders, Tom and Philip, I'm driven by a particular truth. And this is, this is our little niche. It's, it's not the whole truth. It's just something that has gripped us so deeply for a long time. God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him.

3:23 And so you can see the connection between number two and number three. If you have a passion for the supremacy of God that's coming from a heart that is satisfied in him, then you will make him look good. And that's why I'm here. So, would you open your Bibles? or your phone. to Hebrews chapter 12. So when we talk about being satisfied in God, especially in your suffering, that's a peculiar kind of joy, right? That's not your run-of-the-mill, typical, secular joy.

4:25 You call it serious joy because Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6.10, sorrowful yet always rejoicing. So that's a very unusual joy. Sorrowful, not followed by joy, but at the same time. if you're young, you probably don't know what that is. You just not, you haven't suffered enough to know. But if you lose your mom, you discover, is that true? In all my weeping, I lost my mom when I was 28, and I so clearly remember those two hours after that phone call in a car wreck. weeping and unbounded joy that she was a Christian. That I'd had her for 28 years and the reasons for joy bounding up in my heart while I'm heaving with tears.

5:36 It's a very unusual kind of joy to be simultaneous with sorrow. So when I talk about satisfaction in God, that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. It isn't glib. It isn't superficial. It isn't happy, clappy, praise God anyhow with an oblivious ignoring of pain. It's a real taste of both.

6:06 So what I want to know, and if I had a title, I think I gave a title to this message, where does radical love come from? Because that's what I'm going to see in the text. My answer is going to be radical love for people comes from that kind of joy. And therefore, if you want to become a loving person and sever the root of selfishness in your life, you must pursue joy. Your joy. You must.

6:40 Because if you don't have it in God, you will not be a loving person. So that's what I think I see in this text. Let's read verses 1 and 2 of Hebrews 12. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy, this is going to be the key phrase, for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross and despising the shame is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. So we're not going to focus on everything in those two verses that's worth several sermons but on the phrase for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross. But let's Let's situate it in the wider flow of the writer's thought here.

7:52 Chapter 11, you're all familiar, many of you anyway, are familiar with the celebration of lives of faith from the Old Testament saints. Just walking through the Old Testament saints and celebrating by faith they did this and by faith they did that and by faith they did that.

8:15 So they are running their race and they finish it by faith. And then he says here, now we're surrounded by those witnesses. The witnesses is the Old Testament saints who are testifying by their lives that you can finish your race.

8:38 Don't give up. don't throw away your confidence, which has great reward. So verse 1, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, that is all those saints of the Old Testament who ran their race by faith, let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and run,

9:05 run with endurance the race that is set before us. So life is a marathon. It's not a hundred meter dash. If you try to run it that way, you will die. I mean, how many people have we seen drop out? In the last five years, there's been an epidemic of people who ran and stopped running. They just stopped, and they're not in the race anymore. And so this whole book is written to keep that from happening. And I'm here to keep it from happening for you. You might have come here this morning and said, this is it. I'm done with Christianity, but I'll give it one more shot at Kindred on March 30. And here you are and I'm here for you.

10:01 I had a man walk in. He might even be here. to our room on Friday night while we were waiting to speak over at San Gabriel and he said, I was going to commit suicide. I flew to Minneapolis. I came to your church. You invited me into a prayer meeting. I heard your people pray and I went home and I'm alive. That might be you this morning. Maybe not suicide. Maybe. But I'm done. I'm just done. I'm not going to run this race anymore. I had a missionary friend who slept with 18 prostitutes, walked away in Bangkok from the faith and never returned. And I said, why? What happened? He said, I just got tired of fighting. Just not going to fight anymore, not going to run anymore. It happens. It's dangerous. It happens. So here it is. Lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely and run with endurance.

11:02 Like, it's going to be hard. The marathon has hills. Your legs, you're in biking. They have this term called bonking. You're riding. It's uphill. Your legs are burning like fire. And you say, I'm going to finish. And you can't. It's over. Bonk. No more pedaling. It's over. You're not pedaling anymore. And this book is written. And don't ever let that happen. There's a way for that not to happen. Keep on running the marathon. Sleep, rain, heat. drop down to verse 12 in chapter 12 lift your drooping hands strengthen your weak knees make straight paths for your feet this whole book is addressed to people who are just about to give out i'm not going to run anymore it's just too hard to be a faithful christian now here's my paraphrase of the middle of verse 1, don't wear an overcoat while you're running a marathon, and don't take performance enhancing drugs, that's my paraphrase, I wonder if you see that, lay aside, we're in the middle of verse 1, lay aside every weight, and sin.

12:37 In other words, don't be stupid and don't cheat. They're not the same. It's stupid to wear an overcoat when you're running a marathon. It's cheating to take performance-enhancing drugs. Don't cheat and don't be stupid.

12:59 Run. So keep the rules. No detours. No drugs. And don't wear your training weights around your ankles. That's crazy. don't do that. I tried to raise five kids in the Lord, four sons and a daughter. And I can remember in their teen years, especially maybe starting around 10,

13:35 where I would disapprove of what they're about to do. watch, listen, event, whatever, wear. And the question then would be to me, Daddy, what's wrong with it? What's wrong with it?

14:00 And one of my responses based on this text was, look son, don't just ask what's wrong with something. That's about the lowest possible standard you could have. Like, what's against the rules in running the race? Well, you can't do detours, you can't do drugs when you run the race. Okay, good. But then you put on an overcoat. So there's more than right and wrong. does it help you run the race? Does it help you become a passionate, energetic, enduring runner for Jesus? Runner in your prayer? Runner in your worship? Runner in your boldness? Runner in your purity? Does it help you run? Ask maximal questions. Why would you want to live your life so minimally?

15:02 I mean really young people, older people, why would you just say what's wrong with it? Trying to find the lowest common denominator for living the Christian life. What an idiotic way to live. You got one life and you're going to put the lowest bar. No, it's not the way kindred does things. Please. so the main point of this text is let's run run with endurance the race that is set before us and to that end put to death all the sins you know about in your life just kill them John Owen said be killing sin or it will be killing you put to death the deeds of the spirit by the spirit, deeds of the body by the spirit, just kill them.

16:01 And lay aside every weight that hinders you and take hold of God and life and run this race. Verse 2 shows how, I think it's the deepest answer in the Bible, really, to the question of how I can run like that, how I can sever the root of sin in my life, how I can sever the root of selfishness. That's the one that is most pervasive. We are born self-exalting creatures. We are number one. God might be number two or three, but we're number one. And until that is killed, severed, axed, we will live not as loving people, but as loveless people.

17:03 We might do nice things. It'll always be for the enhancement of our reputation. And so the big question for life is how to become a sacrificially loving person in such a way that God is made to look great. And that's what verse two answers.

17:24 Let's read it. Looking to Jesus. So run your race with endurance. not just asking the lowest common denominator, but maximum questions about how can I run the best race I can run, not waste my life at all, maximize everything I do for the purposes of glorifying God, loving people. How can I do that? And the answer is looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. So you're going to look to Jesus.

18:11 And what are you going to see when you look to Jesus according to verse 2? You're going to see him running his race and how he did it. His race, his marathon was 33 years and the last hundred yards was horrific. and he finished it. He ran with nails in his feet and he ran with a spear in his side and he ran with thorns on his head. The last, the gauntlet that he ran to finish his marathon was horrific and he finished it. How did he finish it? In the middle of verse 2, for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame.

19:04 Now I hope you will agree, I'm not going to argue for this, I'm just going to assume you agree. That marathon that he ran, especially that last hundred yards, the last 24 hours, the enduring of the cross, the spitting, the slapping, the mockery, the spearing, suffering, the death, was the greatest act of love that's ever been performed in the history of the world. I'm just going to assume you agree with that. You cannot point to any greater act of love than that suffering by an innocent, divine person for the sake of his enemies. You just can't. It's the greatest act of love that was ever performed. And therefore, I want to love a little bit like that. And I want to know how he did it.

19:58 Because that's what the verse is offering me. The verse is offering me how to run my race like that, for that aim, to love like that. And the answer is, for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. so here he is in Gethsemane wrestling with whether he can follow through and here he is before Pilate and before the priests and before the soldiers mockery at any moment able to call down legions of angels and end this thing and not follow through and he always follows through and He makes it to the end, and we are saved because of it. How did he do that? And this text says he did it because he wasn't just pondering the pain of the moment, which was exquisite and unbearable in any ordinary way, and he had his eyes fixed.

20:57 What? How many hours? Twelve hours out. Paradise. with his father at his right hand, and eventually surrounded by millions of redeemed people purchased by this moment.

21:17 And that stayed him. It stayed him. That hope and that joy made him able to do it. I'm going to be the happiest son of God in the universe at my Father's right hand surrounded by praising saints The objection to this is very common. You have just turned an act of suffering and love into selfishness, Piper. Right? It's about my joy, world. I want to be happy as the son of God, and I am going to go through this so that I can be happy with my joy forever.

22:15 That's not love, that's selfishness. I've lived a long time with these truths, and I can remember back in my study days in Germany, well-known ethicists arguing anything done for any reward is not ethically good. It's just selfish. So you interpret this verse that way, you destroy the love of Christ.

22:45 That's a really big objection. Needs an answer. And there is an answer. What is selfishness? Nobody calls it selfish to suffer and die in order to include as many people as possible in the joy that I am pursuing.

23:27 Let me say that again, see if you agree. nobody calls it selfishness if I'm willing to suffer and die in order to include as many people as possible in the joy that I am pursuing I am pursuing joy that's what it says for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross but what keeps it from being selfish is that selfishness means you You squash people with no care for their good at all in order to get what you want. I don't care about you. I just want my benefit, and you don't matter to me. That's selfishness. But if I'm willing to die, and if I say to you, this works vertically, this works horizontally. How many older women have I visited in the hospital?

24:23 Bless their hearts. Older women are so gracious. Younger women are less so. Sorry, no offense, not much offense anyway. I walk into the hospital room late at night after it. an older woman has had a heart attack and she's got tubes and I walk in, I put my hand on her arm and she wakes up and she says, oh pastor you didn't need to come. That's the way older women respond. Younger women say, it's about time.

25:02 I'm sure kindred younger women are very different. But what she means is you didn't need to inconvenience yourself late at night to come take care of me. I've got Jesus. I'm okay. Now, what should I say at that moment? Should I say, I know, and I didn't want to come, but it's my duty. I'm a pastor. I'd rather be at home playing with my kids.

25:36 That's not the right thing to say. What I want to say is, and what I did say is, Esther, Helen, whatever your name, I said, you know, I don't think right now there's any place I'd rather be than strengthening your faith for this trial. it gives me great pleasure to share with you from the word what I saw this morning in my devotions and give you a little more strength for the night. Never in a million years would she look up and say gives you pleasure. You are so selfish. Now why wouldn't she say that? Because that's what I said. Makes me happy to be here. Makes me happy to be here. Why wouldn't she accuse me of selfishness?

26:28 Because you don't call it selfish if the joy you're pursuing means to include others in it and you're willing to go out late at night to make it happen. You just don't. You don't call that selfishness. That's the way love works. At least that's the way biblical love works. for the joy that is set before him, he drives to the hospital. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be a moment of deep, deep soul satisfaction to pour your life out late at night for the soul of a dying woman. It's going to be deeply, gloriously satisfying to your soul. That's not selfish if the aim is, I want her so bad to share in this joy. That's where I'm going.

27:20 So I don't think that objection that says I have turned the cross into selfishness works. I don't think that's a valid objection. so for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross the joy of being exalted at God's right hand the joy of being surrounded by Christ exalting people happy in him he being most glorified in them when they are most satisfied in him that's what he saw and that's what sustained him and that's what I believe will sustain you do you want to be loving like Jesus? That's a big question. I mean, if you want to be the kind of person who lays your life down for the good of others, this is the way you've got to go at it. It's not the only way to think about it.

28:12 It's just this biblical way to think about it is go at it this way, which is why I said at the beginning, if you want to become a radically loving person, you must pursue your own joy. which sounds counterintuitive to a lot of people. Like, no. stop pursuing your joy and pursue love pursue obedience I remember Elizabeth Elliot raise your hand if you've ever heard of Elizabeth Elliot good I loved and still love she's in heaven I loved Elizabeth Elliot blunt no nonsense go give your life to Jesus you know she wrote a book she wrote a biography of Amy Carmichael and what did she title it chance to die I just I love this woman Okay. We were on a panel together in England, England, Britain. This guy's kind of, he's not English. I know that. He's from that neck of the woods. And, and we were on a panel over there and, and I gave a talk like this. And she said in front of 3000 people, I just cased her or something like that, you know, and she said, John, this is really blunt. I don't think you should tell people to pursue their joy. I think you should tell them to pursue obedience It was in front of 3,000 people.

29:36 And I said, I don't think I called her Elizabeth because I was younger and she's older. And I don't do that. I said, you know, telling people to pursue obedience instead of joy is like telling them to pursue fruit instead of apples. because we are commanded to pursue joy.

30:06 You can't play the pursuit of joy off against obedience. Obedience is doing what you're told to do, and we're told to be happy in God. Delight yourself in the Lord. Rejoice always. And she said, I still don't like it. Not quite that way. But, I mean, I just totally stand in awe of Elizabeth Elliot Wright. She's ready to lay her life down for the unreached of the world. But my point is, it is not wrong or selfish or unbiblical to say to you, all of you, if you want to be a loving, obedient, Christ-exalting person, you must pursue and find your highest joy in Jesus. You just must. And if you think you must deny yourself the privilege of pursuing joy, which many Christians do, many Christians feel that the pursuit of joy is just bad.

31:05 It's just bad. You should pursue something else. Pursue God. Pursue obedience. But don't pursue joy. That's... selfish. It's just not going to work. It will not work. So you must pursue joy in God if you want to be a loving person. Now, if that's true, if we're on to something in verse two of chapter 11, what I asked myself is, okay, that sounds pretty radical and pretty counterintuitive and pretty strange. Am I twisting this verse? No. And one of the ways to test if you're twisting a verse to make it kind of fit what you like, is to say, is there anything else in this book that would confirm that I'm on the right track? That's the way I think. So I'm going to show you two other places that say you're exactly on the right track. So here we go. This is chapter 10 verse 32.

32:01 you listen. I'm going to read these two or three verses. And as I'm reading them, you listen for echoes of Hebrews 12, 2. Okay. Recall the former days. This is 1032. Recall the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with suffering. So after you were converted and the light of Christ dawned on your life and you became a Christian, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings. Sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison.

32:55 And you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property so that since, that's the key word here, since you knew that you had a better possession and an abiding one.

33:18 So you got the situation? They're new Christians. The church is suffering because of its newness and people around it. Some of them get thrown into prison. The others have to make a decision. Do we visit them in prison, identify with them and run the risk of our houses being trashed or burned? Or do we go underground and save our skins and let them suffer by themselves in prison? What do we do? And they made the compassionate decision, it says, to go to visit the prisoners. And while they were going to visit the prisoners, people trashed their house. They plundered their property. And how did they respond? They said, let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also. The body they may kill. God's truth abides still. His kingdom is forever. And they're singing on their way to the prison. They're singing. It says joyfully. They joyfully accepted the plundering of their property.

34:12 Okay, that's the situation. Unbelievable love. in the pursuit of joy. How did they do that? Next phrase. In chapter 12, it was for the joy that was set before him. Here it is since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. That's heaven. That's Psalm 1611. In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. I'm going to the prison. Live or die. I'm going to love my friends. Kill me. Take my house. Shoot my golden doodle.

34:59 So I don't think I have twisted verse 2 of Hebrews 12. I think it's exactly what it says. I think that's what it says. Right here in chapter 10 is a replay on the earth in our lives of what happened to Jesus at the cross. they're going to love prisoners at the cost of their property and they're rejoicing as they go because they've got joy beyond death that's just glorious oh I hope you view the Christian life that way I mean if you're just playing games you really should go to another church I don't think Pastor Phillip wants to play games here I don't think this church exists to play games that's either real or it's not real come on it's just real or not. If it's not, check out.

35:59 If you don't sing, get out of the pool. Right? And you do know that's a metaphor. That's a metaphor. Although I could have sung A Mighty Fortress right then instead of just quoting it. But I'm a chicken. One more illustration to show I think we're on the right track. In this chapter 11, verse 24, it's Moses. Moses could have stayed in Pharaoh's court with pleasures for the next 80 years. Safety, pleasure, comfort.

36:51 And what he did was obey God, identify with cantankerous people called Israel, and pour out his life for the next, what, 40, 80? I forget. A lot of years, decades, until God took him. So how did he do that? Why did he make that crazy choice? And you're facing one of those probably right now. So listen, read it with me quietly. By faith, this is verse 24 of chapter 11. By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Okay, I'm done. I'm not going to stay here. choosing rather to be mistreated. That's exactly what Jesus did. Choosing to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

37:51 you do know that there are pleasures in this world beckoning you that are sinful. So when I say pursue your joy, I mean, you're an idiot to pursue those. They'll kill you. They taste good. They feel good, but they'll kill you. There's better joy. So those are fleeting. Like 80 years, I'm 79. I mean, to me, you couldn't entice me with that in 10,000 years. Like, you can live another 100 years, Piper, and I'll give you all the sexual delights and all the money delights and all the accolade delights you want. You just don't get Jesus in the end. I'll say, you're kidding me. What an idiot. You think I am? There are idiots everywhere. There are idiots in this room who have made the choice to live for fleeting pleasures because they just feel so good and the one that's beyond the grave feels so far away.

38:53 Oh, how we need to plead for each other and help each other see the unseen and walk by faith and taste. You know what it says in chapter 11, verse 1, faith is the substance of things hoped for.

39:14 Well, if you put that together with chapter 12, he's hoping for joy beyond the grave. faith is the substance, sometimes translated assurance, I think what that means is you don't have to wait entirely for the joy. Right? By faith you taste it now. There's a substance to the joy that flows back. So I think when Jesus is sweating blood for us in Gethsemane, he could taste it. He didn't just cross his fingers and say, it's out there, it's out there. He could taste it. He walked in it and you can taste it. You have tasted it. If you're a Christian, you have tasted it. Okay, let's keep reading. Did we even start? Okay, verse 24. By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of the Christ greater wealth than the pleasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward for the joy that was set before him.

40:31 this is the way the writer to the Hebrews has structured his whole approach towards ethics. For the joy that is set before Jesus, for the better possession for the saints in chapter 10, for the reward that Moses is looking to, all of them suffered for the good of other people. That's what Anaheim needs to see. That's what Minneapolis, Southern California, Minnesota need to see from this church and from my church. They need to see people like that. That's a strange person. They suffer for the good of others because they have a hope for satisfaction in God beyond the grave. So my closing plea is get to know Jesus like that. It says looking to Jesus in verse 2.

41:26 Looking to Jesus and then it just describes how he did it. So closing three summary statements. If you embrace as true what I've been trying to say, here's three things that are going to happen in your life. One, your joy, even through sufferings, will be overflowing because of what you see. joy in Jesus, in the future, in union with him, pleasures at his right hand, is going to be overflowing. Joy is going to be overflowing. Number two, that joy in him will sustain love. and number three, that joy-sustained love will make Jesus look really good.

42:22 He is most magnified, glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him, especially as you walk out that satisfaction in sacrificial love for other people. Let's pray. father in heaven you are our treasure and I pray for these friends here at kindred church that they would be moved by the word of God by the spirit of God to be so deeply soul satisfied in Christ now and forever that they would be freed from selfishness and that they would be willing and happy to lay down their lives in Utah or right here or wherever at the great side of mom. so much so that you would look great in their lives.

43:26 You would look so sufficient, so satisfying. I ask this in Jesus' name.