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Reconciliation: The Relationship is Restored
Introduction:
John 19:28-30 - After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
What the Cross Proves About God's Love for You.
(Romans 5:6-11)
- God's Love for You is an Unconditional Love. (Romans 5:6-8)
- God's Love for You is a Rescuing Love. (Romans 5:9)
- God's Love for You is a Committed Love. (Romans 5:10)
John 1:12 – But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
Philippians 1:6 – And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Open up your Bibles with me, please, to the book of Romans in chapter 5.
You know, there's that old saying, "It's not how you start, it's how you finish," right?
I was thinking a lot about that concept this week, and I realized that's really true, like,
in everything, isn't it?
Like, have you ever taken an airplane flight?
What determines if it's a good flight?
How you land, right?
And I was thinking about that also.
Have you ever watched a movie that you're like, "Oh, this movie is so good," and then
it has this completely idiotic ending?
Have you ever seen a movie like that?
Do you walk away saying that was a good movie?
No.
Do you say, "Oh, that movie was terrible," because it didn't finish well?
And I don't think we ever feel this as deeply as we do being Pittsburgh sports fans.
Heavens to Mercutroy, how many pirate games have I sat through?
I'm like, "Oh, this is awesome," and then we blow it into night thinning, and we say,
"Oh, that game was terrible," or all penguin fans, how many times?
Oh, this is such a good game, and then we lose it over time.
Like, oh.
But you know, the Son of God came to do some work, and He finished perfectly.
John 19, Jesus on the cross, says after this, "Jesus knowing that all was now finished,
said," to fulfill the Scripture, "I thirst."
A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a Hissa
branch and held it to His mouth.
When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished," and He bowed His
head and gave up His Spirit.
And in this four-week series, we're going to be answering the question, "What is finished?"
Jesus cried out, "It is finished!"
"What is?"
Well, today, today we are going to be looking at the glorious reality that the work of reconciliation
is finished.
The relationship with God is restored.
Would you bow your heads, please?
And I'm going to ask you, just take a moment and pray for me.
I was telling Pastor Taylor in my office before we came in here, "Man, I can't possibly
communicate the gravity of this passage."
You always feel that, but sometimes you feel it a lot more.
And today we're going to be looking at the love of God.
And I feel so inadequate to communicate it the way it needs to, but we're going to take
a swing at it.
All right?
I may, I'll pray for you.
Father in heaven, we're about to go after a topic that hits us in the heart, probably
more than anything.
So we talk about your great love.
So once again, we just pray against any preconceived notions any of us might have going into this.
And we would honestly just take a look at what your word actually says.
Father, transform us as only you can.
We pray in Jesus' name.
And all of God's people said, "Amen, amen.
It is finished.
The relationship with God is restored."
We started this last week that the Bible says in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, God was
demonstrating some things.
He was showing us some things.
He was, a better word, proving some things.
And in Romans 3.25, we saw that God demonstrated His righteousness.
Jesus died to fulfill the demands of God's law.
The guilt is gone.
So here, in this passage, just look at verse 8.
It says, "But God shows," again, better word, "proves," but God shows His love for us.
And that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
You see, it's this love of God He tells us in verses 10 and 11 that reconciled us.
The relationship is restored.
Look, this is one of the greatest doctrines in all of God's Word, because God is not some
cold-detached judge.
And you would wrongly take that away from Romans chapter 3 to say, "Well, God's just
this judge, and we're guilty."
Okay, and He did this judicial thing, and He pardoned us, but He's not this cold judge
in the sense of now God's looking down from heaven saying, "Turn or burn, I don't care."
Right?
Get right or get left.
Look, I made provision, accept Jesus or don't, makes no difference to me whatsoever.
The glorious truth of God's Word, it's that He loves you.
I mean He actually, really, infinitely loves you.
And last week we talked about one of the greatest struggles we have as people is struggling
with guilt.
Am I really forgiven?
But you know, there's another question that we struggle with as people, and it's this
one.
Does God really love me?
Does God really love me?
Oh yeah, I know John 3.16.
Everybody knows John 3.16.
For God so loved the world.
But maybe that's just like a general statement about God's disposition towards people as
a whole.
But does He love me?
You know, there are two things that make people question God's love.
And one is the awareness of my sin.
Some people question God's love because you're like, "You know what, I just feel unworthy."
The other thing that makes you question God's love is going through hardship.
You're like, "If God really loved me, why would He let this allow this cause this horrible
trial in my life to happen?"
But this is the question on the table today.
Am I loved by God?
In other words, am I accepted by God?
Is God on my side?
Will that ever change?
Well, I got some great news for you.
God settled all of this with the death of Jesus Christ.
So on your outline, the relationship is restored and we're focusing on the cross as we head
into resurrection day next Sunday.
And good Friday this Friday, we're focused on the cross.
Today what the cross proves about God's love for you.
Does God love me?
Look at the cross.
That answers all of it.
Let's unpack that a little bit.
Number one, the Bible tells us that God's love for you is an unconditional love.
It's an unconditional love.
You know, I get a pause here.
People say, especially in circles like ours, they're like, "Well, you know, it's not about
religion.
It's about what?
Relationship."
Oh, you travel in those circles.
It's not about religion.
It's about relationship.
And okay, that's true.
But you know, technically, technically.
God has a relationship with Jesus.
The question is, do you have a good relationship with Him?
Or do you have a bad relationship with Him?
Because biblically, there's no neutral.
It's not like there's these on fire, born-again, Bible-believing Christians,
and these evil, wicked, nasty, violent, hurtful people who hate God,
and somewhere in the middle is just that really nice person.
Not a Christian, but not...
There's no neutral.
And in this passage, you're going to see that unsaved people, people alienated from God,
are described in four ways.
They're described as weak in verse 6, as ungodly in verse 6,
as sinners in verse 8, and as enemies in verse 10.
And we have to understand that going in.
Looking at these four, weak means you're powerless to save yourself.
There is not a thing you can do to get right with God on your own.
You're weak.
You're ungodly.
You are nothing like God intended you to be by birth.
You're a sinner.
That means in the eyes of God, you are rebellious.
And in verse 10, as I said, He uses the word "enemy."
And that means you're hostile towards God.
But really, this enemy concept, it's really a two-way street.
As you see, by nature, we resent God's authority.
I don't want somebody telling me what to do.
I don't want somebody telling me the things that I want to do are wrong, so that's hostility
towards God.
But you know, it goes the other way, too.
God has a holy hatred of sin.
So we could say that we have a wicked opposition towards God, and God has a holy opposition
towards us.
It's a dual opposition.
So something major has to happen if there's going to be any kind of reconciliation between
these two parties that have such hostility towards one another.
Something huge has to happen.
Look at verse 6.
It says, "For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."
Let's not fly through this too quickly, shall we?
Can we just pause for a moment and as much as we can try to get the weight of God's love
in this statement?
He said, "Christ died for the ungodly."
Who does that?
Who dies for rebellious, wicked, evil people?
Who does that?
It's a shocking statement.
But Paul illustrates, look at verses 7 and 8, how he illustrates this incredible truth.
He says, "For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, that perhaps for a good person one
would dare even to die."
But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
I love Paul's illustration.
Look at verse 7 again.
He says, "One will scarcely die for a righteous person."
What does he mean by a righteous person?
Well, a righteous person is just like somebody who's upright and a good, holy person, but
maybe you sort of have a detached relationship from them.
Like for example, your favorite preacher that you listen to on a podcast.
Maybe there's somebody that you follow their podcast, you listen to them and they're preaching
really blesses you, but you don't know that guy, right?
That's Paul's point here, is like your favorite podcast preacher, besides me, but your favorite
podcast preacher, I had to clarify that, but you're like, "Jeff, you're not even in the
top 15."
Moving on.
That favorite podcast preacher of yours, if you had an opportunity to die so that he
could live, would you do that?
Probably not.
That's why he says scarcely.
There might be one or two of you, like, "Yeah, I would do it."
But Paul's like, "That's pretty scarce that somebody would die for a good person."
You don't really know.
But then he dials it up a notch, he goes, "Perhaps for a good person one would dare even to
die."
And now he's talking about maybe that holy, upright, good Christian person that we know
and love.
All right?
So if I were to ask, "Okay, forget about your podcast guy, would you die for Pastor Taylor?"
You're like, "Wow, that really ups the ante.
I would really strongly consider that one."
And now we get the weight of verse 8 when he says, "But God, but God on the other hand
shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
See Paul says maybe somebody would die for a good man, but no one would die for an evil
man.
But that's exactly how God showed His love for you.
God loved you when you were a wuze.
You're like a what?
A wuze.
I just made that word up.
W-S-E, a weak, ungodly, sinful enemy.
That's just in the text.
I just paraphrased it.
God loved you as a wuze.
And God didn't say, "Look, when you get your act together, then we'll talk about salvation."
God didn't say, "When you start living a certain way, then I'm going to love you."
It says, "While we were still sinners, what God says is, 'Look, I love you.
I sent my son to die for you.'
You come to me and then we'll get your act together."
See God knows you better than you know yourself.
And He loves you at your worst.
So that's where Paul starts.
God's love for you is unconditional.
Secondly, what does the cross prove about God's love for you?
God's love for you is a rescuing love.
It's a rescuing love.
Look at verse 9.
He says, "Since therefore we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we
be saved by Him from the wrath of God."
I love this.
You're going to see this a couple of times in this passage.
Much more.
Much more.
What he's saying is, "If Jesus' death could do this, then much more Jesus' life can do
this."
So here, Jesus' blood justified has made us righteous before God, which is...
I tried so hard to think of a way to describe that and I wrote down, "Infinitely enormous."
I don't know.
If Jesus' blood could make us righteous before God, which is infinitely enormous, even way
bigger, He says, "We will be saved from the wrath of God."
And that is a profound thing in the cross of Jesus Christ that God was saving you from
Himself.
He was saving you from His own wrath.
But you know as a pastor, bless you as a pastor, oftentimes I hear people say, in wanting to
argue, certain doctrines people will say, "You know, you're talking about God's wrath.
A loving God wouldn't send someone to hell."
Look, I believe that God is love and a loving God wouldn't send somebody to hell.
Have you ever heard that?
Pastor Taylor, I'm sure you've heard that a lot.
A loving God wouldn't send someone to hell?
Well, there's a lot of problems with that statement.
One, it ignores what the Bible actually says about hell.
You know, Jesus talked about hell more than anybody.
Something like twice as much as He talked about heaven.
So not only does it ignore what the Bible actually says about hell, it also ignores God's holiness.
A holy God can't tolerate sin.
So help me understand, if you're somebody that doesn't believe in hell, if you're somebody
that still subscribes to the loving God wouldn't send somebody to hell, are you saying that
somebody can live their entire life rejecting their Creator, living in flagrant sin and rebellion,
they want nothing to do with God, and they want nothing to do with God's gifts, and someday
when they die, God's going to be like, "Hey, that's okay.
Come on into heaven.
Let me show you around."
Like, how does that work?
By the way, an unsaved person would be miserable in heaven.
Do you know that?
An unsaved person would be absolutely miserable in heaven.
You're like, "Why?"
Now, that unsaved person has spent their life saying, "I don't want anything to do with
God, God's truth, God's people, worship.
I don't want anything to do with that."
You know what heaven is?
God, His truth, His people, and worship, that would be absolutely miserable to spend in
eternity.
What the God you want nothing to do with.
So you're ignoring God's holiness when you're selecting which doctrine you want to adhere
to.
Oh, and here's one.
A loving God would send someone to hell.
I like to quickly remind people that God's love is not in question.
What more could God have possibly done to save you?
The Bible says, Romans chapter 8, "God spared not his own son.
God was willing to kill his son so that you could be saved."
I wouldn't do that.
If your salvation meant that I had to kill my son, you'd all be gone to hell.
And I wouldn't think twice about it.
What more could God have possibly done to demonstrate His love than by giving the most precious thing
that exists, the life of His Son.
So don't please, don't come at me with this, a loving God wouldn't send someone to hell.
God's love is not in question here.
But church, if we brush off God's wrath, we're also brushing off the impact of the cross.
We're brushing off the impact of the cross as minimizing the greatest act of God's love.
But let's get real personal.
Like I said at the beginning, one of the biggest reasons we doubt God's love is because we
endure hardship.
And I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand.
But I imagine it would be high 90% of you.
If I said raise your hand if you've ever questioned God's love because of a trial that you're
going through.
I bet most of those hands would go up.
And I just want to lovingly encourage you.
When we get in that mindset where we're doubting God's love and a hardship, what we're assuming
is the way that God shows love is keeping me from trials.
We've already attached that love language to God when His Word does not.
And we think, okay, so God shows me love by making my life easy and trouble free.
So if God doesn't do that, then He must not love me.
Well, we studied the book of Job last fall.
If we learned anything, it's that God loves me through hardship.
No, no, no, no.
God loves me with hardships.
God shows the greatness of His love by meeting our greatest need, which is to be rescued
from sin and hell.
And if that's all God's love ever did for you, is to rescue you from hell.
If that was all He ever did, you should be eternally grateful.
Like the goofy guy in the infomercial.
But wait, there's more.
And number three, write this down.
God's love for you is a committed love.
What does the cross prove about God's love?
Well, it proves it's unconditional and it proves it's rescuing.
And thirdly, it proves that God's love for you is a committed love.
Look at verse 10.
For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more
now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.
Very similar to verse 9 with the much more thing, but there's a different emphasis here.
In verse 9, He says we will be saved from His coming wrath.
And here He's saying God will keep us saved in the meantime.
In other words, He's saying if God could reconcile us by the death of His Son, much more He can
keep us saved by the life of His Son.
Remember to put it another way, if God loved you when you were His enemy, how do you think
He's going to love you now that you're His child?
That's why He uses that word here.
That's the word of the day.
Reconciled.
This in verse 10, telling us this, God is committed to a restored relationship with
you.
How committed?
How committed is God?
How committed?
He adopted you as His child.
Talk to somebody here that's adopted someone and ask that parent of the adopted kid, "How
committed are you?"
They're committed.
John 1.12 says, "But to all who did receive Jesus, who believed in His name, He gave the
right to become children of God."
In Christ, we are God's children and He is our heavenly Father.
And as you parents know, your kids will always be your kids and nothing can ever change that.
No matter how bad your kids are, no matter what bad thing they've done, nothing will ever
change that kid from being your kid.
When we planted this church back in 2011, we were meeting at Marshall Middle School,
which is right beside Covenant Community Church.
I was friends with Pastor John Price, who was a pastor there.
He invited our church over to, they had a church picnic on their property.
He said, "Hey, why don't you guys come over and invite your church, come over, we're
going to get the bouncy houses and have a big thing, have a bunch of kids.
And why don't you bring your family over and like to introduce you, kind of like welcome
to the neighborhood kind of thing."
I'm like, "Oh, that sounds like a great time."
Well, so our family went and Aaron and I were in the pavilion talking to some of these wonderful
people at this church.
And our kids were much littler at the time.
And all of a sudden, I hear Cade's voice.
He says, "Hey, Dad!
Dad!
Dad!"
I look over.
Cade and Owen are standing in the yard in the green space in Covenant Community with
their pants around their ankles, urinating on the lawn.
And I look over and Cade hollers, "Look, Dad!
We made a P-cross!"
And these dear sweet people we were talking to said, "Are those your children?"
I said, "I've never seen those kids!"
Somebody really needs to rein them in, you know what I'm saying?
You know, as badly as I wanted to put them on eBay that day.
I didn't.
And Cade will tell you, grab him, he'll tell you something I've told him over and over
throughout his life.
He says, "Look, I love you on your best day and on your worst.
And I've told him nothing will ever change that because you're my son."
And it's the same with God's kids.
You've been adopted.
And you know, I've been reading the Bible for a long time.
There is zero Biblical language about being unadopted.
We touched on this last week, you know, people often ask, "Can I lose my salvation?"
And the answer to that question is, "Well, you know, if I could lose my salvation, then
I definitely would.
But thankfully, it's not up to me.
Because what Paul's teaching here is it's not really about how tightly I'm holding
on to Jesus.
It's how tightly he's holding on to me.
So if you've ever struggled with, "Can I lose my salvation?"
Here's a great verse.
You're going to help me out here.
Philippians 1-6, can we get that on the screen?
Let's do a little Bible study here, shall we?
Paul says, "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it
to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."
That means to the very end.
All right, so help me out here.
Did God begin a good work in you?
Well, if you're a follower of Jesus, then the answer to that is, "Yes."
Okay, next question.
"If God began a good work in you, is he going to finish it?"
Yeah, he is.
Oh, one more question.
Are you sure?
Paul said he was.
I am sure of this.
That when Jesus starts something, he finishes it.
True of the cross and the atonement.
True of his death.
Yes, true of that, but also true of adopting you and raising you and getting you to the
finish line of heaven.
If God didn't save you and say, "You know what, kid, good luck, you're on your own,
don't mess this up, I hope to see you in heaven."
Paul makes it very clear here that God's love for you is a committed love.
We have the worship team.
Join us back up here.
Church, God loves you.
As we said and can't emphasize enough, that is not in question.
He showed us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
We are rescued from His wrath.
He is committed to keeping us all the way to heaven.
The real question that we have to ask is not does God love us, but do you love God?
God demonstrated His love for you.
Are you willing to demonstrate your love for Him?
You're like, "How do I do that?"
Well, let's look at what the passage says.
Look at verse 11.
He says more than that.
Which is a hilarious statement.
More than all of this.
He says, "We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now
received reconciliation."
I just want to ask you, church, will you rejoice?
Rejoicing is the natural emotional result of being reconciled.
And your worship should be an overflow of love and joy and gratitude for Jesus Christ,
for all He is, and for all He's done, and for all He's promised that He will do.
Let your worship be an expression of love.
Would you stand and lift up your voices and demonstrate love for Jesus Christ?
Small Group Discussion
Read Romans 5:6-11
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Have you ever questioned God’s love for you? Why? What is God’s response, based on this passage?
What 4 words are used to describe lost people in this passage? How does this speak to the idea that “deep down, man is basically good”?
Read John 1:12 and Philippians 1:6. What do these verses teach us about God’s love being a committed love?
Breakout
Pray for one another.