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Colossians

1:17-"And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

The Nature of Christ- He holds everything together in Himself. You, me, our kids, our world,everything that can exist does exist within Him. There isn't one thing seen or unseen thatactually doesn't exist inside of Christ. But what that means for us is this- Jesus is able to holdtogether lots of different contradictory things together within Himself without it being difficultor confusing for Him.Good example- Free Will and God's Sovereignty. Both of these realities exist in Christ. Andwhile most of us struggle from time to time with what we believe about how these two ideasplay out in our every day lives, Jesus really is totally unconcerned with their seemingcontradiction. He simply holds these two paradoxical realities together within Himself.Here's why I bring this up. We're called to be a discipleship movement that is bothgrace-based and at the same time calls people to actually repent of their sins. (

Grace-based

:We understand that true transformation doesn't come by our own works but by God working inus.

Repetance:

We change the way we think and act so that we begin to think and act likeJesus). For most people these two ideas can seem like total opposites...and yet Jesus holdsthem together in his very being.Here's where this all becomes very practical: The same Jesus that hung out at parties with taxcollectors and sinners was also the same Jesus that called His followers to deal with sin to thepoint of mutilating themselves and yet he was the same Jesus that freed the woman caught inadultery. These are all the different ways that Jesus handled sin in the lives of the peoplearound him. We're troubled by these opposites in the actions of Jesus. But Jesus isn't troubledat all. In his heart all of these methods make sense and are held together in who He is. Andbeloved, we are called to grow up into this aspect of who Jesus is in just the same way we'recalled to grow up in all the others.

The Burning Heart of Jesus Christ

Most of the time we fall short because we treat sin only one of two ways: Hate orCompassion. We hate sin we see in ourselves and others or we feel love for people caught intheir sin. Both of these approaches are wrong because they only apply half of God's emotionsabout sin towards sin that we or others are caught in.

"Set me as a seal upon your heart,as a seal upon your arm,for love is strong as death,jealousy is fierce as the grave.Its flashes are flashes of fire,the very flame of the LORD.Many waters cannot quench love,neither can floods drown it." (Song of Solomon 8:6-7)

God's feelings for people in sin are full of both intense love for sinners and burning angertowards those things that keep people trapped in their sin. God had tremendous compassion forsinners both in the Old and New Testament. If you ever want to understand God's hearttowards his people in sin go read the book of Hosea. God tells one of the prophets to go andmarry a prostitute, a woman God knew would betray Hosea. Time and again Hosea goes andbuys back his wife from a pimp. And here's the point-God has a deep heart of love for Hispeople even in their sin. He will go time and again to see them restored in love. His love is jealous. He does not share us with other lovers. His jealousy causes Him to treat us withmercy and free us from sin (Romans 2:4).But there is a flip side to this intense burning mercy. It causes Him to judge sin and to call forpeople to leave it. Mark 10:21 describes Jesus' encounter with the rich young ruler. Jesus sawa man caught in the sin of greed and idolatry. Knowing that this man both truly wanted to besaved and yet was bound by his wealth, Jesus tells him that in order to enter the kingdom hehas to give everything away. But it also says this: Jesus loved him. Jesus called him out of

his sin because he loved this man and saw both the short-term and long term affect it wouldhave on him. Again, Jesus called us as his followers to deal with sin no matter what the cost.Sin destroys us and his relationship with Him. And so he calls us to repent of those things thateat at our love like rust destroying metal.

Becoming A Reflection of the Burning Love of Jesus

Again we have to be come a reflection of this man who burns with love like this. We have tolove the weak who are wrestling with sin. We must have mercy and become a safe place forthose who are weak and broken under the weight of sin. And at the same time, we have tolearn to express the deep passion of His heart that warns and calls to those who areunresponsive. When we can properly balance the mercy of God toward the weak and the call of God to the sinful in the realm of Love, God calls that state of being "holiness." And it isprecisely because of this quality in Jesus that so many were attracted to Him. His holiness wasfull of love and his love was full of holiness and they had never met anyone like that before.The reality is though, we have to become this for us before we can become this for others. Wehave to learn how to feel this way about ourselves when we sin and apply God's tough love toourselves personally before we can do that with anyone else. So, if you're here and you'restruggling with serious sin, God loves you deeply. He loves you more than you can possiblyimagine, even with you struggle. But if you've been turning a deaf ear to Jesus, then myadmonition for you is this: it's time to repent. It's time to get on God's page. That's notwrong for us to say. It's what Jesus would say if He was here. Deal with your sin. Get honestabout it. Stop lying to yourself and get some help from someone if you're serious. And by theway, if you do, there's greater levels of the Kingdom in it for you.When we get good at doing this with ourselves, then we can start doing it for others. And wehave to. We have to become a people who help each other to grow up into holiness. Some of us will be trapped in sin and desperately in need of mercy and forgiveness. And when theycome to us just exposing a little bit of sin, we will have to have tasted enough of Jesus to showthem mercy so they can open up and show us the true darkness of their soul. Some of us willbe hopelessly in rebellion against Christ. Beloved when this is the case we have to love thatperson so much that we will get out of our comfort zone and bring the truth. It helps no one topretend like things are okay when they're not. No one would stick with a doctor who lied aboutyour cancer prognosis because he didn't want to hurt your feelings. When this happens, wehave to have a burning love that empowers us to sit down with someone and share with themthe serious situation they are trying desperately to avoid. Again, the key is love. If we looselove, we loose the ability to do this in the way that Christ did.

The Movement Needs This

Why am I brining this up now? Well there are two types of movements out there: One type of movement gets really big really fast by including as many people as possible. They don't reallychallenge people to walk in holiness. They love Jesus but they'll take anyone because theyhave a lot of compassion and don't want to turn anyone away. Their hearts are really big.While they a lot of times end up with a lot of people, society isn't really changed all that muchbecause the people inside that movement never really changed all that much.The other type of movement is the exact opposite. They have high standards and the minuteyou drop the ball you're out. They're still able to exist because high standards attract a certaintype of people. But really there is no room for mistakes, so people get burn out from legalismand most people can't get in in the first place because they're just not good enough. Society isstill never really changed with these people because most of society never makes it into thistype of movement.

"Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying,"The time is fulfilled, and

the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel." (Mark1:14-15)

We're at the place in our history where our growth is going to be held in check by our holiness.

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The Nature of Jesus, The Knowledge of God, and the Call of the Church

This is a the full text of a message I delivered to the Cedar Rapids House Church Network. The message begins with some thoughts on the nature of Christ and expands into a call... (More)

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Category:	Research
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Upload Date:	04/23/2009
Copyright:	Attribution Non-commercial
Tags:	Religion Jesus Christianity Church Humanities discipleship Holiness gods love (more tags) Religion Jesus Christianity Church Humanities discipleship Holiness gods love house church the knowledge of god (fewer)