Do You Still Love Me?

Welcome

Well, good morning friends! If we haven’t met yet my name is Dan and I serve as the Teaching Pastor for Lifepoint Worthington. I’m really grateful you’re here with us today.

Happy Easter!

Introduction

You know there is an old tradition - and by tradition, I don’t just mean like something from the last 100 years, but something stretching back 2 Millenia — of Followers of Jesus having this kind of call and response greeting on Easter Sunday, where someone would say, “He is risen” and the other would respond with “He is risen indeed.”

Let’s try that.

He is risen.

“He is risen indeed.”

Actually the historical evidence we have would lead us to believe this was not just something christians would say on Easter, but was more of a regular greeting.

We have, of course, modified this to the more casual, “How’s it going?”

But I think that greeting is really interesting, isn’t it? Like of all the things people could say to one another - why this one?

Maybe it was so that they could identify themselves? You know how this works, if you walk into a room with other Ohioans and someone yells, “O.H.” people respond with … “I.O.”

Let’s you know they’re Buckeyes.

But I think there something more going on with the “He is Risen” thing than just a “nod” to the fact that we’re on the same team.

You see, it was actually a reflection of something that was at the very center of their beliefs - it was a reminder of what their whole view of life was built on! That the resurrection of Jesus from the dead was more than just a story they happened to like, it was the whole thing — and that without it — there was no point in following Jesus at all. [EXPAND]

Easter Get’s the Short End of the Stick

To me it feels like Easter kind of gets the short end of the stick, as far as holidays go. I mean if you stop and think about it for a moment, Christmas get’s all the fan fair - you get the gifts, all the music, most us have some of our most cherished family traditions and memories around Christmas — but Easter kinda missed out on all that. Easter baskets are never as cool as Christmas gifts.

And even in churches, we take something that we talk about at least once every Sunday — Jesus’ resurrection — and try and be a little more excited (or enthusiastic) about it. We get the most dressed up for Easter (you all look great!) take some family photo’s, and the whole thing culminates in some kind of late lunch - early dinner. I think I had to boil down Easter, as we typically celebrate it, into one word it would be: forced.

Just being honest - and I know at least some of you agree with me.

My question is why?

[EXPAND]

I think it’s because, if we’re honest, most of us fail to see any relevance to this story in our everyday lives. And that same event that was such a reality for the earliest Christians that it became the centerpiece of how they greeted one another - easily falls into the category of the supernatural and therefore unbelievable for many today.

So this morning, I want to spend our time with this question: does the resurrection of Jesus actually matter? Today is not the day for a conversation about whether or not it happened, that’s another conversaiton for another time. In fact, if you have that question I’ve got a spot in the notes app where you can ask that and I’ll get back to you this week.

Instead, I want to use our time to show you why the resurrection profoundly matters for the way we live and engage in the world around us today.

And to do that, we’ll be in the New Testament letter of Romans; Romans chapter 8. If you need help finding it, remember the table of contents is your friend. Romans 8:31-39. I’m going to read this passage, pray, and then we’ll get started.

Romans 8:31–39 ESV

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

PRAY

Nothing Can Separate

Alright, let’s get started.

Context of Romans

Just so we have a little bit of context, the book of Romans is actually a letter written by one of the earliest Christian leaders named Paul.

Paul was a contemporary of Jesus, and after he became a follower, he traveled to major cities in the Roman Empire to start communities we call churches. From time to time, he wrote letters back to those churches and some of those letters make up about 50% of the New Testament today.

Most of chapter 8, Paul has been dealing with a very specific issue that we’ve been talking about over the last three weeks - the problem of ongoing brokenness or sin in the life of a follower of Jesus.

And this, I think, is a self evident problem.

Essentially, it’s hypocrisy.

You may have had the experience of of seeing someone who claims to follow Jesus engage in some pretty messed up stuff. Or, some of us recognize there are parts of our lives that are not the way they should be…where even after following Jesus for a long time, we are still angry, bitter, overly anxious, jealous, pick your poison - fill in the blank.

Paul has been asking the question, what do we do about those parts of our lives. Can we stop? How?

But in the verses we’re looking at today, he get’s the question behind the question…what if I can’t stop?

Pause

Do You Still Love Me?

My son, Malachi, helped me to really feel the weight of this question.

He used to do this thing that, if he ever knew the power it had over me would 100% take advantage of it…but if he got in trouble for something, like not cleaning his room after being asked to several times…he would walk up to me with these tears in his eyes and ask, “Daddy, do you still love me?”

Talk about a dagger to the heart!

He started to ask this question more and more - and I don’t think he was just trying to get away with something - and finally I remember asking him, “Buddy, why do you keep asking me that?” And he told me, “I’m just afraid you’re going to stop.”

And I will never forget that conversation, because it was so haunting to me…like, what have I done to even imply that to him?

But the more I’ve reflected on that conversation with Malachi, the more I’ve started to realize that He’s asking the very same question I have often had - except mine is not directed to my dad…

I may not even be voiced — it’s more of this nagging fear — that if I were to ask God, the answer would be no.

You see, there is something about being human that makes us both long to be lovable AND desperately afraid that we’re not. And we bring this into all of our relationships but I think it’s especially true in our relationship with God.

And there are at least two reasons why we ask the same question my son asked me.

We ask the Question because of our Brokenness.

Look with me at the first v. 35 again, Romans 8:35

Romans 8:35 (ESV)

35 Who (or what) shall separate us from the love of Christ?

The first reason we ask this question is because of our own brokenness - our sin. Again, this is what Paul has given most of the part of his letter to talking about.

He asks the question about himself in chapter 7, (Romans 7:24)

Romans 7:24 ESV

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

And it’s is this desperate frustration that says, “I thought I was done with this - I thought I figured this issue out - or, that’s what my parents were like, not me!

When you finally calm down and recognize what you’ve said and done in a moment of rage…or “a moment of weakness.”

We’re left with the question…“God, do you still love me? Can you still love me?”

And so when Paul asks in v. 35, What shall separate us from the love of Christ, he’s looking back on everything he’s talked about in the last 3 chapters. And we join him in that question when we look back over the long history of our own brokenness.

But there’s another reason we ask this question.

We ask the Question because of our Suffering

Keep reading v. 35, (Romans 8:35-36)

Romans 8:35–36 ESV

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

And I think this is the more painful of the two reasons we ask, “Do you still love me?”

We ask because of our suffering.

It is in and through some of the most painful experiences of our lives that we start to ask - God, you see what I am experiencing…why did you let this happen?

Why would you take them from me?

If you loved me, why am I sick?

If you loved me, why did I lose my job?

If you loved me, why do I feel so empty?

Why do I still feel this way?

If you loved me, why…?

For so many of us, this is the unspoken question you quietly wrestled with for a lot time - never quite sure how to bring it or to talk to about it.

But you see, I don’t think this is a question to be ashamed of…I don’t think this is kind of question we need to be afraid of. In fact, I think this is the very question the Apostle Paul found himself asking over and over again as he wrote this letter - a question that was a reflection of his own relationship with God.

Do…you…still…love me?

And yet, look at his response.

v. 31 (Romans 8:31-34)

Romans 8:31–34 ESV

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

As Paul sees it, is is the very message of the Gospel that address both the reasons we ask that question - our brokenness and our suffering!

That in spite of our our own brokenness and failure, while we had rejected the way God created us to live, God did not spare even his own Son in sending Him, Jesus, to live the life we should have but failed to live - sent His son to die the death we should died…and his question is, if God gave all of this for us, how would he not continue, in an overflow of Grace, continue to show us his love? He asks, Who can condemn us? No one! Not because we are perfect, flawless, and blameless, but because Jesus is! And on the cross, He took all our brokenness on himself as if it was his own, and crucified, dead and buried. But more than that, Paul says in v. 34, he was raised from that dead with the Promise and Hope than any who would trust in Him and His work would be brought into His family, brought into new life and a new way of life!

See, Paul says the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Death and Resurrection deals with ALL our brokenness, past, present and future - AND it deals with our suffering!

Look at the end of v.34, (Rom. 8:34

Romans 8:34 (ESV)

34 ….Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

That means in all we are encountering in this life, Jesus is praying on our behalf. Not that we would have no suffering, but that our suffering would not completely overrun us…that it would not be the thing that defines and overtakes our whole lives.

Look at v. 37, (Romans 8:37)

Romans 8:37 ESV

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

You see we have a searing question - as we look at our own brokenness…as we walk through our own suffering…“Do you still love me?”

And Paul does not dismiss that question - he doesn’t brush it off - No! He brings it front and center, and points to the Gospel - and says, IN ALL OF THIS…IN ALL OF WHAT YOU EXPERIENCE…in your sin and suffering, — he can’t even put a single word on other that to say, “you are not victim, but - we are more than conquerors!”

So What?

You might remember that at the beginning of this message, I said one of the biggest problems with Easter is that we don’t often see the actual relevance for our every day life…and then I, perhaps foolishly, promised I would show you.

I think sometimes we’re looking for a simple formula for why any of this matters; like “Jesus is alive so I will then [fill in the blank].”

But I’m not sure that’s the point.

You see, I think what is actually the most compelling aspect of Easter is that it gives us a brand new way to process and consider what we’ve already said is one of the most important questions we can ask ourselves… “God, do you still love me.”

And this may not be the question you’re asking right now. In fact, you may be in a season when life is pretty good.

[When the suit rips illustration].

You see, the reality is, one day, your suit will rip. And that’s when you’ll be confronted with the question: do you still love me?

[Share the gospel]

And the resurrection gives us a new way to make sense of our sin and suffereing…a new way to answer that question:

Romans 8:38–39 ESV

38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We rehears this answer.

[EXPAND]

Conclusion

You know as I talked with Courtney about that question Malachi had been asking me, she gave me some language that I think get’s to the heart of what Paul is saying here: as Malachi was looking up at both of us, with tears in his eyes, “Do you still love me?”

She put her hands on his cheeks and said, “Buddy, there nothing you can do to make me stop loving you.”

[EXPAND]

Let’s pray.