August 16 - the Motivation of Jesus

The Motivation of Jesus

What did he come to teach?

Matthew 4:17

Matthew 4:17 NIV

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Now, this word ‘repent’, it’s a church-y word. and I want to make sure we’re crystal clear on it’s meaning.

The word in the greek basically translates to ‘changing your life, based on a complete change of attitude and thought concerning sin and righteousness’. It has a sense of, ‘turning around to face another direction’.

Now, the bible is clear of the starting point of this repentance.

2 Corinthians 7:10

2 Corinthians 7:10 NIV

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

So, the idea of repentance in the bible is this - it starts first with God (hence, why its called Godly sorrow), it leads to salvation - that is, a relationship with God - and it doesn’t leave any regret about the past.

Repentance isn’t a self-inflicted punishment, it’s a god-sustained reorientation

But the second part is this - for the kingdom of heaven has come near.

And it’s not just, the kingdom of heaven IS near you. It’s a statement of intention - the kingdom is coming to you. You have been trying for so long to get to it - but the kingdom is coming to bridge that gap on your behalf.

So what’s the complete picture here of what Jesus is saying? He’s saying,

I have come to reorient you to a kingdom that has come near to you - not to make you feel terrible

And it’s totally understandable WHY we would feel regret, WHY we would feel bad about our problems. But Jesus’ primary motivation here is to move us on from regret, to move us on from that grief that comes with failure, and He asks the question - ‘OK, so, what do we need to do to reorient you here?’

And that’s incredibly important to understanding why we should love Jesus so much. I think as Christians, we don’t hold this in high enough regard. Because how many areas, how many ways do we look at our failures, look at our problems - or look at other people’s failures and problems - and say ‘well, Jesus just isn’t going to stick around if that goes on.’

How many ways do we worry about driving the spirit out of our churches because of the difficulties that come from our imperfections and difficulties?

And I don’t want to downplay the importance of all of us trying our best to continually walk towards God. To continually strive for better relationship and better lifestyle.

But I really, really believe this key truth - that

We miss the Spirit not when we struggle - but when we refuse to acknowledge Christ coming out to find us and rejoicing in our return

How many parables about the lost does Jesus have to tell before we get this? We have the parable of the lost sheep:

Luke 15:3-5

Luke 15:3–5 NIV

Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders

The parable of the lost coin:

Luke 15:8-10

Luke 15:8–10 NIV

“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

And if you think ‘oh, these are just verses about people who unintentionally stray. What about if we’re actively disobeying? What about if we’re consciously walking away? For that, we have the parable of the lost son (SUMMARIZE)

And that one ends with this:

Luke 15:21-24

Luke 15:21–24 NIV

“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

Jesus is telling us again, and again, and again, and again, that there’s no way we can struggle, there’s no way we can stray, there’s no problem we can come up against where He will abandon us. We could commit every sin, walk to the furthest extents of the earth away from Him, and the moment,

The second we turn back and speak to Him, Jesus is joyfully there to receive us and bring us back

If your concept of following Christ involves Him abandoning you because of something you’ve done, you have no idea of the depth of Christ’s love and mercy

Ephesians 2:4-5 spells this out plainly:

Ephesians 2:4–5 NIV

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

The key here is ‘even when’. It’s not ‘God’s great love for you depends on you keeping up your part’. And this verse doesn’t say ‘God loves you even when you struggle.’ It doesn’t say ‘God loves you even when you’re imperfect’. This is saying that Jesus loves us even when our sins have killed us - even in our death, God’s great love brings life.

How many times does God have to remind us of this before we really ,truly accept it? I can keep reading bible verses on it.

Romans 8:37-39

Romans 8:37–39 NIV

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We are more than conquerers through HIM WHO LOVED US.

So if nothing can keep us away, what causes us to be away? If our own sinfulness can’t drive away the spirit, if our own struggles don’t prevent Jesus from joyfully accepting us back - then where does it come from when we feel God’s absence in our struggles?

There’s a lot of answers to this question, but I believe that many of them boil down to this simple reality:

We most often feel the absence of the Spirit when we look at our own failures, and Christ looks at the filth and the failure and the brokenness and

Jesus says ‘I am always, always here for you and I love you and want you back’ and we respond with ‘No you don’t- look at me’

When are the lost child who stands before Christ and says ‘I’m not worthy to be considered your child’, but we won’t listen to his great joy in having us back.

When you think that your righteousness is powerful enough to bring you into the presence of God, you also think that your sinfulness is powerful enough to drive God’s great love away from you. You don’t stand in God’s presence because you’re good enough. When you think that, you grossly overestimate your own goodness, and vastly underestimate God’s holiness and goodness. You are welcomed by Him simply because He is good.

Isaiah said once that our ‘righteous acts are like filthy rags’ in Isaiah 64:6 . Not ‘our sinfulness’. He is saying that, even the very best parts of us, when God looks, it is like filthy rags. And let me tell you, the english translation doesn’t do justice to that phrase ‘filthy rags’. Let’s just say, that the direct translation is a lot stronger.

Here’s what I want you to understand - all of those times where we felt the spirit in power, we felt the love of Christ deeply and we saw the power of God moving - they had nothing to do with the power or depth of our righteousness. It was because God loved you deeply and mercifully, and you truly turned to Him and truly believed He received you. We are not ever going to be good enough that our righteousness is good enough to prompt the spirit to come. In those moments, God looked at us, and he saw the dirt and the filth and the brokenness of our sinful nature - and He chose to love us anyways.

So stop telling the Spirit that He won’t come into your life the way you are. Yes, the bible says that God’s spirit has no fellowship with darkness - but that is a testament to the amazing and all encompassing power of Christ’s great love for us. The fact that God can’t tolerate the presence of sin tells us how greatly he defeated death and the grave when Jesus died for us and we were welcomed back into God’s eternity. This is john 3:16 folks.

John 3:16

John 3:16 NIV

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus isn’t motivated by our goodness. He isn’t motivated by us rubbing disgusting rags together and calling it righteousness. There’s nothing we could do to scrub our hearts clean enough to ever make a space good enough for Jesus.

That’s why Jesus’ motivation to come into our hearts is so unbelievably important.

Jesus welcomes us into His kingdom because He loves us

Our sinfulness should never convince us how much God has rejected us - it should remind us how greatly God loves us. I can’t say this enough - if you think there’s something you can do that will cause Jesus to want to leave you, you haven’t even begun to experience how good God really is.

I wonder how many churches struggle and flounder because the people are convinced that their problems are enough that the Spirit leaves and goes ‘forget this place, this isn’t good enough for me’. Is God so small that we could ever make a place good enough?

So how do we respond to this?

That part’s easy.

If you don’t have a relationship with God - now’s a great time to start. Because there’s literally nothing stopping you. It doesn’t matter who you are, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, or said. Not only is God’s love greater than your problems, but God has great, great joy in coming into your life- because He loves you. All you literally have to say is , ‘God, I know you love me, and I know I’m not good enough. I want to have a relationship with you, and I know you want to have one with me too’. If you think that it’s impossible that God could ever love someone like you, then sit back, kick up your feet, and watch God do the impossible, because that’s exactly what He wants to do.

Maybe you have a relationship with God, but you feel like it’s on the rocks. You feel cut off, abandoned. You feel like your struggles have counted you out of God’s plans. Because, you know, the bible is just FULL of people who were able to follow God because of their own goodness. It’s not like Abraham was a liar, Jacob was a cheater, David was an adulterer, Jonah ran away from God, Moses and Paul were murderers. Peter had a temper, Martha was a worrier, Thomas doubted. The list goes on, and on, and on, and on. So what do we do? It’s simple. Say ‘God, I know you love me, and I know i’m not good enough. I want to have a relationship with you, and I know you want to have one with me too’. If you don’t think you’re good enough for God to use, you’re in good company with every single person except Jesus that has ever come before in the history of the world.

So let’s pray.