The Measure of Love

Transcript S2E7

The Measure of Love

[00:00] 

Hi, I'm Tony Kostas, and welcome to Led Into Love.

 On the night before He was crucified, Jesus gathered His disciples for what we know so well was called … He didn't call it the Last Supper, but it's been called the Last Supper by Christians almost ever since then because it was His last meal with them … His last evening with them … before His crucifixion.

He said many things that were meant to comfort them, to encourage them, to strengthen them, to prepare them for what was coming, even though I'm sure that they probably, even then … no matter what He said, they couldn't comprehend what was to come.

In the midst of all that He said He made a very significant statement - and that's what I want to focus on right here.

He said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” To me, that can be summed up in another very simple statement, that obedience is the measure of love.

[01:11] 

So often, and even probably more so in today's society, we don't tend to put obedience and love together. We think, you know, obedience is, you know, rules, laws, people in authority, people that have more power over you than probably you'd like - that you just have to obey them or there are consequences. And love is a different thing, you know, love is kind of something warm and pleasant … and then, you know, comforting and securing.

And yet Jesus made this very clear statement to these men that He loved so much that He was about to lay His life down for them and for whoever would believe in Him in all the centuries since then. And He said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command”.

[02:05] 

I know I often go back to the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve. The reason I do that is because, for you and for me, this all began back there.

When God placed those two people in that garden, He gave them one simple command. We all know what it was - that there was one tree in the garden, the only tree in the whole garden that they couldn't eat the fruit of the of. Or He told them not to eat the fruit of it - because if they did, they would surely die.

Up until then, Adam and Eve were immortal. They were created to be immortal. And when God gave them this command, He wasn't doing it to be ‘rulesy’ … to throw His weight around … to be threatening. There was nothing malicious about it, and there was nothing mean about it. It was all love. He made them to know Him, to live in love with Him forever – and there was just one thing he required of them. 

And you know – because if you never knew it before you started listening to my podcast, you sure know it now, because hardly a podcast goes by when one way or another, I don’t end up referring to this. They disobeyed God.

[03:30] 

We don't hear a lot about obedience in Christian churches. We don't hear a lot about obedience, particularly when it comes to people even presenting the Christian gospel to other people who don't know Jesus.

Obedience is not attractive, but obedience to God means that what He says is for one purpose only, because it is for your good. From one motive only, because He loves you and He requires of you, not to obey Him because He wants to lord it over you, but to obey Him because every word that He speaks to your heart is intended to be a word of life to you.

Because I often refer to the fact that God speaks to us personally – and He does – then I'm not talking to you even about obeying the Bible per se. I'm not talking to you about obeying rules and regulations and doctrines of any Christian church or institution. I'm talking to you about your intimate, personal relationship with God that you either have or, if you don't have it, it's because you haven't opened your heart to Him – because He wants to have that with you, and He wants you to have that with Him.

[05:08] 

And when you come to Him and when you yield your life to Him, and when you tell Him you want to live for Him in love, He will give you many encouragements. He will give you a lot of input. He will give you understanding. He'll do things in your life. But he will also tell you what He requires of you. Not just in the daily living of your life, but in things that He may specifically ask you to do for Him – things that He will expect you to give Him a response in.

And that's why, when I talk about abandoning your life for God, that means putting your life in His hands. And it means that then whatever God wants of you … You know the old saying: ‘your wish is My command’? Well, yeah, it'll be like that. But sometimes God's command will sound like a command! It's not that God comes along and says, “I wish you would do this” or “I wish you wouldn't do that”. God will say things to you.

[06:11] 

Many, many times in my life, God has spoken to me about things He's wanted me to do. Sometimes there've been relatively small things, sometimes have been things that have been so big – so out of my league, so out of my ability, so much that I have to risk in, in human terms, to obey God.

But the point is: who said it? And when we talk about obedience to God, that's very important, because it's easy to think in terms of, ‘where does it come from?’. 

There was a time in the journeys of the Israelites across the desert, under the leadership of Moses, when Moses set up a tent where he would go and meet with God. And the Israelites loved the fact that they had a leader who went and spent time with God. And he would come out then and he would have had this face-to-face time with God.

And it's amazing, when you read the account in the Bible. It says God spoke face-to-face with Moses, just like a man speaks with his friend. And Moses would come out and the people would be wanting to know, ‘so what is the outcome?’ – like, ‘what is it that God wants?’. Maybe there'd be things that they had asked him about, that he wanted to ask God about so that he could have a response from God.

[07:35] 

What God really longed for with those people was that they would want that kind of relationship with God too.

There was one other person in all of Israel at that time that had the privilege of going into that tent with Moses. It was Joshua. He was sort of Moses assistant, if you like. He was his right-hand man.

The day was going to come when, in many, many years ahead – from the time that Joshua first began to have this role with Moses – the time was going to come that Moses was going to hand over that leadership. (Well, actually God was going to tell Moses that he was going to die, and Joshua was going to lead the people.) 

But in the meantime, Joshua wasn't setting things up for the future. He just had a great desire to be with God. So, he would go into that tent with Moses. He didn't only go in with Moses, but after Moses had been communing with God face to face – which is incredible – Moses would have things to get on with. So, Moses had to leave the tent – and there’s this lovely scripture that tells us that when Moses left, Joshua stuck around in there. Which is actually even more amazing! Like he didn't go there on Moses coat-tails. He went there because he had his own personal, individual desire to be with God.

Now you may recall that when Moses – when the first time he did this and he went into that tent and came out after having talked to God – his face shone with incredible brilliance. He didn't know it. He didn't look in a mirror when he went in or when he came out – but he came out and the Israelites were kind of recoiling. They couldn't … it was like looking at the sun!

So from that time on, Moses realized that when he was going to come out of the tent, he had to put a veil over his face so that people could even stand to look at him.

[09:41] 

But the thing I really want to tell you about here is that, when the Israelites wanted to have the benefit of this man who would go and speak to God on their behalf … at one point they said to him, “You go and talk to God about it and then you come out and tell us what God says.” 

Now Moses did that. But I tell you, what God really would have loved (maybe the tent would have to be huge, but that's incidental) the point is: what God would have loved was that any or all of those people had said, “Moses, we want a face-to-face relationship with God too!”

Joshua wasn't special. Even Moses wasn't in the sense that – yes, he was the man that God had appointed to lead the people – but God wanted intimacy with His people. He has always wanted intimacy with his people. I talk about it a lot because it is true.

[10:53] 

And for those Israelites, it says in the Bible that they would stand at the door … each man would stand at the door of his tent … and watch Moses going into that tent to be with God … into the tent … the tent of meeting. Each family, each person, had their own tent that they lived in because they were nomadic at that time. And each man would stand at his tent door and worship while Moses went in, when he was with God. They probably felt: “Yeah, well, we're kind of part of it, because we're standing here, we're acknowledging the fact that our leader Moses is in there with God. And we're … we'll worship God while Moses talks with God.

And at this one point they said, “You go and talk to God and you come out and tell us what God says”.

And you know, for a lot of God's people that's still a preferred option.

[11:40] 

You know, you can long … or like … or love … the idea of: ‘Yeah, it would be great to have a relationship with God – a face-to-face relationship with God. And if you're blessed to have a leader, or leaders – Christian leaders – that you know … that you look to … people who are people of God who can – when they preach or when they give you their advice or their input – you know that they've been with God and they have things from God for you.

But, you know, it's also very easy to use something like that as a nice little distance, a comfortable distance. You can say, “Oh, I thank God that I've got this man. He's such a man of God, and I love the things that he brings me because I know he spends time with God. And whenever he gives me advice or input or direction, I just know it's godly”.

Which is still a lot easier than you doing business with God yourself.

[12:44] 

I don't mean there shouldn't be leaders. I don't mean that God does not give us people with ministry. He called me into ministry many, many years ago, and I've had a role like that to God's people. But even when I do – whether I'm preaching or counselling people, or just being a friend to them and sharing my heart with them – what I want most of all (and I want it for you, even though I may never meet you this side of Heaven) what I really want is that all of God's people should be saying to God: “God, I want to relate to you face-to-face, heart-to-heart”

Because it's convenient often to have someone else doing that for you. Because firstly, you can say: “Well, yeah, he's a good guy, he's a spiritual guy, and he's a man of God – but like, you know, he's human, and sometimes his own feelings might get mixed in with what he thinks God wants for me to … wants to say to me. Sometimes he might kind of have a bit of an issue, or a bit of a bias, or a bit of a prejudice, or a bit of a particular mindset. So, I love what he says, or I love what he preaches – but, you know, it's not always what God wants.” 

And, fair enough, we are all human. And even with prophets in the Bible, it says “the spirit is subject to the prophet’. You know, even when God’s moving someone to speak on their behalf, the flavour of the person will always come through.

[14:19]

But often what happens with people – God's people … believers – what happens is that it's still a lot more convenient to have someone between you and God, because it gives you that little layer of protection. Whether you can point to human flaws, or whether you can say, “Well, yeah, I … you know … I, I, I meant to talk to you about this,” or “I, I wanted to get you to pray about this, but …” Or, “I wanted to share this thing with you, but you're not always available, and you're busy …” and stuff like that. 

Well, you can never say that to God! You can say it to a man, but can never say it to God – because incredibly, God is never too busy for any one of us!

You know, when God saw Moses heading for that tent, we read in the Bible that the pillar of cloud (you know how when the Israelites were traveling across the desert for those 40 years, God's visible presence was always there, God’s physical presence – in the daytime it was a pillar of cloud, in the nighttime, it was a pillar of fire). So, whenever God would see Moses heading for the tent – Moses didn't wait for God to give him a nudge and say, “Hey, we need to talk!”

Whenever God saw that Moses wanted to be with Him, the pillar of cloud or fire – depending on whether it was day or night – would move from wherever it was positioned because it was always visible to the Israelites. And that pillar would come and stand beside the entrance to the tent where God was inside talking to Moses. Now that is incredible to me, it's wonderful also!

Just think, the God of the Universe was so thrilled that He had this one man who, more than anything else, wanted to spend time with Him. 

And what God showed was that even more than Moses wanted it, God wanted it – and all He needed was to see that it was important enough to Moses.

[16:30] 

Now that's the relationship with God that, in essence, that you're meant to have. But you know, when you draw close to God like that … guess what? He'll make Himself known to you. And He'll also make His will known. He'll make His thoughts known. He'll make His ways known. 

In fact, there's another verse in the Bible where it says that God made his ways known to Moses and his acts to the children of Israel. In other words, when God talked face-to-face with Moses, God shared with Moses His ways – what He was about, the essence of His being, how He approached things, how He saw things, how He felt about things, what His desires were.

The Israelites, preferring to be spectators, would stand in their tent doors and worship, while Moses was in the tent – the Tent of meeting. And so they were spectators of God's ways. And there's a lot of Christians, I tell you, who prefer to be spectators!

[17:42] 

You know, God has said many wonderful things about what He's going to do in this world. God is going to get this world. God is going to have this world, because it is His by right, and God's Kingdom is coming to this earth!

When Jesus gave that those words that Christians traditionally call the Lord's Prayer – when the disciples said, “Teach us to pray,” – and He said … and He told them certain things that they should be praying for. And right there he said, ‘pray to God: your kingdom come’.

God wants you to want His kingdom to come to this world. 

God longs for that. 

God is doing that. 

God's kingdom is going to come to this world.

 There is no doubt about it. 

Whether or not you, personally, will be a part of the bringing in of God's kingdom depends on you, not on God. Because God – like He was with Moses, like He watched for Moses to come and enter that tent – God wants to be relating to you like that.

[18:56] 

But when He makes his ways known to you – when you get to know what he wants, just like when he told Adam and Eve what he wanted with them and what they should and should not do in the Garden of Eden – He also will give you things that require your obedience. Because God is not a kind of soft and cuddly, feel-good God that people would like Him to be if they're going to have a relationship with God. God is the creator of the whole Universe.

He is amazing.

He is love itself.

God is love and God is good – but God is also above everything. You draw near to God, you will know what pleases God and what doesn't please God. And when you say to God, “I love you,” and He might say to you, “Fine, then if you love me, obey what I command you. Whatever I tell you I want.  Whatever I tell you. The desire of my heart is whatever I expect of you.”

Don't see it as a burden. See it as a joyful response of love on your part – an expression of love on your part. Now that's the joy of a living relationship with God!

[20:06] 

I love it that I have the privilege of having God as the ultimate authority in my life. Who else would you like running your life? Don't try running your own life! The world is such a mess, and people's lives are such a mess, because we have a world full of people, so many of whom are trying to find what to do with their lives, trying to find a basis for their lives, trying to find a purpose for their lives. So few know even that the God of the Universe has given everything so that He will be their God.

God loves you and God loves to be your God. He longs to have a relationship with you where, literally, whatever He wants you will do because you believe that God is totally to be trusted.

[21:14] 

There are two basic definitions of God in the Bible that that I love: God is love and God is good.

God is love means that everything that God does is motivated by His love. 

When He sent his Son, Jesus, to the cross for you, that was the love of God for you.

When Jesus, for His part, totally gave Himself to be crucified for you, that was His love for you.

If you want to see an expression – the ultimate expression of obedience being the measure of love – look at what Jesus did when he went to the cross, so that His Father God and you would once more be able to be totally reconciled.

God is love. Whatever God does and says is because of His love. And God is good.

So not only is love His motivation, His purpose, His goal, His aim, in what He says and what He does, is good – your good, beyond anything that you can imagine.

[22:45]

God is so pure and so absolute that when I say, “God is love because it is written,” … but not just because it's written … because it is written … because it's the truth. 

It's not true because it was written. It was written because it is true. 

God is love and God is good. If you do not entrust your life to God and live in love with Him always, knowing that when you walk with Him and you obey whatever He wants you to obey Him in, that – not only is He loving you when He says, “Obey Me in this,” when He commands you. Not only that, but He has your ultimate good in mind – that His intention is your good.

The converse is also true. If you cut yourself off from God … if you distance yourself from God … if you isolate yourself from God … then you are cutting yourself off, you're isolating yourself, you're distancing yourself – from Love itself and Goodness itself.

[24:04] 

You were not made for that. I was not made for that. None of us were – from Adam and Eve onwards.

If you love Him, simply say, “I want to do whatever you want me to do,” and open your heart to Him.

Let Him show you. Not, like, God doesn't just issue commands. This is in the context of a love relationship beyond anything … anything … else. Like, there's no human love, even the greatest – what we would think of as the greatest human love – that even compares with this in the context of that love.

And if you think you know what goodness is, the goodness of God is beyond anything else!

You don't experience love, and you don't experience goodness, if you don't live in the intimate relationship with God – God the Father – that Jesus did.

[25:03] 

And I want to remind you that everything that was true of Jesus is meant to be true of you.

You are meant to know His Father like He did, and to live with Him like He did. If you read the words that Jesus spoke to His disciples at that last supper – from which I've taken that verse that I quoted, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” – Jesus’ whole desire, and the prayer that He prayed there in front of His disciples, was that He and they, and the Father, and everyone who would believe as a result of what had happened to these men, everyone – that means you and me – everyonewould be in the same … live in the same … oneness with one another. 

You are meant to to live in oneness with God, and within that oneness it's an absolute joy to be able to say, “God, whatever you ask of me, whatever you command me, I'll do. Because I want to live in love with you. I want to delight your heart.”

[26;10]

That's what you are called to. And I can say that to you, not knowing you, because if every human being on the face of the earth was hearing these words right now, there would not be one exception as to whether or not God wants that with them.

But the wonderful thing about it is God isn't looking at a mass of people. He's looking totally at individuals. 

He knows everyone through and through. He knows you through and through.

He loves you with all that He is, and He simply says, “Love me as I love you and do what I tell you to, because that's the very purpose for which I came.”

[26:54] 

Jesus came to draw you into a oneness with God beyond anything that you can ever know. Please don't ever stop short of that. Because there is nothing to compare with it.