Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: When people see Christ in us, you know what they know? That's a real Christ follower.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the Senior Pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in Biblical Studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled, Read the Red. Let's listen as JP gives us part two of Luke 6:17-49.

JP Jones: So in the world it's, I will help you and I'll even serve you, and I'll even give you some money. But I want a return on my investment.

So I want to give you money and see that you've taken that and you've bettered your life, you've gotten a job, and now you're self-sustaining. But if you just take that and squander it, forget it. I'm not giving you anymore.

See, if I, if I serve you in love, then I want to see some redemption out of that. I want to see how my effort produced a positive change. And if I don't see that, you're not getting anymore. I'm cutting you off.

You see it's based on that return of investment idea, based on a self-interest idea. It's still based on this paradigm that you love those who love you back. And if you don't love them back, then I'm cutting off the love.

Now, Jesus isn't saying that's wrong. What he's saying is, the love I call you to is a total different kind of love. In fact, it's the kind of love where you love your enemies. And if they slap you in one cheek, you give them the other cheek.

And if they ask you to go to a mile, you go another mile because it's not based on self-interest, it's based on selfless love. Sacrifice love, extending yourself love.

In the world's value system, the worst thing that could happen is that you express love and it's wasted because it doesn't return on its investment. I gave some guy, I think I gave a guy some money, and you know what? He didn't buy food. He went and bought some booze. I hate that. I'm never going to give anybody anymore money again.

See? Because that's the worst thing is, you express love and you don't get a return on investment.

In Jesus's value system, you know what the worst thing is? To not express love. See the difference? Jesus calls us. He doesn't say, "You've got to love like this in order to become one of my followers." Well, if that's the case, he wouldn't have any followers because none of us can love that way.

So the beauty of the teaching of Jesus is that at the one time it presents us the standard, the high standard of being one of his followers. It presents to us the calling of how Christ changes our life, but it also exposes to us how we fall short, that we can't measure up, that we are sinners.

So it drives us to the cross of Christ to ask for his forgiveness, the grace of Christ to change us. So it's both the standard of God and the gospel of God at the same time. You see.

But Jesus saying to his disciples, as the crowd is listening in, it's a counter-cultural Christianity. Not just love those who love you, but even love your enemies. Don't let the world tell you who's worthy of love.

Here's a third observation as you continue reading, verse 37. Do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you'll be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, it'll be poured out into your lap for with the measure you use, it'll be measured back to you.

And he also told him this parable, can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into the pit? A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who's fully trained will be like his teacher. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

How can you say to your brother, "Brother, let me take that speck out of your eye," when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye and then you'll see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

So here's the third principle: counter-cultural Christianity. Don't follow the world's pattern for relationships. Don't follow the world's pattern for relationships. You know, the world has a pattern for relationships.

Say, "Really?" Yeah, I mean they're not that many bookstores anymore. They're mostly going online, but if you go like to Barnes & Noble bookstore, go to the relationship section. Like just one or two books and that, no. They've got rows upon rows on books about relationships. How to have better relationships, how to have self-actualized relationships, how to have intimate relationships, how to have joy-filled relationships, Chicken Soup for the Relationship Soul. They got all kinds of stuff on relationships.

There's plenty of principles and teaching about relationships. So the world is presenting to us all these different truths about relationships. Jesus in this passage says, don't judge, don't condemn, forgive, give, and take care of your own issues before you try to correct someone else's.

Five things: Don't judge, don't condemn, forgive, give, take care of your own issues before you try to correct someone else's. I think if we just practice those five things, we wouldn't need all those other books.

The world operates and this is what Jesus is really contrasting in this whole sermon, the world's approach versus his approach, and what it means to be one of his followers in living this out. The world operates on the principle of entitlement in relationships.

Whether it's a spouse to a spouse, a parent to a child, an employer to an employee, a neighbor to a neighbor, a friend to a friend, it's all on the principle of entitlement. What I deserve, what how I ought to be treated, how you ought to speak to me, how you ought to respond to me, how you ought to think about me, it's all about entitlement.

Think about this. I mean, seriously. When you've gotten really upset with somebody, someone's really bugged you, whether it's a spouse, a child, a neighbor, someone at work. More often than not, the reason they really bugged you was they didn't, they didn't treat you the way you think you should have been treated.

They didn't talk to you the way you think you should. They, they didn't drive in front of you the way they should have been driving in front of you. Because it's all based on entitlement. You see?

And this, and this can be like so insidious. It can be not only not only do you are you supposed to speak to me the way you should speak to me, and treat me the way you should treat me. You need to think about me the way you should think about me. Because I'm a great guy and you should think I'm a great guy. And I'm bugged if you don't think I'm a great guy.

Because I am a great guy. How come you don't think I'm a great guy? What's wrong with you? You can't believe this guy. He didn't think I'm a great guy. It's like and it all makes sense in our minds because it's based on entitlement. You see?

But the way of Jesus, the principle of relationships as followers of Christ is not based on entitlement. The principle of relationships as followers of Jesus Christ, it's based on self-sacrificing love for the other person.

Self-sacrificing love for the other person. I put your interests before my own. I don't just look out for my interest, I look out for the interests of others. I follow in the steps of my Master, Jesus Christ. According to Philippians 2 where it says, "Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the form of God, he didn't regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. He emptied himself. He took on the form of a bondservant. He humbled himself even to the point of death, death on a cross."

That's how Jesus treated us. And we're his followers, you see? So it's not based on entitlement, it's based on self-sacrificing love.

And Jesus is contrasting that here in this sermon. And so he's saying, don't let the world's pattern for relationships. Don't buy into that, don't follow that. And here's what we do. Here's the here's the tricky part for us as disciples of Christ, those of us who know Christ and love Christ and are wanting to walk in the steps of Christ. Here's the tricky part.

Because what we do is we take these commands and these principles that Jesus is giving: don't judge, don't condemn, give, and don't try to take care of somebody else's issues, take care of your first issues first. We, we take that and we try to follow that. Only we're still holding to the world's principle, which is entitlement.

So we're really operating out of the entitlement approach, but we're just trying to take the way of Jesus as a formula and we superimpose on it. So what we're really doing is we're trying to manipulate people to treat us the way we want them to treat us. And the tool of manipulation is trying to act like Christ.

But what we really want is the respect, the encouragement, the affirmation. We want them to treat us the way we're entitled to be treated. You see? And here is how we know or how I know for myself and how you can know for yourself that's what you're doing.

You try doing that and they don't treat you the way you want them to treat you and you go, "I tried that Christian stuff. It didn't work." You know, following Christ didn't work. Christian life didn't work. Why? Because I can't get people to act towards me the way I want them to act towards me. See, we're still buying into the world's value system.

Do you see what I'm saying? Because the world's value system is about getting people to treat you the way you think you ought to be treated, entitlement. But when people don't treat you that way, and you're acting like a Christian towards them and they don't treat you that way and you go, "This Christianity doesn't work," it shows you don't understand Christianity.

Because you're not loving somebody to get them to love you back. You're loving somebody because as a follower of Christ, you love them. That's counter-cultural. That's what this whole thing is. It's counter-cultural Christianity. And Jesus isn't saying you got to be this way before you can become a Christian.

No, he's saying, you come a Christian by grace through faith. You humble yourself, you call on Jesus to save you. But being a saved person and being transformed changes everything about you and as people who are on the team, this is what it looks like to be on the team.

You love a different way than the world loves. You do relationships a different way than the world does relationships. You understand the good life in a different way than the world defines the good life.

Jesus is teaching self-sacrificing love in our relationships. It's counter-cultural. And there's one more thing Jesus says in this sermon. Verse 43. "No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn bushes or grapes from briars. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil things stored up in his heart, for out of the overflow of the heart his mouth speaks."

"So why do you call me Lord, Lord and don't do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He's like a man building a house, dug down deep, laid the foundation on a rock, and when a flood came, the torrent struck that house, but it could not shake it because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."

Fourth observation about counter-cultural Christianity: Don't embrace the world's standard for discipleship. The world's standard for discipleship. A disciple is a follower of Jesus Christ, someone who's come into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Discipleship is the process of following after Jesus as a disciple.

And Jesus is saying, there's a world definition of what it means to follow after me as a disciple, and then there's my definition of what it means to follow after me as a disciple. The world's definition of following after me as a disciple is just saying, Lord, Lord. I'm a Christian. Oh, okay. I guess it must be true because you said you were, so that's all that matters. You said you were so that's all that matters.

This this may be a surprise to you. But if you're a student of the gospels, the teaching of Jesus and of the Bible in general, it shouldn't be. There are people who say they're Christians, but they're not. There are people who say, "Lord, Lord," but don't back it up.

Now sometimes they're just deceivers, they're posers. And sometimes they're just ignorant of what it really means to be a disciple. So Jesus is telling us. Remember, because he's speaking to his disciples. So he's saying, "Don't be one of these guys who just talks a good game, but there's no life transformation." And he's as he's speaking to them, the crowd is listening in.

And so in effect he's saying to them too, "And for those of you who are seekers, those of you are interested, those of you who are questioners, I want you to know that coming into a relationship with me isn't just a one-time decision. It's a decision that transforms your life for the rest of your life."

And so discipleship is not about just what you say. Discipleship is about how you live. And Jesus gives two illustrations to teach that discipleship is about how we live. And the first one has to do with fruit.

And he says, you you know a tree by its fruit. Bad tree can't produce good fruit. Good tree doesn't produce bad fruit. Out of the heart comes out the reality of what's in the heart. Some people have good hearts, some people have bad hearts.

When we come to know Jesus Christ, he gives us a new heart. And what Jesus says, out of that new heart will come new fruit. Do you know you could plant a tree in your yard? I've actually done this, this is the truth. We planted a bunch of trees when we first moved into our home and I I know we got certain trees. But I I was looking at some of our trees, I didn't know which one was which. What kind of tree is that? I don't know.

I didn't know enough about trees just by looking at it that what kind of tree it is. But you know, several months go by and all of a sudden the blooms come out on it and then there's apples hanging on it. And with genius observation, I said, "Ah, it's an apple tree."

Now, this is a simple issue. Why did I know it was an apple tree? It had apples hanging on it. You know what Jesus is saying to his disciples? You know how everybody are going to know that you're really Christians? You're really my disciples? By you saying, "Lord, Lord?" No. By your fruit.

And what is fruit? It's the outward expression of the inner nature. The inner nature of an apple tree is apple. So what comes out? Apples. The inner nature of a Christ-follower is Jesus Christ because being a Christian is having Christ in us. We have new hearts, Christ in our heart. So what is fruit? Anything that demonstrates Christ. Our words, our actions, our service that demonstrates Christ.

And when people see Christ in us, you know what they know? That's a real Christ-follower. If all they hear is, "Lord, Lord," they don't know. We don't know. God knows.

And then now Jesus gives another illustration. He talks about building a house on two different kinds of foundation. One foundation is the rock so that when the house is built on it, when the when the storms come, the house stands strong. The other is the sand, the house built on it, when the storms come, it gets washed away.

Jesus says, those who hear my words and put them into practice, they do what I say. They're like the person whose house is built on the rock. Those people who hear my words and don't do what I say, they're like people who build their house on sand.

So hearing the words of Jesus and putting them into practice, that's the person who's a real disciple. That's that's living out discipleship. Jesus in this sermon says, don't let the don't let the world define for you what it means to be a disciple. So your following of Jesus is just, "Lord, Lord."

No, let me define that for you as your Lord so that I produce fruit in your life, that I'm living in you and you're following me in obedience and I'm living through you so that there's my fruit evidenced coming out of a good heart. And you've built your life not on the foundation of shifting sand, but on the solid rock of obeying my word.

So when the storms come, and they will come, your life is solid because you're one of my disciples. And it's proven by your obedience to my commands. Going back to my first story about even understanding this sermon. Jesus isn't giving the entrance requirements.

It's a counter-cultural teaching of the kingdom, what it means to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Just like the coach giving that team meeting at the very beginning of football season, he's not saying to the parents and the players, "These are all the things you have to do in order to be on the football team." No, "This is what it looks like being on the team. Just come out and you're on the team. But coming out, I want you to know what it's going to look like for you. I'm laying it all out for you."

You know, I could, I could tell you, as I have, stories of my high school football career. Do you know what? In reality, I could be making them all up. I I could be a person who never even played high school football. I wasn't even on the team. I didn't even play. I'm just making up stories. I'm giving you stories.

But if you were able to go back in time, a long, long time ago. And you saw me practicing, and you saw me suiting up in the games, then you'd know I was on the team. Are you just a person who tells stories or are you suiting up? Are you practicing? Are you living it out?

Do people, your neighbors, your friends, your co-workers, other people in this church, they just hear you saying, "Lord, Lord?" Or is the fruit of Jesus Christ in your life because you're a follower? You're a disciple and you're letting Jesus define for you what it means to experience discipleship.

Jesus in this sermon has given us counter-cultural Christianity. And whether we are his disciples or we're part of the crowd looking in, he lays it out for us. And it's not like what the world says. He's at the center and he's the one who calls us to live and step with him as his followers.

Guest (Male): What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just $5. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250.

For your gift of $25 or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, Facing Goliath. Please join us every Sunday at 9 or 11:00 a.m. at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California, 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com.

We're going to get to the address and phone number again in a moment, but before we do that, Pastor JP, do you have any insight from today's message?

JP Jones: Thanks, Greg. We're in a series called Read the Red. We're talking about what does it mean to follow Jesus and what are the actual teachings of Jesus? Because all throughout the gospel, Jesus, the greatest teacher who ever lived, gives us these great discourses of truth, these great teaching moments.

And so we're examining what the teachings of Jesus actually are. And we're in Luke chapter 6. We're looking at what is the condensed version of the sermon on the mount, where Jesus talks about how to live a blessed life. Jesus talks about the primacy of his Lordship in our life. Jesus talks about what it means to love others from the heart.

Jesus talks about what it means to live free from hypocrisy and free from a judgmental spirit, and really living as a servant of the kingdom and as a disciple of the kingdom. You know, the teachings of Jesus are counter-cultural. What Jesus calls us to is different than what we will learn from the world and radically different even from what we will learn from churchianity.

Jesus calls us to be his followers. To be a disciple of Jesus means that we come to Jesus for salvation, which is only by grace through faith. We call on Jesus Christ as the one who died for our sins and rose again from the dead. But it also means that having called upon Jesus, we follow in his steps. We follow him as the Lord of our lives.

And the way we understand ourselves and we understand people, and the way we understand discipleship is from Jesus's standpoint. We don't judge people according to the flesh and we don't approach God according to man-made rules. Instead, we allow the love of God to be genuine in our hearts, we freely express it to everyone, even our enemies. And we follow Jesus in absolute surrender and obedience.

In fact, Jesus said this, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?" You see, Jesus is looking for followers who will do what he says. To be a kingdom disciple is to follow Jesus in obedience and that is always an obedience born out of love and born out of grace, but it is an obedience that's genuine to our master, who is Jesus Christ.

Today, Jesus is looking for followers. He's calling us to live in discipleship with him. He's calling us to put his word into practice. And Luke chapter 6 is really a chapter that calls us to counter-cultural Christianity, to living uniquely as followers of Jesus Christ. Will you accept his call?

If that's your desire, I invite you to pray with me right now. Jesus, you're the Lord and we want to follow your Lordship. We want to live daily in obedience to you, allowing you to genuinely transform our lives and out of our heart produce your love and out of our heart produce an authentic relationship with God. Jesus Christ, you are the Lord of life and we want to follow you into your life. In Jesus name. Amen.

Guest (Male): We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you will find us at crosslinechurch.com.

We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.