The Greatest Power on Earth

I hope that you’re ready for what’s going to happen on July 16. For on that day the most powerful event ever witnessed by the human race will occur.

On July 16, a spinning chunk of rock the size of lower Manhattan is going smash into the largest planet in our solar system. Over the following six days, more chunks — some as big as 2.5 miles in diameter — will smash into Jupiter, one after another, like a gigantic round of automatic gunfire. These missiles are the remains of a comet that has broken up into 21 pieces, packing more destructive power than all of the hydrogen bombs on earth put together.

This fleet of flying mountains is traveling at a speed of 37 miles per second. They have so much kinetic energy that when they strike the surface of Jupiter, the resulting explosions will defy comprehension.

The largest hydrogen bomb ever exploded on earth was a 58-megaton blast detonated by the Soviet Union back in 1961. That bomb had the power of 58 million tons of TNT.

By comparison, the collision that is going to take place on Jupiter in July will have a force of 20 million megatons. It will be 350,000 times more powerful than the biggest explosion we have ever seen. Astronomers think that when it happens, the planet Jupiter will resonate like a bell. They predict that Jupiter may actually appear to glow with twice its usual brilliance.

There’s something about that kind of power that fascinates us. From the invention of the spear to the discovery of atomic energy, people have had an irresistible attraction to power. We’re like moths drawn to a flame.

Power gives us the ability to exert our will… To control and shape the world around us… To make other people bend to our wishes. Look at what is happening today in places like North Korea, or Bosnia, or Iraq, and you realize what a fatal attraction power can be.

The history books are full of princes and popes and presidents, all of whom, at one time or another, held in their hands for a moment the slippery reins of power. Most of the time, they abused it. It seems to be a sad rule of history that the greater the power held by any one person, the greater the evil that results. Power and people make a volatile mix. The British statesman Lord Acton said “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

But today I want to look with you at a power that does not corrupt. It’s a power that brings blessing instead of bloodshed, mercy instead of misery, healing instead of heartache.

It’s a power so great that it can actually make bad people into good people; and old people into new people. It’s a power that can unlock the human heart.

It’s the power of love. The Bible describes it for us in 1 John 4, beginning at verse 7. There are three things that God tells us about love in this passage.

1. He tells us the source of love - v. 7-8

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

2. He tells us the proof of love - v.9-10

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

3. He tells us the implications of love - v.11-12

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

This passage contains, arguably, the three most important words in the whole Bible: “God is love.” He Himself is the source of love. Love is an essential part of His very nature. He desires good for everyone, not evil. He is interested in our well-being.

But do you really believe that? Look at what’s happening today in Rwanda. International aid workers estimate that in the last month and a half anywhere from 100,000 to 500,000 Rwandans have died. Human corpses are floating down the rivers, and rotting beside the roads. Killing squads go from house to house, slaughtering whole families.

There’s no sanctuary; no place to hide. A church in Kigali was packed with 1,000 terrified people seeking refuge from the slaughter. The killers broke in and butchered every last one of them; over half of them children. A stunned onlooker said “There are no devils left in Hell; they are all in Rwanda.”

How could a God of love allow such a holocaust to take place? How could he stand by and let people do these things to each other? The answer is not easy.

When God created us, he gave us a will. He asked us to follow him, to love him, to have fellowship with him. But he left the decision up to us. He respected the freedom of choice that he himself had given us. He gave us the right to choose for ourselves which way we would go.

God could easily have created us to love him. But then that wouldn’t have been love, would it? We would have been robots, without a mind of our own. Our devotion to him would have been nothing more than the unthinking instinct of an animal. It wouldn’t have been love.

The measure of respect and love that God has for us is that he allows us to make our own choice, even if our choice is to reject him; even if our choice results in pain and suffering and death. And when we go our own way, apart from God, that is precisely the result.

What’s going on in Rwanda right now is happening because people have exercised their option to live life without God - to reject Him and His Word. And God respects their right to do so.

“But,” you ask “Isn’t there something God could do? Isn’t there some way that he could intervene and stop the carnage without violating man’s free will?”

Well, as a matter of fact, God already has intervened. He already has done something to address the situation in Rwanda, and all the other evils in the world. He did it 2,000 years ago, but it is just as relevant today as it was back then. God actually sent His Son here on a special mission.

When God’s Son came here to earth, he came with God’s solution to all the hatred and cruelty and anger that are such a part of our inner nature. He came here to address that. He came to earth with the power of love, and he himself was the personification of love.

There is a power at work in every one of us that drives us away from God. And it also, in the process, drives us away from one another. This dark power that is at work within us simply makes us want to go our own way. It makes us want to put Self at the center of our lives, not God, or anybody else.

And the more we give in to this power, the farther away from God we get. And the more cruel, and controlling, and manipulative in our relationships with other people we become. Because we’re living for Self. And if there’s anything that Self can’t stand, it’s other Selves who get in the way.

Now you might say “Well, the answer is ‘Don’t give in. Don’t give in to this mysterious Self power’”. And you’d be right. Except for one thing: you cannot help but give in to it. As a matter of fact, the Bible says that every one of us is born with a positive inclination to give in to it. It’s like an inner craving that drives us to live for Self.

What I’ve just described is what the Bible calls sin. The Bible says…

“All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way.”

We have followed the Self power. And in the process, we have gotten far from God. That is what sin does to us; it separates us from God.

But 1 John 4:10 says that God “sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (The word “atoning” there means “a covering”.) When Jesus came here to earth 2,000 years ago, he was the proof that God is a loving God.

He came here on a mission - a mission to save us from the Self power. That mission was going to cost him his Self, but he was willing to go through with it because he was operating on the basis of an even greater power than the “Self power”. He was operating on the power of God’s love.

When Jesus died on the cross, he took our sin upon himself. He experienced separation from God. (Remember he cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) Jesus experienced the ultimate consequence of sin - the infinite and eternal loneliness of Selfishness - cut off from God, and cut off from man. And he did that so that we would never have to.

And because he did that, now our sin is covered; now it has been taken care of. Now the way is open for us to have fellowship with God. Now we can experience God’s love for ourselves. Now we can learn to put into practice his principles for living and for getting along with other people. Now we can throw off the tyrrany of “Self power” and tap into the power of God’s love.

And that’s exactly what God wants us to do. Look at verse 11:

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

The implication of God’s love for us is that, having experienced it ourselves, He wants us to share it with others. He wants us to become channels of His love power, so that he can liberate others from the Self power.

Whenever you love someone with the love of God, you are helping them to understand what God is like. “No one has ever seen God”, but if they see you loving them, they’ll have a pretty good idea what he looks like.

There was a young man named Aaron, who lived in Chicago. Aaron had a real heart for the Lord. He was enrolled in a seminary studying for the ministry. One spring, he was praying about what God would have him do for the summer. He wanted to have a significant ministry, so he was hoping that God might lead him to some position on a church staff or a Christian organization.

But nothing happened. There didn’t seem to be any openings. Summer arrived and still nothing. Days turned into weeks and Aaron finally had to face reality. He needed a summer job - any kind of job.

He checked the want ads and the only position available was for city bus drivers in southside Chicago. So he applied with the transit company and he was accepted. It was nothing to brag about, but at least it would help to pay his tuition for the coming year.

After a few days of training and learning the route, Aaron was on his own - a rookie driver in a dangerous section of the city. It wasn’t long before he was to learn just how dangerous.

A gang of tough teenagers spotted the young bus driver and they began to give him a hard time. For several mornings in a row, they got on the bus, walked right past him without paying, ignored his warnings, and rode the bus until they decided to get off. All the while, they made annoying remarks to him and to the other passengers on the bus. Finally, Aaron had had enough.

The next morning, after the punks got on as usual, Aaron spotted a policeman on the next corner. He pulled the bus over and reported the youths to the officer. The cop boarded the bus and ordered the punks to pay the fare or get off the bus. They paid up… but, unfortunately, it was the cop who got off a few stops later. The gang stayed on.

When the bus turned a corner, the gang assaulted Aaron and beat him to a pulp. When he came to, blood was all over his shirt, two teeth were missing, both his eyes were swollen almost shut, his money was gone and the bus was empty. Somehow, he managed to drive the bus back to the terminal, where his supervisor gave him a few days off to recuperate.

Aaron got back to his little apartment, sank onto his bed and stared at the ceiling for a couple of hours. He could hardly believe what had happened. Slowly, his pain and shock gave way to smoldering resentment. He spent a sleepless night wrestling with what had happened.

“How can this be?” he thought. “Where is God in all this? I want to serve Him. I prayed that He would give me a ministry. I was willing to go anywhere, and do anything, and this is where I end up - black and blue with my teeth kicked in.”

The next morning, Aaron decided to press charges against the gang members. With the help of the police officer who had helped him out on the bus, and several of the bus passengers who had witnessed the assault, the punks were rounded up and taken to the county holding center. Within a few days, there was a hearing before the judge.

Into the courtroom walked Aaron and his attorney. The sullen teenagers glared across the room at him. Now they were finally going to get what was coming to them.

But suddenly, at that moment, when he should have been savoring the sweet taste of revenge, Aaron started to see things in a different light. Instead of bitterness and vindictiveness, he found himself feeling compassion toward those mixed up young kids. His heart went out to them. Under the Spirit’s control, he found that he no longer hated them. He pitied them. They needed help, not more hate. But it was a little late to do anything about it at this point. Or was it?

After the gang members had pleaded guilty to the charges, suddenly Aaron got to his feet. To the surprise of his lawyer and everyone else in the courtroom, he asked the judge for permission to speak.

“Your honor,” he said “I would like you to total up all the days of punishment against these men - all the time sentenced against them - and I request that you allow me to go to jail in their place.”

Well, the judge was speechless. Both attorneys were stunned. Aaron looked over at the gang members, whose mouths were hanging open and whose eyes were as wide as saucers, and he said “I forgive you guys.”

When the judge had recovered his composure, he pounded his gavel and said firmly, “You’re out of order, young man. The sort of thing that you are proposing has never been done before.”

To which Aaron replied with deep insight, “Oh yes it has, your honor. Yes it has. It happened almost 2,000 years ago when a man from Galilee paid the penalty that all of us deserved.” And then, for the next couple of minutes, Aaron explained to the court how Jesus Christ had died on our behalf to prove God’s love and forgiveness.

Well, the judge did not grant Aaron’s unusual request, but over the next few months, Aaron visited those gang members in jail and had the privilege of leading most of them to Christ. And his impact on them and their families led him to begin a significant ministry on the streets of southside Chicago.

The only way that that ministry could open up was for a guy like Aaron to go through a good deal of pain and suffering at the hands of that gang, and to respond to it with love. The power of love was the key that unlocked the door of their hearts.

I would like you to consider this morning that there is probably some person in your life that you are having particular trouble loving. It may be a relative, it may be a neighbor, or a work associate. I would like you to consider three things about that person:

1. It is no accident that that person is in your life. God brought that person to you for a reason. Nothing happens “by accident” in the life of a Christian. God always has a purpose.

2. The only way that you’ll ever be able to love that person is if God does it through you. You might as well admit defeat - you’ll never be able to love that person in your own power. You’ve already proved that. Only God can love that person through you.

So you’ve got to decide if you want to let God do that. You’ve got to decide if you want to be a channel for his love. And let me tell you right up front, it’ll cost you. Love is expensive. Look at what it cost Jesus. Look at what it cost Aaron. But no pain; no gain.

3. Your loving that person, no matter what it costs you, and no matter what they do to you, will be the key to unlock the door of their heart so that Jesus Christ can walk in.

That’s the power of love. There are people out there who are hurting so bad, and who are so locked up in the prison of Self that only a pure, strong, concentrated dose of God’s love will ever save them.

So how about it? Are you willing for God to use you?

Give me a church where folks in the lurch

Are encouraged and helped from above

Where never is heard a discouraging word

And the truth is modeled in love.