Westtown Church
Westtown Church
Love Hopes All Things
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One of the important aspects of a faith that powerfully loves others is hope. Spiritual vision of God's glorious future promised to His people is what ensures we treat others in a way that refuses to let their sins and failures have the last word. We see in the Cross of Christ it is God’s saving love, not our sin, that got the last word.
Introduction to Love's Hope
Speaker 1I invite you to open to 1 Corinthians 13 . This morning we're going to go to verse 7 , and we're going to give special attention this morning to love , hopes , all things , love , hopes , all things , love , hopes , all things . It was the prophet Isaiah , and we also hear Jesus speaking , echoing Isaiah when he spoke about those who keep on hearing but do not understand , keep on seeing but do not perceive . There are some who keep on seeing but they do not perceive . I want to illustrate what I mean . Church historian Dr Stephen Nichols . He tells a story of Henry Wonyowik and one day , in May of 1995 , that day changed the life of Henry Wonyowik forever . Henry was a 21-year-old Kenyan . Henry dreamed of becoming a great distance runner and he longed in that to be a national hero to represent his country . He had a 5k time of 13 minutes 50 seconds . That was less than 10 seconds away from the 2012 Olympic gold medal time .
Speaker 1Now , if you're not a distance runner , distance runners often peak later in life , different from many other athletes . Oftentimes it's in their late 20s , 30s , sometimes even in their 40s . Henry Wonyowicz's future looked very , very bright , looked bright as a great distance runner , until one day Henry had a stroke . And when he had that stroke . He lost his sight . He drifted for several years in depression . He was disillusioned by it all . He was a lost soul . He went to a school built for the blind there in Kenya and the administrator of that school he knew of Henry's past running talent and he took note of his present flailing state . And that administrator said to Henry I think you should take up running again . Well , within a few years Henry had set a world record in the Paralympics and in the World Championships in the 5K and also in the 10K run . In 2005 , he had two amazing marathon races , first running 26.2 miles through the streets of London in two hours 31 minutes and 31 seconds , and then , just seven days later in Hamburg , germany , he broke his own record . Since that time , henry Wanyowik has held political office , he's established a foundation for the disabled in his country of Kenya and he's also gone around helping many marginalized people find a place where they can contribute and have a sense of dignity in spite of their challenges .
Speaker 1Runner's World magazine featured the life story of Henry , calling him a blind man , calling this blind man a visionary Kind of interesting , isn't it ? When he first started running after a stroke , he stumbled and he fell a lot and he did that even when he had guides to help him , and Henry will tell you that he was filled with a lot of fear . It was scary being blind . He was afraid , but Henry learned . There's actually something better than sight .
Speaker 1Henry eventually came to realize something vital in life , vital for everybody actually that vision is more powerful than sight . Vision is more powerful than sight and that's one of the key things that God is teaching us and our Lord is teaching us here in 1 Corinthians 13 this morning Love hopes all things . See . Love has a spiritual vision of the future that fuels love . It enables love in ways the world doesn't understand , to truly love God and others and love them . Well , we have to be filled with hope , a hope that God gives His people as we have faith in Jesus Christ . It's a faith-fueled hope and also a hope-fueled faith and the hope that has filled the hearts of God's people throughout the ages . That hope that fills our hearts . It relies not on physical sight , but it relies on spiritual vision that's granted as a gift of God's grace Through faith in Christ , by the power of the Holy Spirit . This is a distinctive Christian hope . It's not just hope as a vague concept . This is a distinctive Christian hope that Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 13 .
Speaker 1You may remember that when we pulled off the side of the road many , many months ago on this , what I call the scenic overlook . It's a place in the Bible you need to slow down and take it all in . It's called the love chapter here in 1 Corinthians 13 .
Henry Wonyowik: A Blind Visionary
Speaker 1I pointed out then , and several times since , that in verses 4-7 , what we have here . Really it's not as obvious in our English Bibles , but scholars tell us there's 15 verbs to describe love here .
Speaker 1Love towards other people , and it's especially applied by the Apostle Paul . Love towards other people in God's church , our fellow brothers and sisters . He's talking about the kind of love that ought to characterize the church of Jesus Christ and that people should be able to experience and see at work amongst God's people . There was a failure of that in the Corinthian church and Paul was trying to address that back in the day . But love hopes all things , and so this brings us to the 14th of the 15 verbs that we have in these few verses , and the main idea I want to drive home today that everything else is going to relate to is that hope ensures we treat others by faith , in a way that refuses to let their sins and failures have the last word .
Speaker 1Love hopes . There's a hope in true love that sees a future in someone by the grace of God and therefore refuses to shut the door on that person and what God can do through them . It doesn't just fixate on their present sins and failures but sees them by faith that refuses to let their present failures have the last word . Where do we see this so clearly ? We see it in the cross of Jesus Christ . It's there on the cross where Jesus died , where God preaches to all of us I'm refusing to let your sins get the last word . And that's to inform our heart and mindset , as we have relationships with other people . Sometimes , when people hurt us , we say that's it , your sin has now gotten the last word . I'm done with you . Aren't you glad God isn't done with us ? And so this is the love of God , and this is what God is growing us up into be in Christ .
Speaker 1And so , with that brief introduction , I'd like to , if you're able , invite you to stand to hear God's word from 1 Corinthians 13 . I'm not going to read all of it . I'm going to read the beginning part . I do want to remind you . This is the infallible , inerrant , holy and inspired word of the living God . He sends it to us in love . Let's receive it by faith and with expectation in our hearts .
Speaker 1First one if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love , I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal . And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge , and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love , I am nothing . If I give away all I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love , I gain nothing . Love is patient and kind . Love does not envy or boast . It is not arrogant or rude . It does not insist on its own way . It is not irritable or resentful . It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth . Love bears all things , believes all things , hopes all things , endures all things . Love never ends . The grass withers and the flowers fade , but the word of the Lord endures forever . God's people said amen , you may be seated . Thank you , father . We come to your word . Without your Holy Spirit taking this word and transforming our hearts , it will fall on deaf ears . So give us eyes to see and ears to hear , in Jesus' name , amen . Love hopes all things . Some translators , like in the NIV , say , love always hopes , or the New Living Translation , love is always hopeful .
Speaker 1And we have to remember that this is particularly referring to our relationships in God's church . It's not that it doesn't relate to others , but Paul , in this immediate context , is trying to get the church to be who the church is called to be , who God is making us to be and has saved us to be . And as we work on our relationships within God's church , that is to become a model of how we are
Vision More Powerful Than Sight
Speaker 1to take our relational lessons out into the world , lessons taught to us by the grace of God . We want to remember the apostlele Paul . He's writing from Ephesus back to Corinth , this first letter to the Corinthians . It's around 55 AD , I think , is the best estimate based on the book of Acts and some dates that we can pin down and fill in the blanks Around 55 AD . So what does that mean ? This is about 20 to 25 years roughly after the death of Christ , but he's writing this letter to the Christians in Corinth to remind this proud church .
Speaker 1Corinth had a problem with pride , and he's writing these things to this proud church as a first importance , the first importance of love in the Christian life . In fact , he's trying to remind them that love is more important than any particular spiritual gift that you have . Love is the supreme thing in the Christian life , in the Christian life . And so we see back in the first three verses of this same chapter , 1 Corinthians 13, . It reminds us there that exercising spiritual gifts as I just read to you even if you become a martyr for Christ , you give your body to be burned for Christ . If it's not motivated by love , if it's not done in love , paul says we are nothing and we gain nothing . And that's coming from a man who suffered greatly for the gospel . And so love is crucial . Love is crucial within the Christian life . Jesus says if you love me , you will keep my commandments . And how did he summarize all of the commandments ? To love God with all your heart , mind , soul and strength , and to love your neighbor as yourself . He even called us to love our enemies . And so love is critical in the Christian life .
Speaker 1So how does our hope ? How does this Christian hope , this distinctive Christian hope Paul's talking about here , that only comes through faith in Christ . How does this hope that God fills His people with , help us in relating to other people and making us better lovers to other people , better loving our brothers and sisters in Christ and , by extension , others outside the walls of the church ? Well , the short answer is it fills us with this spiritual vision . We need spiritual vision of God's future if we're going to love other people . Well , we don't need to know just what God has done for us at the cross 2,000 years ago in Christ . Yes , we need to know that , amen . But to love even more fully , we have to know what God has in store in the future for us . And so Leon Morris he puts it this way that hope fuels our ability to love others because it refuses to take failure as final . I wonder if there's anybody in our life this morning that their failure of us has become final , and so we've just shut the relationship down .
Speaker 1Thank God that the Scripture says Jesus is not only the founder of our faith , but also , what , the perfecter of it . He loves us in the beginning , when he brings us to faith , and he loves us all the way through as he perfects our faith , even with our many stumbles along the way . God is good , isn't he ? Paul puts it this way he who began a good work in you will bring it down to completion at the day of Christ Jesus . We serve a God of grace who refuses to let our failures within the Christian life be the final word , and we need to reflect that gracious , hope-filled faith to other people in our relationships with them . Leon Morris calls it that forward look . You see , the love of God has a forward look . We must extend this love to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and then take that model that we learn in God's house to our workplaces , to our neighborhoods , to our families .
Speaker 1It's not a naive optimism . Some people think of hope as a naive optimism . Oh , I'll wish upon a star or something like that . Hope does not put what you might say lipstick on a pig . It doesn't pretend problems don't exist . Christian hope does not do that . God does not do that . He's not a pretender , he's true and genuine . God faces reality , so we as Christians face one . God faces reality , so we as Christians face reality , the reality of sin . And yet we refuse to take the failure and sin of others as final . We can see it , we can acknowledge it , but that's not the last word . God is not asking us not to see it . He's asking us , in the face of it , to not let it have the last word In our pain , in our disappointment
Hope Refuses to Let Failures Define
Speaker 1, when our emotions are running high , when we're feeling things deeply because we've been sinned against or we're disappointed with someone .
Speaker 1Why does CJ Doss and his group take the love of God in the gospel into the prisons ? Why do we , as the Christian church , take the gospel to the homeless ? Why do we take it to those who've made a wreck of their lives ? We do it on this very principle . We're refusing to let sin and failure be final , to have the final word with them . We have no right to give the final word to anybody . That's God's job . God calls us as his people to extend the nature of that saving love by which he saved us to other people . God alone is the judge of all the earth . He alone has the right to declare something final , not us . There's a judgment coming and he is the judge . We are no one's judge on this side of glory and we have no right to mark anyone into the hopeless category , though tempted we may be .
Speaker 1Why do we take the gospel into Westchase . Westchase is where sin has more style . It's got more style , but you see , there's a blindness because of worldly success . Oh , the gospel and the Bible , that's for people that really need help . But I've succeeded . Just look at my house and my car and all these things , the job I have . I get praise from my co-workers .
Speaker 1You see , one thing Tim Keller used to say is we not only need to be saved from our sin , but we need to be saved from our good works . We need to be saved not just from our failures but from our success . You see , the Corinthians were proud and Paul was addressing pride in Corinth . And so we're all going to stand and give a judgment and whether we're coming from the gutter or we're coming from Westchase or somewhere in between , we're all going to stand and give an account to Almighty God . We all need the saving love and grace of God . Amen , we need that . There's nothing wrong with wealth . There are many wealthy godly believers Abraham , joseph of Arimathea , I could tell you others , yes , but look at the human author . God inspired all the Bible , including 1 Corinthians , but he inspired 1 Corinthians through the personality of the Apostle Paul .
Speaker 1And who was the Apostle Paul ? Well , you go back and read the book of Acts and you see , there , in chapters 7 and 8 of the book of Acts , we stumble upon this man named Saul . And who is Saul ? Well , the very first martyr in the Christian church was a man named Stephen . He was a deacon and he was also a great evangelist . And if you read chapter 7 and 8 of the book of Acts , you will find there that some of you probably played baseball , and I wouldn't want to throw a pitch in this right here . It would be confining . And so when they were stoning Stephen , before they stoned him , they took off their outer garments so they could get a better pitch with the stones . And who did they fold those garments up and lay it ? Whose feet did they lay him at ? Saul's ? He was the leader Proud of his boys , taking care of these Christians like Stephen . And they stoned Stephen to death . Saul was their leader . He was the lead persecutor of God's people in the early church . Would we have written him off ? Here's a man who had the blood of Christians on his hands .
Speaker 1Now listen to Paul's own testimony later in his life . First , timothy 1, . I thank him who has given me strength , christ Jesus , our Lord , because he judged me faithful , appointing me to his service , though formerly I was a blasphemer , appointing me to his service though formally I was a blasphemer , persecutor and insolent opponent and by insolent I mean a nasty , arrogant opponent of Christ and the gospel and the church . But Paul says I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly and unbelief , and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus . The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners , of whom I am the foremost ,
Paul's Transformation from Persecutor
Speaker 1but I received mercy for this reason .
Speaker 1Now listen , he's going to tell us us why would God do something like that ? That in me , as the foremost of sinners , jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life . God was patient with Saul , even while he was a persecutor and had blood on his hands against Christ's own people . But he's also patient with us as well , not only as we come to Christ , leading up to our coming to Christ , but also after we come to Christ . This is a beautiful thing . Then he says to the king of the ages immortal , invisible , the only God . Be honor and glory forever and ever . Amen .
Speaker 1Paul just relishes this about the love of God . How patient God is with sinners and saints alike , would we have said if we were Christians at that time . Oh , there's hope for him . I wonder if there's somebody in our lives today that their sin and their failure has become final in our mind and our heart . Have we taken the place of God and given them the final judgment when we have no right to do that ? We can make no sense of Paul's life and his conversion . If we do that , we believe in a sovereign God of grace . He saved even the foremost of sinners .
Speaker 1Paul says we see something similar in the life of John Newton the old Englishman . It was Newton who wrote the most famous hymn of all time in the English-speaking world , which is Amazing Grace . Right , amazing Grace . Even unbelievers like to sing it , which is a marvel . But Newton wrote that hymn in 1772 . So that gives you a framework .
Speaker 1At that time he had a loving wife , a thriving ministry as an Anglican priest and he also had , by all accounts , what some have said pleasant surroundings . Things were going well for him . But 25 years prior to that , newton's life was a wreck . It was an absolute wreck . He had a hard childhood . He would go out sailing as a boy with his father after his mother died , shortly before John's seventh birthday and it's said by John's own testimony he learned how to cuss like a sailor .
Speaker 1John had a rebellious spirit toward authority . And this rebellious spirit toward authority when he was in the Royal Navy it reared its ugly head . Rebellious spirit toward authority when he was in the Royal Navy it reared its ugly head . After trying to desert the Navy ship he was on . He was caught . He was put in irons . He was brought back onto the ship . He was whipped with cat-o'-nine-tails . You know what that is right . That's a whip that doesn't have just one piece , it has multiple pieces , more like a rake of whips . So when it hit his back it's not just one stroke , it's like five , six , seven , eight strokes at once Tore his back to smithereens . No doubt he was demoted . He was deeply humiliated and he wanted to murder the captain of that ship who put him through that . He was swapped for sailors from a ship bound for West Africa that was going there to pick up more slaves .
Speaker 1Newton was unjustly accused of stealing in Africa . It was actually a false accusation from a fellow Englishman , and so he was put in chains on the man's boat . He was treated like a slave himself , and that went on for 15 months . John Newton had become very bitter and he became vile , even more vile than he was . In 1748 , a violent storm raged for four days . Newton was at sea on that ship . Men went overboard , animals went overboard , provisions were swept overboard . Newton survived , but as the old saying goes , death has a way of wonderfully focusing the mind , and his conscience was pricked as he began to realize I'm going to give an account to God .
Speaker 1And he was burdened with all that he'd done over the years and he began to see himself as the prodigal son in Luke , chapter 15 . He got a little bit more religious at that time . But then he went on to sail as a first mate of another slave ship and he fell back into his old sinful ways . So he had a little bit of a religious experience , but it really wasn't a transforming thing . He didn't come to know the Lord , although he was scared for a little while . Then he got malaria on ship and it reflected once again on his life . And on an island off the west coast of Africa where he was to collect more slaves . He finally , there , cast himself onto the Lord . Sometimes God takes us through this time of preparation and then he brings us home . I can see that in my own life he began . What was the difference ? This time he came to really understand the meaning of the death of Christ and the love of God , that when Jesus died , he died for John Newton's sins and in that death he saw the love of God for himself . This is something that baptism is to remind us of . He struggled with his assurance of salvation for five years . You know , there are many Christians who are sincere , true Christians , but they continue to doubt if God really does love them in an everlasting way . But another ship captain was used by God to encourage John Newton . So here's what John Newton wrote Listen , I began to understand and to expect to be preserved .
Speaker 1Do you see that ? I began to understand and to expect to be preserved by God , not so much to persevere , yes , but to be preserved by God . What did he come to realize ? Christianity is not a second chance . Christianity is security in the everlasting love of God . If Christianity was only a second chance , all of us would be in big trouble , because we need a third and a fourth and a fifth , and a sixth , and a seventh and an eighth , and we don't have enough time for me to count high enough . This morning I began to understand and to expect to be preserved .
Speaker 1Newton says not by my own power and holiness . You hear this . This is what changed him . This is where he began to get his assurance . I began to see it's . I'm not going to be preserved by my own power and holiness , but by the mighty power and promise of God , through faith in an unchangeable Savior . The same God who saved you will bring you home , dear Christian . He's going to complete what he began . It would be four more years . So now we're nine years after the conversion of Newton . It would take four more years for him to begin to understand how the Christian faith began to apply to all of his life , not just to his own personal soul . And so how do we know that ?
Speaker 1Well , he continued in the slave trade for four more years , but eventually he saw it
John Newton's Journey to Amazing Grace
Speaker 1with deep disgust and moral outrage . Newton would later comment custom , example and commercial interest had blinded my eyes . There it is , everyone around me is doing it and the money's pretty good . Those two things helped keep him blind . He went on to work decades to abolish the slave trade from there , and he would work with a man named William Wilberforce there's a movie out there for you to see about it . I commend it to you and it was abolished just a few months before his death in 1807 .
Speaker 1Abolished in England , that is . He had served as a reformed Anglican priest for 23 years . He published 280 hymns . He opened up his home with unending hospitality to other people , and shortly before his death , here's what he said . Listen , my memory is nearly gone , but I remember two things that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior . Do you know that this morning Could you be somebody that's sitting in God's house that actually thinks that your sin is too great for the love and mercy and power of God ? No way . Your sin may be great , but Christ is greater , and you need to remember that , not just when you come to Christ , but throughout the entire Christian life .
Speaker 1What made the difference in Newton's life ? He went from being a vile and rebellious , cruel slave trader to a man who now loved God through faith in Christ , because he came to understand that God first loved him and that God would keep him . And now Newton loved slaves and now he loved his fellow Christians in the church , because he not only had faith in Christ , but he was filled with the hope that the God of love gives him about his own future . His future was secured . It gave him that peace and fueled his ability to love other people , despite as many sins and failures . You see , he had more than physical sight Now he had spiritual vision . That's what we need to be great lovers , we have to have the spiritual vision that's given by the grace and the Holy Spirit of God and we only get that when we have faith in Christ and we come to read about his promises in the word to us , our security in Christ .
Speaker 1Newton came to have this spiritual vision and understand that he had hope because his salvation , not only his justification when God made him right with him , but his sanctification , that is , his growth practically in Christ and his glorification , what God will do to all of his saints when he brings us home to glory . It was not based on his own merit . It was not based on his own power , even his own holiness . But what was it based on ? The unchanging nature of the love of God . Jesus Christ is the same yesterday , today and forever . And that means his love for his people does not change .
Speaker 1Newton went from having this physical sight merely to vision , right , so what could he say ? He could see , but he was blind , those ones that Isaiah and Jesus talked about . But now he had different vision . Here's how he puts it Amazing grace , how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me . I once was lost , but now I'm found . Was blind , but now I see . You notice , he says am found , he was found by God . He didn't find God , he was found out by God . God came to him . He was lost . I am found , was blind , but now I see . Sovereign grace , you see this kind of love in the apostle Paul's life . We see this kind of love in the life of John Newton . Love hopes all things in our relationships . Newton Love hopes all things in our relationships .
Speaker 1And I want to make a couple clarifications as we start our descent . Biblical hope is not a wish . That's very important . Oh , I hope it doesn't rain today , or I hope the traffic here in Tampa is not too bad today . Or you see , that's a wish , here in Tampa is not too bad today , or you see that's a wish . I'm not saying it's a bad wish . I'm just saying it's a wish , it's a desire , and a wish is simply a desire . It's not anchored in anything other than our own desire . But biblical hope is what it's a firm confidence . Why ? Because it's guaranteed by the promises of God , and God cannot lie . He never will lie and he will never , ever break His promises . Amen .
Speaker 1Our hope is something sure , it's solid , it's an anchor for our souls . The writer of Hebrews says in chapter 6 . Or as we hear it in one of the great hymns in every rough and stormy gale , my anchor holds within the veil . When all around my soul gives way , he then is all my hope and stay On , christ , the solid rock I stand . All other ground is sinking sand . All other ground is sinking sand . Hope is an anchor because it's anchored in the promises of God . It's not wishing upon a star . And if we're going to be great lovers of other Christians and other sinners , even our enemies , we have to grow in our vision of God's future for us , that we're secure in His love and therefore we can't be shutting other people
True Biblical Hope as an Anchor
Speaker 1off . God doesn't treat us that way . We can't treat them that way . Only he can say when something's final . We have to grow as a people of faith but also a people of hope . Hebrews 12,2, .
Speaker 1Listen . For the joy that was set before Jesus , he endured the cross . You hear that what enabled Jesus , in the fullness of his humanity , to endure the cross , where he drank the cup of hell in body and soul ? It was the future he had in God , not the joy of the cross per se , for the joy that was set before him , he endured the cross For the joy that was set before him . Beyond that cross , he was able to endure the suffering . He loved us through that pain . Because Jesus had hope as a man . Of course , he was also truly God , but hope feeds on the promises of God and Jesus looked forward to that joy of glory , the joy of the bodily resurrection , the joy of that future bodily life in heaven , with that blissful union with the Trinity , the Father and the Holy Spirit , all God's people forever . That future forward look is what Jesus , why he was able to love us to the end on that cross .
Speaker 1So hope feeds on the promises of God . It feeds on God's future for us , but it also feeds on God's future for other people and we have to treat them as such , not just according to their sins . We've sinned against others , and when we're sinned against by others , we have to take that forward look . We have to remember we're all going to sit down at the wedding banquet of the Lamb together one day . Even with the weakest saint , even with the saint , the Christian that's hurt us the worst , we're going to sit down together and we're going to celebrate God's love together , his power together , his grace together , his mercy together , his justice together , and we're going to be happy together . We have to remember that he who began a good work in us and will bring it unto completion will also , one glorious day , bring it unto completion the good work he's begun in our brothers and sisters in Christ , and we have to let that inform how we treat them now .
Speaker 1And so what does that mean ?
Speaker 1The hope that fuels love . It prays for other people . Are you praying for the one that you're tempted to shut off ? Hope humbles itself . It fuels love by humbling itself . Hope humbles itself . It fuels love by humbling itself .
Speaker 1It remembers , with John Newton , this I am not what I ought to be , I'm not what I want to be , I am not what I hope to be in another world , but still I am not what I once used to be and by the grace of God , I am what I am . And then we apply that to other people , and hope fuels love by encouraging other people and cheering them on when they've stumbled . Have you ever seen when someone stumbles on the track and someone else picks them up and helps them ? That needs to be us with our brothers and sisters in Christ . We need to ask God give me the grace to love my brothers and sisters like that , and the hope that fuels love forgives other people and it even disciplines , as we see in 1 Corinthians 5 , which is for another sermon . So let's pray and let's ask God to give a spiritual vision that we need to be great lovers .