Reckless Love

Reckless Love

CCCAG December 23rd, 2018

Scripture- John 21

Intro:

Does anybody here use the application called Spotify?

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Spotify is an application that you can download and stream music through. I have it on my phone and I often listen to it on the way back from transfers. Most of the patient transfers I do are well over an hour in one direction, so on the way back I'm sitting in the back of the ambulance by myself with not a lot to do so I listen to music, maybe read a book or study, or take a nap.

Recently Spotify sent out an email which listed the top songs that I listened to this year. The top song that I listen to this year is a song called Reckless Love by Cory Asbury. The song talks about the incredible love of God for all of us and how he pursues us in an unrelenting fashion.

Some of the lyrics of the song go like this

The overwhelming never-ending reckless love of God

He chases me down

Fights till I'm found

And leaves the 99

I love song lyrics and really think about them as I sing or listen. I admit that when I first heard the song, I had a little bit of concern about the word reckless. To me the word reckless is a selfish word about someone performing a dangerous action with no care or concern of how it affects others. So, I looked up the word reckless and according to the dictionary it means

Adjective (description of a person or their actions) without thinking or caring about the personal consequences of an action.

I thought wow that actually describes exactly what Jesus did on the cross for us.

Let’s think about God and reckless love for a moment.

The principle from a school calls and tells you that your child has been disruptive and will now be in detention for a week.

If your father was anything like my father, he would say give him 3 weeks then.

But God our Father is not like our earthly fathers. God our father walks into the detention room and sits down in our chair and lets us go free with no punishment. He takes the punishment for our bad behavior which the Bible calls sin.

That is reckless love.

It's a love that doesn't take into consideration the personal consequence of us showing love to people.

In John Chapter 21, Peter was about to run in to that kind of love. We remember Peter's actions during Jesus is trial and execution on the cross.

During the Last Supper Peter was bragging about how much he loved Jesus. Jesus responded by giving Peter a prophecy that before the rooster would crow that night Peter would deny him 3 times.

Peter loudly denied he would ever do such a thing.

Fast forward about 6 hours.

Luke 22:54-62

54 Then seizing (Jesus) him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. 55 And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. 56 A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.”

57 But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said.

58 A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.”

“Man, I am not!” Peter replied.

59 About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.”

60 Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed.

Before I read the next verse, close your eyes and picture it in your head

61 The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” 62 And he went outside and wept bitterly.

A few weeks ago we talked about betrayal and how it is one of the worst things you can do to another person because betrayal treats another person's love and trust in you like it's nothing.

Consider all of what Peter did-

Peter had not only denied Jesus, but he had denied him 3 different times. Another gospel writer states that he even used some of the foulest profanity of his time to show people he had nothing to do with Jesus.

And not only did Peter deny Jesus, but Peter denied Jesus as Peter watched Jesus was take the whipping, the beating, and the humiliation for Peter’s sins.