The HEart of Christ 101: The Love of Christ for Us

Many of us have succumbed to the growing power of a subtle lie, vicious in its scope but slow like eroding winds on desert rocks. And many of us have entered this room like eroded monoliths, brushed smooth by its arid theology. We, to use the words of scholar and theologian Michael Reeves, have come to the subtle belief that Christ is “… now aloof from believers and unconcerned…” We, to use the words of Puritan Theologian Thomas Goodwin, believe that “…he is gone into a far country, and hath put on glory and immortality, and how his heart may be altered thereby we know not,” and that he, “…being so holy, is therefore of a severe and sour disposition against sinners, and not able to bear them.” Put simply, we no longer know the surprising beauty of Christ’s welcoming heart. What is this surprising beauty? How is it that we have forgotten it? Or worse, have never known it? And how can we know it again? Answering these questions is the very motivation behind this four-part series, which will survey the diamond that is the heart of Christ. This is a journey for those who are suspicious that God’s patience has run thin, that we have disappointed him, and are the objects of His resentment and wrath. It is for those who fear we are no longer useful to God and that we have brought our lives to a place of ruin, beyond repair and beyond all hope. This series is, in other words, for the normal Christian. The hope of this series is to reacquaint you with the heart of Christ.

All of the lessons and the corresponding notes can be found below.

The Heart of christ 101 is our current Series at Resurrection University. Please consider joining us at the church from 5:30pm to 7:30pm on WedNESDAY nights. We’d love to have you!

The Heart of Christ 101, Part 1 - Introduction

Because we have forgotten the surprising beauty of Christ’s welcoming heart, we need to be “reacquainted” with Christ’s heart for us. In order to do this, part 1 of our series beings a journey that starts in the story of the Prodigal Son, and gradually unveils our tendency to exchange God’s goodness for his greatness - as though the two were mutually exclusive and contrary attributes of our God. We must refocus on His goodness, allowing the Word to guide our weary and worn hearts back to a savior who is both gentle and lowly (Matt. 11:29).

The Heart of Christ 101, Part 2 - …is Always Unchanging

We’ve either been led to believe (or have led ourselves to believe) that the God of the Old Testament is a curmudgeon, who needed to be calmed down and convinced to love us by Jesus. In Part 2 of our series on the heart of our Savior, the goal will be to take you into the heart of God the Father to help you see that it is, in no way, different than the heart of Christ; that the savior about whom we read “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb. 13:8) is the same God who said of himself “For I the Lord do not change…” (Mal. 3:6). To use the words of Goodwin that we read in Part 1, I want to reveal to you that “Christ adds not one drop of love to God’s heart.” In short, by walking through a brief survey of the Old Testament, our point will be to show that the heart of God the Father is the same as that of Christ, the Son.

The Heart of Christ 101, Part 3 - …Is Rich in Mercy

Having observed the heart of God the Father, we now move to the second of three times in which we see an unchanging savior - one who, as Hebrews 13:8 tells us, is “…the same yesterday, today and forever.” As we seek to better understand the ways in which we experience the mercy of our savior today, Ephesians 2:1-6 will serve to guide us into a heart that is - even now - “rich in mercy.” What we will see in our time together is that Christ finds us poor in Spirit; we find Him rich in mercy.

The Heart of Christ 101, Part 4 - …is ever-enduring

We might believe that we walk from now into glory with Christ, but without his heart. In the final lesson in our Heart of Christ series, our hope is to help you see why this is a problem for the health of the believer. In order to cure our anemic views of glory, we will spend our final lesson observing how the heart of Christ goes with us not just yesterday and today, but also forever (Heb. 13:8). Ultimately, we will see that the momentum of his heart; the tidal wave of his mercy; the avalanche of his grace in kindness – these not only cover us now but carry us to glory. The heart of Christ that cares for you now carries you forever.