We want to begin this time by saying, “We love You, Lord.” We lift up our hearts before You, Lord, that You might look into them, deal with them, and draw them back to Yourself.
Lord, we look to that precious blood by which we can come before Your throne and hear Your words. Lord, we thank You for Your Holy Spirit, who dwells in us and is willing to teach us, anoint us, and bring us into that relationship that we need in Jesus Christ.
Lord, we thank You for these things. You have been generous to us, and that is not even close to all that You have done. But, Lord, we want to come back with hearts of thanksgiving this morning.
I ask that You now anoint us, Lord, that we might both speak and hear and fellowship in the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
I wanted to begin with that song this morning. I wanted us to be able to express our gratitude and love back to the Lord.
Now, I am speaking this morning, if I get there, on Revelation 12—the woman with the man child. At the very end of the message, I had just one brief thought about passion. But I cannot get away from that brief thought this morning.
So, if you will just bear with me, I have some things on my heart this morning that I want to share. It is on this matter of passion.
Passion. You know, passion is a response to something that has gripped our heart. Passion is a response to something that has gripped our soul.
When I think of first love, I think of intense passion. And so, I guess it is on my heart. It has been on my heart personally. But I want to fellowship with my brothers and sisters about this matter of passion, because without passion, brothers and sisters, where are we?
Where are we in our Christian life? Are we really in first love if the passion is gone?
We come on Sunday, and we come to the Lord’s table, and I say, “Lord, I need passion. I need first love when I approach this table, because this table was given to me in first love, in Your love for me. And I want to respond, Lord.”
But these hearts—they are so fragile. These hearts are so easily encrusted. Oh, Lord, plow up the fallow ground.
You know what fallow ground is? The farmers, when they have ground that has produced once before, leave it through the winter months. We have a big cornfield near us, and they cut it down. All during the winter, the roots and everything begin to decay. There is rain and sun and snow, and the ground just gets crusty on top.
As spring comes, the farmer goes out and plows up that hardened surface so that it might receive the seeds and the rain, and that it might grow.
Now, I will relate that back to passion. I think sometimes our hearts need to be plowed a little bit.
As we were sharing from Luke 7 this morning, my heart was really touched with this woman’s passion—her passion for the Lord.
She was not an invited guest, was she? She was not invited. But somehow she had heard about the Lord being at the Pharisee’s house. He was going to be talking with this Pharisee, and probably others who were there. She saw her opportunity to be with the Lord. She saw her opportunity to be in the presence of the Lord.
She could not resist. She could not hold back. She had to be there.
She could have been rebuked, I guess, by Simon for coming, but that was not in her heart. She had a passion, you see, for the Lord. Nothing could get in the way of that passion—nothing, not even possibly being humiliated or rejected.
It was not going to get in the way of her passion for the Lord Jesus Christ. She came, and she anointed our Lord with precious oil.
We know it was a custom, as our brother said, in those days to anoint a guest with oil and to wash his feet. She came and stood behind our Lord Jesus Christ, anointed His head with oil, and, brothers and sisters, that is not a custom of ours today.
But that oil was not easily come by. It was expensive—a costly oil. I have to say, I think that oil represented her entire being, her whole life.
She was willing to pour it out on the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because she had seen the value of our Lord, and she had a passion.
All the oil that she had, probably, she brought with her that day to pour out on Him—the One for whom she had such passion. She poured it on His head and anointed Him.
She could not hold back. The tears began to flow as she came into the Lord’s presence—the One who was going to die for her sins, the One whom, obviously, she recognized as the Son of God. Her passion for Him was so great.
She noticed that His feet had not been washed. She took those tears and let them flow upon the feet of our Lord Jesus. She did not have a towel with her, nor had Simon provided one, and she began to wipe His feet with the hair of her head—weeping, washing.
Brothers and sisters, how refreshing that must have been to our Lord Jesus Christ.
He washes our feet all the time, brothers and sisters. Have you not had the encouragement of the Lord Jesus in your life, even recently—maybe even this morning? When you may have been feeling a little bit down, and the Lord just touched you in a small way, you find that your feet are washed.
But she came and washed His feet. She brought refreshment not only to the Lord’s body, but to His soul. It did mean a tremendous amount to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then she began to kiss His feet. That is a humble, lowly place. I do not know that I would kiss anyone’s feet except the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was so valuable to her, so precious. Such a passion. She even kissed His feet. It was love. How dearly she loved our Lord Jesus.
It was not a kiss on the cheek, like a normal greeting, but on our Lord’s feet. Passion.
I love the passion this woman had. That is a passion that I desire in my own life. I really do. I want to share that with you as brother to brother this morning. I want that passion.
I look at Simon. Simon had invited our Lord, but he had not even offered the most common courtesy to our Lord of washing His feet, or having a slave girl wash His feet.
He did not have a passion for Christ. He took this Man for granted. He came in; he wanted to hear, he wanted to see who He was. Obviously, he did not recognize who He was, did he? But she did. She knew, and the passion was great.
There was no passion in this man, Simon, for our Lord Jesus Christ. He did not anoint His head. He did not wash His feet. He did not even offer the greeting of a kiss on the cheek.
This woman came as a stranger, but Simon was the real stranger, was he not? He was a stranger to our Lord. But this woman, with such passion, so encouraged the Lord and so pleased the Lord.
He brought it to the attention of Simon: “Oh, Simon, you do not know what you have missed.”
In front of Simon the Pharisee, He made it very clear: this woman, whose sins were great, was forgiven.
Brothers and sisters, the One we come to is the One—the only One—who can forgive our sins. No one else can do that. No one else is qualified to forgive you of your sin.
People may forgive you of your offenses against them, but the sin of that offense, only the Lord Jesus Christ can forgive.
I wonder, brothers and sisters, what is it that steals our passion? What is it? Why is it that the heart is so easily encrusted?
It could be many things, could it not? Sin in our life that we just will not deal with. It is hard to be passionate and come here on Sunday morning when there is a sin in the way, is it not?
It could be our love for something in the world that has gripped our heart. Anything else that grips our heart steals that passion. First love, honestly, is gone when the passion is gone.
It could be the cares of life. I have thought about that, brothers and sisters. I think it can plague our young people as well as us adults. We have busy lives. We really do. The world sees to it that we have a busy life, and sometimes we let the world take control of our lives, and it gets busier and busier.
What was the Lord’s warning? He spoke about the seed falling into the ground, but the briars come up with it and steal it, taking away its fruit. The cares of life—He warns us about these cares of life. He knew it was going to be critical.
I would like for us—for me—to maybe reevaluate the things in our lives, these cares that so consume us and steal our passion.
Now, I am not saying that I do not love the Lord, or that you do not love the Lord. But is it first love? Is it first love? That is what the enemy is stealing from our Lord Jesus Christ: the willingness to come in response to Him.
I think self-concern, self-desire, our own self-centeredness, brothers and sisters, steals that passion. We could be spending time with the Lord, but, hey, I would enjoy something else more.
Obviously, for this woman, there was one thing in her life that thrilled her, and that was the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Passion. Passion.
I want us to think for a moment about the Lord’s passion. When He was in the garden, it speaks of sweat drops of blood. So intense was that moment that He was having before the Father.
It says that angels came and had to strengthen Him, lest He would have died right there in the garden. The Lord had such a passion for His Father.
Brothers and sisters, He went to the Father and said:
Father, if there is any other way that this cup can be taken, do so.
We know He went three times. That is His humanity. We are like that, brothers and sisters. Humanity is not evil. But when Christ joins with humanity, it can be glorious.
Our Lord Jesus was saying, “Father, I have such a passion for You.” I do not know how much the Lord, being God, was able to anticipate what that separation from the Father would be like. But when He was in that garden, He was the Son of Man.
He had never experienced that separation in all of eternity past—and that is a long time. In the short time of three hours, out of all eternity, He was going to experience a separation from His Father, which meant so much to Him.
Do we find ourselves at times separated from our Lord? Oh, it was so disturbing to our Lord Jesus Christ to be separated even for three hours. He had a passion for His Father. The Father had a passion for the Son.
Of course, we know that the answer to our Lord was no. It does not say this in the Word, but: “No, Son. You need to take the cup.”
I do not know if the Father would have forced Him to take it. But the Lord had a passion for God’s will, did He not? He said, “Father, it does not matter about Me. What matters is Your will be done.”
Brothers and sisters, the Lord made us in His image. I want you to think about that for a moment. We are the only creatures that God created, including the angels, that were made in the image of God.
They were not made in His image. They are spiritual beings. We are the only part of His creation that was made in His image to be those who could possess His character and nature—not His deity, but His character and nature. Brothers and sisters, that is what we were made for.
Humanity is precious in God’s eyes. But humanity had fallen. It was marred. The image of God in man was marred—obliterated. All that remained was a spirit dead before God, not alive to God.
I do not know what the Father said to Him, but it was like this: “Son, I have had something on My heart for You all through eternity, and that was that humanity might become Your helpmate, to go with You and to walk with You throughout eternity future.”
“That is My desire for You. It is not good that man should be alone, and You are the Son of Man. It is not good. You need a helpmate.”
“This fallen humanity, I want to redeem it. I want to restore it. Yes, as God, I could do away with it. I could just start all over with something else. I am not going to do that. I am committed to mankind. I am committed to humanity. I am committed to Jerry Amon. I am committed.”
“He is to be part of Your bride, part of that helpmate that I so desire for You, Son.”
Christ said, “Okay, Father. I love them too. I love them like You love them. I understand. I will pay the price. I will drink this cup.”
So intense was that moment of passion for mankind in the Lord’s heart that blood began to flow from His pores, and the angels came to assist. He loves us. He has such a passion for us.
Think of the Lord’s passion on the cross. The multitudes had cried out:
Crucify Him, crucify Him.
What were they doing? They were there at the cross to observe, to look.
Our Lord Jesus Christ had been whipped with a cat o’ nine tails, as they call it, with little bones at the end of the leather. His back was probably completely stripped bare, down to bone. He was forced to carry that crossbeam of the cross up Calvary’s hill.
Brothers and sisters, exhausted and near the point of death, He faltered on that path, and they assigned another to help Him with the crossbeam.
He was taken to the cross and secured there with nails in His hands and nails in His feet. Brothers and sisters, He had already said a legion of thousands of angels could come to save Me. But they did not.
He had a passion, brothers and sisters, for you and me, for Jerry Amon. He let them drive those nails in His hands and feet, and He hung there on my behalf, on your behalf, because He had a passion for you and for me.
The crowds had cried out, “Crucify Him, crucify Him.” The Lord looked down, and He prayed a prayer:
Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.
Can you imagine? Can you imagine the passion in our Lord Jesus’ heart—the love that He had—that these crowds who had demanded that He be crucified, He asked the Father to forgive?
Because He knew they had been duped. He knew that they had come under the influence of the Pharisees. He knew that they did not understand. That was His passion: “Father, forgive them.”
The Lord Jesus looked at His mother. She was there, I am sure, weeping with the other women. Thank God for the faithful women who were with our Lord to the end. Only the Apostle John of the apostles was there with Him at that time. All the others had scattered. They did not understand. They were confused.
John obviously was holding His mother, trying to comfort her.
The Lord Jesus had other brothers in the flesh, but He looked at John—and I do not know if they were there or not—and He said, “John, I love My mom. You have got to take care of her.”
Such a passion, first for His mother.
But then He heard the thieves on the cross mocking Him. Finally, one of the thieves said, “Wait. Do you not know who this is?”
In the moment of intense pain and horror, he asked the Lord:
Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.
The Lord loved him. The Lord had passion for this thief who had been mocking Him—one of the two thieves who had been mocking Him. He had compassion, and He said:
Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.
Why was the Lord even concerned about this thief, hanging on the cross in all of that pain? Brothers and sisters, He had a passion for man and love for mankind.
He knew the condition we were in, and He died that we might be saved from our condition and the damage that sin had done.
Our Lord Jesus cried out for water. They gave Him vinegar to try to numb Him, with some myrrh in it. He would not take it.
Then that horrible three hours of darkness came upon Him. The whole sky was darkened. It was a dark day.
As the Father had to turn away from His Son and allow His wrath, which was intended for you and for me, to fall on His Son.
I have thought about this: all the sins that Jerry Amon has committed, and probably will commit; all the sins that each one of us has committed; all the sins of the world; all the murders, the lies, even the evil thoughts in our hearts, were poured upon our Lord Jesus Christ, and the wrath of God fell upon Him.
And He cried out:
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
You know, at that moment, the Lord could have cried out, “It is enough. I cannot take it anymore.” But He did not.
He loved His Father so much, and He was being forsaken. Nobody has ever been forsaken like our Lord Jesus Christ was on that day.
I do not know about your lives personally, brothers and sisters, but I would say for all of us who are a little older, we have had those experiences in our lives where we thought that God had forsaken us. But He has not. He was there.
After those three hours were over, our Lord Jesus gave up the Spirit. He said:
Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.
Brothers and sisters, that was not a defeat. That was a word of victory. “I have committed. I have come through.” That is what He was saying. “I have come through for mankind.”
“Lord, I have paid the price for mankind. I have paid the price for Jerry Amon. I have a passion for Jerry Amon. That is why I went through the cross.”
Passion. The passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, last time I shared on Revelation 8–11. I talked about judgment—God’s judgment—because in those chapters we begin to see the judgment of God on rebellious mankind.
Christ died for these ones, but in their rebellious heart, they could not turn to Christ. Brothers and sisters, you think about it. Why? We all have rebellious hearts, do we not? Why did you turn to Christ?
Because when you did, the wrath of God was no longer on you. But for all who do not turn to Christ, that wrath remains upon them—upon rebellious mankind.
Brothers and sisters, I said that what grace cannot achieve, judgment will. In other words, God, in His grace and His passion for man, has given up His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for us, that we might not suffer the wrath of God, but might become a part of His kingdom—His children—to be an inheritance to Christ, to be the bride of Christ.
That is what He has done for us. But for the rebellious, all that remains is judgment. What grace does not accomplish, judgment will.
We see the judgment of the last days coming upon this earth, upon the rebellious ones. Why? Because the kingdom is coming.
The kingdom consists of a King, and all those in the King’s kingdom, brothers and sisters, must have submissive hearts. They must be subject to the King willingly.
So judgment was necessary. But, brothers and sisters, do you realize that the Lord Jesus Christ has waited for two and a half millennia—for man to turn? He has a passion for man. Judgment is His very last option.
He is longsuffering because He loves, because He has a passion for mankind.
I think I need to stop here today. I have not gotten to the lesson. But this thing of passion is so critical. I really do. I have been so convicted: “Lord, where is the passion? Where is the passion?”
Without passion, you will be taken care of. The Lord loves us. But without passion, is the Lord taken care of?
You see, when that woman came with such passion, it refreshed our Lord. That is what refreshes Him—washing His feet.
So let me end with this encouragement, brothers and sisters. Let us consider this week and think about this matter of our passion for the Lord. Maybe what will be helpful is to reconsider His passion for us and His willingness to give His all, and even His life, for you and for me.
Lord, we just come to You this morning.
Lord, I just want You to touch my heart deeply. Lord, I want to be in first love.
I want all my brothers and sisters to be in first love. Lord, we do not want that passion to disappear in our lives.
Lord, what is a life without passion?
Lord, grant that You might strengthen the love in our hearts for Thee, that it becomes a passion that cannot do without Thee.
Lord, a passion that is willing to give up the world, willing to give up our sin, willing to give up the things that our flesh so dearly loves—Lord, even our soul—unto Thee.
That You, Lord Jesus, might be refreshed, that Your feet might be washed.
Lord, when we come next Sunday to this table, I pray that it will be a room full of passion. In Jesus’ name. Amen.