I don’t know that you are the one who takes care of this in your house, but has anyone thanked you lately for cleaning the bathroom?  You scour the shower, brush the bowl, sanitize the sink, Windex the mirror.  The chromes sparkles, it smells clean, but it can be an awfully thankless job.  What do you get out of doing that?  A few days later it’s a dirty bathroom. 

Let’s take it up a few levels. You love Jesus.  It’s always true that he loved you first, but you love him now.  Is that a thankless job?  What do you get out of that – the home or the income or the job or the marriage or the vacation of your dreams?  Do you even get the one thing you’ve always wanted, even if it’s such a seemingly small thing?  Or do you love Jesus, look at your life, and see only one struggle after another (what’s the next phone call going to bring), grief raining down from the sky, busy as can be but you’re still as lonely as can be, those two steps back for every one step forward kind of reversals?  You’re seeking to do God’s will, you really are, and what comes of it?  It seems like a thankless job because who really cares?!

Make no mistake about it – God cares.  He really does.  Incredibly he loved you first.  Amazingly you love him now.  And that means a lot to the Lord. 

Jesus Gives and Gives and Gives to Those Who Love Him

Listen to these words and you’ll have to say, “He does!  He really does!”  We would have to say that what he gives you are things that unbelievers don’t “get” (grasp) at all.  But you get it.  You get them, because Jesus gives them to you.

Jesus gives you the Holy Spirit to help you.  In a world where everyone seems to have their own take on the truth, you and I need to sort out what’s true and what’s not, because despite what Pontius Pilate thought when he asked, “What is truth?” there are certain things that are absolutely, objectively, eternally true.  The Holy Spirit is the one who tells you what they are.

That old saying, “The truth hurts,” is part of how the Holy Spirit helps you.  From before you were breathing straight through till you’re breathing no more, there’s a wickedness and an evil in you that drive God into a blind rage.  The truth hurts.  That evil wickedness shows up when your days become too busy to listen to your Lord, when your pride becomes too powerful to admit your own guilt, when gossip becomes too enjoyable to say you won’t listen to it any more, when your opinion becomes so important that you can’t respect someone else’s point of view, when you have an excuse for practically everything and you’re thankful for practically nothing.  When the Holy Spirit tells the truth about sin, the truth hurts.  Actually, that truth condemns.

Jesus has sent you the Holy Spirit to lift you out of that hole.  Through the black print on the white pages of your Bible, the Holy Spirit tells you the truth that heals the hurt.  Jesus was too busy to listen to the Lord, too proud, too much of a gossip, too opinionated.  Jesus was full of excuses and devoid of thankfulness.  He was all of your sin and all of mine while the nails held his body to the tree.  What a truth is that!  He was condemned for all sin when God forsook him and he suffered the torture of hell. What a truth is that!   He was done with sin, and you are devoid of all sin when he rose from the grave.  What a truth is that?  It’s the truth the Holy Spirit delivers to you day after day after day. 

Jesus gives and gives and gives to those who love him.  He gives you the Holy Spirit to help you.  The Holy Spirit is with you forever and in you right now, blasting away guilt, binding you to Jesus, filling you with power.  That’ll make you love Jesus more!

Jesus gives you himself as he comes to you.  His return to heaven has not orphaned you.  He comes to you now. Some of these phrases may sound like Jesus’ return on the last day, but they’re not.  He comes to you now as feeble preaching features your Savior from sin.  He comes to you in the remembrance of your baptism, telling you his death was in the water and the Word that washed you.  He comes to you in bread and wine, his body and blood given and shed for whom if not for you, because they go into your mouth and the words say, “Forgiveness for you.”

Because I live, you also shall live.  That’s not the resurrection day.  It’s this day.  You have life with God now because Jesus lives. Every despicable sin on your record has been erased because of two words: Jesus lives. Any conceivable doubt you could have about belonging to God drowns and dies in two words: Jesus lives. A permanent place in heaven that no rainstorm will ever postpone, no tornado will ever destroy, no flood will ever wash away, no Satan will ever ruin is yours because of two words: Jesus lives.  The living Jesus is God.  By his grace he’s in you and you’re in him. 

Jesus gives and gives and gives to those who love him.  He gives you himself as he comes to you day after day after day.  That’ll make you love Jesus even more!

Jesus shows you his Father who loves you.  God the Father is your Father.  Your heavenly Father loves you.  He tells you, “You are in my family and my Son Jesus is your brother.  I love you like I love him.  Do you want to hear again how much I love you?  Look at the brother I’ve given you!” 

And so you look, you look right now, and what does Jesus show you?  Nail prints and the mark of a spear on his glorified body.  “My Father loves you.”  Boxes and boxes of comfort and hope and peace and strength to see you through every moment of every day.  “My Father loves you.”  The table that is set for the heavenly banquet and the place setting with your name on the folded card.  “My Father loves you.”  A gleaming, glorious crown of life, which, as tears of joy stream down your cheeks, Jesus will place on your head.  “My Father loves you.”  And as you move forward into this day with whatever it holds for you, Jesus shares with you the words he once shared with Mary Magdalene: “My Father is your Father.” 

Jesus gives and gives and gives to those who love him.  He shows the Father who loves you.

God loved you first.  You love him now.  What do you get out of loving Jesus?  What do you not get!